214 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
His views were warmly supported by the Governors of the State 
of Ohio and the Territories of Indiana and Illinois as being most essen- 
tial for their protection, and within a few days an order was despatched 
to Governor Meigs of Ohio, requiring him to detach twelve hundred 
militia for service at Detroit. The 4th Regiment of United States 
Infantry, which since the engagement with the Indians at Tippecanoe 
had been stationed at Vincennes, was directed to join these troops and 
advance with them to their destination. With three companies of the 
First United States Artillery, two detachments of the First Regiment 
of the United States Infantry, a company of rangers and the Michigan 
militia, it was anticipated that a force would be assembled that would 
be “competent to the defence of the northwestern frontier against 
Indian hostility, and which in the event of a rupture with Great Britain 
would enable the United States to obtain the command of Lake Erie, 
and with it the means of more easily co-operating with such other corps 
as might be destined to the invasion of the Canadas.”* Two com- 
panies of Ohio militia were at the same time ordered to Sandusky, and 
several companies of newly enlisted rangers to the frontier of Indiana 
and Illinois. A considerable supply of arms and military stores was 
forwarded to Meigs for the equipment of his militia, and Col. Jacoh 
Kingsbury of the First United States Infantry, detachments of whose 
regiment were already stationed in Michigan, was selected for the com- 
mand at Detroit. He fell seriously ill, and the Secretary of War lost 
no time in soliciting Hull to accept it with the rank of brigadier 
general in the regular army. He was unwilling to assume the in- 
creased responsibility of what he felt must be a very difficult task, 
mainly in consequence of his age and long dissociation from military 
affairs.” He had just completed his fifty-eighth year, and his white 
hair made him look somewhat older, but he was still hale and strong. 
In manner he was sedate and dignified, and at the time it seemed 
scarcely possible that a better choice could have been made. His 
objections were finally overcome, and on April 8th he was commissioned 
a brigadier-general. Leaving Washington a few days later he began his 
tedious return journey to Detroit by way of Pittsburg and Cincinnati, 
No great apprehension was then felt of any immediate hostility 
on the part of the Indians. To all appearance the confederacy on the 
Wabash, lately so formidable, had nearly dissolved. In January, Little 
Turtle, a leading Chief of the Wyandots of Sandusky, assured Governor 

? President Madison’s Message to Congress, Nov. 4th, 1812; Secretary 
of War to Committee of Senate, June 6th, 1812. 
* Drake—Life of Tecumseh. 
