therto been actuated.

"The news of the surrender of Detroit," says the American historian,
Brown, "was so unexpected, that it came like a clap of thunder to the
ears of the American people. No one would believe the first report. The
disastrous event blasted the prospects of the first campaign, and opened
the northern and western frontiers of Ohio to savage incursions.

"Previous to the surrender of Detroit, the governors of Ohio and
Kentucky, in obedience to the directions of the war department, had
detached powerful reinforcements to the aid of General Hull. Had he
deferred the capitulation but a few days longer, his army, Detroit, and
the Michigan territory, would have been saved.

"The forces advancing to his support consisted of 2,000 militia, under
Brigadier-General Payne, and a battalion of mounted riflemen, under
Colonel R.M. Johnson, from Kentucky; a brigade of Ohio militia, under
the orders of Brigadier-General Tupper;[73] and nearly 1,000 regulars,
under the command of General Winchester. They had reached the St. Mary's
River when the news of the capture of Detroit was received. But for the
well-timed arrival of the above force a wide scene of flight and misery,
of blood and desolation, must have ensued. Nearly half of the territory
of Ohio must have been depopulated, or its inhabitants fallen victims to
the scalping knife."

"The chagrin felt at Washington," observes James in his Military
Occurrences, "when news arrived of the total failure of this the first
attempt at invasion, was in proportion to the sanguine hopes entertained
of its success. To what a pitch of extravagance those hopes had been
carried, cannot better appear than in two speeches delivered upon the
floor of congress, in the summer of 1812. Dr. Eustis, the secretary at
war of the United States, said: 'We can take the Canadas without
soldiers; we have only to send officers into the provinces, and the
people, disaffected towards their own government, will rally round our
standard.' The honorable Henry Clay seconded his friend, thus: 'It is
absurd to suppose we shall not succeed in our enterprize against the
enemy's provinces. We have the Canadas as much under our command as she
(Great Britain) has the ocean; and the way to conquer her on the ocean
is to drive her from the land. I am not for stopping at Quebec, or any
where else; but I would take the whole continent from them, and ask them
no favors. Her fleets cannot then rendezvous at Hali