enemy were falling. The fort was in this manner filled ; the men were directed to stack their arms, and scarcely was an opportunity afforded of moving. Shortly after a white flag was hung out upon
the walls. A British officer rode up to inquire the cause
Our morning report had that morning made our effective men, present fit for duty, ten hundred and sixty, without including the detachment before alluded to, and without including three hundred of the Michigan militia on duty. About dark on Saturday evening, the detachment, sent to escort the provisions, received orders from General Hull to return with as much expedition as possible. About ten o'clock the next day they arrived within sight of Detroit. Had a firing been heard, or any resistance visible, they would have im- mediately advanced and attacked the rear of the enemy. The situation in which this detachment was placed, although the result of accident, was the best for annoying the enemy, and cutting off his retreat, that could have been selected. With his raw troops enclosed between two fires, and no hopes of succour, it is hazarding little to say that very few would have escaped.
" * I have been informed by Colonel Findley, who saw the return of the quartermaster-general the day after the surrender, that their whole force, of every description, white, red, and black, was ten hundred and thirty. They had twenty-nine platoons, twelve in a platoon, of men dressed in uniform. Many of these were evidently Canadian militia. The rest of their militia increased their white force to about seven hundred. The number of Indians could not be ascertained with any degree of precision, — not many were visible. And in the event of an attack upon the town and fort, it was a species of force which could have afforded no material ad- vantage to the enemy That we were far superior to the
enemy, that upon any ordinary principles of calculation we would have defeated them, the wounded and indignant feelings of every
man there will testify I was informed by General Hull, the
morning after the capitulation, that the British forces consisted of eighteen hundred regulars, and that he surrendered to prevent the effusion of human blood. That he magnified their regular force nearly five-fold, there can be no doubt. Whether the philanthropic reason assigned by him is a sufficient justification for surrendering a fortified town, an army, and a territory, is for the government to determine. Confident I am, that had the courage and conduct of the general been equal to the spirit and zeal of the troops, the
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