SECTION II., 1907. [211] Trans. R. S. C 
II1.—General Hull’s Invasion of Canada in 1812. 
By LrEeuT-CoLoNEL E. CRUIKSHANK. 
For a good many months previous to the declaration of war, the 
Government of the United States had been collecting information and 
considering the best routes for the invasion of Canada. Among those 
confidentially consulted on this subject: by Dr. Eustis, the Secretary 
of War, was General John Armstrong, formerly an United States 
Senator, and lately American Minister in Paris, who was regarded as 
a high authority on military affairs. In his reply, which was dated 
2nd January, 1812,1 Armstrong advised the immediate purchase of an 
abundant supply of military stores, the abandonment of all outlying 
posts of lesser importance upon the Indian Frontier, and the withdrawal 
of their garrisons, the acquisition of naval ascendency on the Great 
Lakes and St. Lawrence River, and the immediate increase of the regu- 
lar army to a strength sufficient for the defence of their own frontier 
and the successful invasion of the British Provinces. 
He further recommended the concentration of a force of six 
battalions of mounted riflemen from the Western States at Detroit, 
where it would be “ within striking distance of Indian villages or British 
settlements,” but remarked at the same time that this position would 
be “positively bad,” unless a naval supremacy was secured upon Lake 
Erie. The occupation of Montreal by an invading army, he argued 
with great force, must necessarily be followed by the conquest of the 
whole of Upper Canada, as that place entirely commanded the naviga- 
tion of both the St. Lawrence and Ottawa. With this object, the whole 
disposable field force ought to be concentrated near Albany, and its 
movement veiled by demonstrations with “masses of militia” on the 
Niagara River, at Sackett’s Harbour, and in Vermont on the line of 
the Sorel. 
This promising plan of operations was approved by the Cabinet 
and measures were begun to carry it into effect. The design to eva- 
cuate Mackinac and Chicago, and possibly other military posts in the 
Indian country, became public, and soon provoked loud protests from 
the inhabitants of the frontier, who regarded the retention of these 
garrisons as essential to their own security. 
About this time, William Hull, Governor of the Michigan Territory, 
was summoned to Washington by the Secretary of War, for consultation. 
His reputation for personal courage and sound judgment stood deserv- 


‘Notices of the War of 1812, by John Armstrong, New York, 1840, Vol. 1, 
pp. 234-41, Appendix No. 22. 
