the resources of the army; Cass obtained a personal knowledge of the difficulties to be encountered on their future march to Malden.

The artillery were at length in a state of preparation for effective use, and the long-looked for time to make a descent on Malden, appeared to be fast approaching. Troops were kept constantly on the road between Sandwich and Malden; several unimportant skirmishes took place on and near this road. The enemy constantly kept a guard at the Auxcanard bridge; and any of our small parties who had a relish for a fight, knew where they could be accommodated. If they went to the bridge, they were sure of meeting some of the red coats, or Tecumseh with his Indians. Here Col. Findlay had a bout, in which he took and lost some lives. Here, Captain Snelling of the fourth infantry had some practice. Here, McArthur had a flurry with the Indians, in which he had several men wounded and his horse shot in the top of the forehead; the horse reeled but was not materially injured. Here, too, the brave Major Denny had a severe brush with the Indians, in which he lost seven or eight men killed, one taken prisoner, and several wounded. The prairies and woods in the neighborhood of the bridge were the theater of considerable maneuvers, where the raw soldiers were drilled and practised to the sharp whistle of the enemy's balls.

On the seventh of August, General Hull issued orders for the troops to be in readiness to march for Malden the next morning. The artillerists had their guns prepared, the heavy thirty-two pounders were placed on the floating batteries. The infantry scoured and oiled their firearms; the horsemen sharpened and oiled their swords, that they might be easily drawn from their scabbards. Every officer and private appeared as anxious for the combat, as ever bride or bridegroom were for the wedding night.

The long-looked for morning came, the word for marching was given by the General, not upon Malden, but to retrace our steps to the American side of the river Detroit. Surprise and amazement shrouded every face in sullen gloom and disappointment! Was it caprice, or cowardice, or was it treason in the General, which so suddenly and unexpectedly changed the destination of the army? Mystery appeared to hang over the movement! No explanation for the retrograde movement of the army was given. Major Denny of McArthur's regiment, was left on the Canadian shore in charge of our old camp; and before night, the main army was stationed in the forts, and on the commons of the city of Detroit.

By this sudden, retrograde movement of the army, General Hull lost the army's confidence; a kind of gloomy suspicion of the General's patriotism was openly expressed, by officers and privates. No council of officers was called before this hasty retreat was made: the army was completely at fault, no reason having been assigned for this mysterious movement.

It is believed, when General Hull first invaded Canada, that if he had gone down (it was only eighteen miles distant) and paraded his army before Malden, that the garrison would have surrendered without an effort at defence. This might have been the case, but it might not. Had his troops been repulsed with loss of men, the world would have reprobated his rashness in attempting to take a fortified garrison without artillery. The delay necessary to repair the gun carriages was a misfortune for which he was not responsible. For this delay the then administrators of government were culpable; at least the secretary of war, who was acquainted with the views of the administration, should have caused the artillery, at the most exposed frontier post, to be in a state of such repair as to be fit for immediate use.

It is necessary now that he cause of General Hull's

retreat from Canada should be given. On the seventh of August, he received some letters sent by express, by General Hall and General P. B. Porter, who commanded the American troops on the Niagara frontier, informing him that a large British force from the neighborhood of Niagara were preparing to move up Lake Erie to Malden. In addition to this startling intelligence, as previously stated, General Hull had employed some Canadians, in whom he had the utmost confidence, to travel through Canada, to observe the motions of the enemy, and give him intelligence of their movements. On the night preceding the contemplated attack on fort Malden, a Mr. Watson, one of his confidential Canadian spies, arrived in camp, and assured General Hull, that the British General Brock was at fort Erie collecting all his disposable force, and placing them on board ships and boats destined for Malden. That as soon as he (Watson) learned the destination of General Brock, he mounted his horse, and came with the utmost speed to acquaint General Hull with the reinforcements with which Malden would be strengthened. The letters from Generals Hall and Porter, and the communication made by Mr. Watson, all came upon General Hull simultaneously, alarmed him, and were the cause of his retreat from Canada. That the intelligence received by General Hull was correct, is proved by the fact, that General Brock arrived at Malden in a day or two after, with six hundred regular troops. To understand this movement of the British army, we must turn our attention to the conduct of General Dearborn, who then commanded the American armies on the northern frontier; that on the Niagara, down Lake Ontario, and on the St. Lawrence. General Sir George Prevost was the commander in chief of the enemy's armies. The English government had repealed their "orders in council," which "orders" were one of the prominent causes of the war. On the repeal

of these "orders in council," General Prevost made application to General Dearborn for a cessation of arms, thinking it probable that a repeal of those vexatious "orders in council" would pave the way to a restoration of peace. General Dearborn, without reflecting on its consequence, in an unguarded moment, agreed to a cessation of arms on the whole length of his line of command, for forty days, commencing on the first day of August, 1812. As soon as a copy of the arrangement for this armistice reached the city of Washington, it was obvious that General Dearborn had been overreached by his antagonist. As General Hull's field of operation was not included in the armistice, the British General would now have an opportunity of concentrating all his forces, and overwhelm General Hull's army during the continuance of the armistice.

The secretary of war "promptly informed General Dearborn that the arrangement was disapprobated by the President of the United States, and peremptorily ordered to put an end to it as speedily as possible." The armistice was broken off on the twenty-ninth day of August, but not before the British General had effected the destruction of General Hull. Of all the military blunders during the late war, that produced the most fatal consequences. It was the primary cause of the capitulation of the garrison of Detroit; General Hull's surrender was the cause of preparing the way for those scenes of savage butcheries and miseries, that were perpetrated in Michigan and on the frontiers of Ohio, which clothed Kentucky and Ohio in mourning.

Had it not been for that fatal armistice, the American troops from the lower end of Lake Erie, would have invaded Canada at the same time that General Hull

was preparing to attack Fort Malden, and thus would have kept the British General Brock in play on the Niagara frontier; and General Hull would doubtless

have taken Malden; the Indians would then have been quiet, and the upper lakes, for a time at least, would scarcely have heard the alarms of war.

CHAPTER VII.

ABOUT the time General Brock was concentrating his forces at Malden, Captain Henry Brush, of Ohio, with a company of volunteers, consisting of about a hundred and fifty men, raised in the town of Chillicothe and its vicinity, arrived at the river Raisin, thirty-six miles south of Detroit, escorting a large supply of provision for our army. General Brock received intelligence of the approach of Captain Brush, and as this escort would necessarily have to pass Brownstown, which is opposite to Malden, and only four miles from thence, he determined to intercept Captain Brush's convoy. General Brock placed his Indians, and a few regular troops to give the Indians confidence, at Brownstown, to watch the motions of Captain Brush, and to cut off the communication from Ohio with Hull's army.

Captain Brush was a lawyer of distinguished eminence, a man of talents, and a vigilant officer. He was advised of the trap laid by the enemy, to intercept him on his way to the army; and sent an express rider through the woods to General Hull, to advise him of his critical situation. General Hull sent Major Vanhorn, with a battalion of troops, to meet Captain Brush, and to escort the convoy of provisions to Detroit. The British and Indians met Major Vanhorn's detachment at Brownstown, a battle ensued, and Vanhorn was defeated with considerable loss. This has been called the battle of Brownstown.

As provision was running short at Detroit, and as