[CRUIKSHANK] GENERAL HULL’S INVASION OF CANADA IN 1812 219 
way to Brownstown or Amherstburg, and on passing through their vil- 
lages, found them quite deserted.! Hull had at first intended to 
descend the Au Glaize and Miami of the Lake in boats, by which he 
might reasonably expect to reach Detroit in about two weeks. Gov- 
ernor Meigs accompanied him to Urbana, where the principal chiefs 
and warriors of the Ohio Indians had been summoned to a general 
council with the intention of overawing them by a display of military 
force. This council was not largely attended, but the chiefs present 
readily consented to sanction General Hull’s march through their terri- 
tory, and to permit him to build a chain of blockhouses along his route. 
Several warriors agreed to accompany him in the capacity of guides and 
scouts. While encamped at this place on June 3rd, he was joined by 
the 4th United States Infantry, about 500 strong, which had come from 
Vincennes by way of Louisville and Cincinnati. Everywhere along 
their route they had been warmly welcomed as “the heroes of Tippe- 
canoe,” and marched into camp through a trimphal arch of evergreen 
boughs inscribed with the words, “ Tippecanoe—Glory.” ? 
His force now exceeded 2,100 of all ranks. The project of pro- 
ceeding by water was abandoned as impracticable at that season of the 
vear and it was decided to advance by land This involved much 
delay and the labour of constructing more than a hundred miles of 
road passable not only for infantry and cavalry, but also for a train 
of pack horses and heavy waggons. Ten days were consumed in pre- 
parations for the march, and it was not until the 13th that McArthur’s 
regiment was sent forward to clear the way, and build blockhouses 
twenty miles apart. Two days later the main body followed. Heavy 
rains had fallen and the road soon became a morass in which the wag- 
gons stuck fast until lifted out by main strength. On the second day’s 
march, the advance guard was overtaken at the crossing of the Scioto 
River, where a large blockhouse was built and named Fort McArthur. 
Here the main body halted for three days, while the advance guard 
was engaged in cutting the road through a dense tract of forest known 
as the Black Swamp, on the watershed between the head waters of 
streams falling into the Ohio and those flowing into Lake Erie. The 
rate of pyogress did not exceed four or five miles a day, as a large part 
of the road had to be corduroyed with logs to make it passable and 
many bridges built. Even then, when the march was resumed, it was 


*Lucas Journal, and letter to Foster, 4th November, 1812. 
*Lossing Field Book, p. 256. Walker’s Journal, McAfee. 
3 Cass to , June 8th, 1812; National Intelligencer, July 14th, 1812. 

