[CRUIKSHANK] GENERAL HULL’S INVASION OF CANADA IN 1812 233 
General Hull’s force, besides a quantity of spare clothing. Of far 
greater value were the pupers end correspondence of that ofcer, includ- 
ing field states and complete returns of his troops, everything, in fact, 
that an alert and enterprising enemy could desire to obtain. Among 
them were found a rough, incomplete draft of Hull’s memorial of March 
6th, his letters to the Secretary of War of the 24th and 26th of June, 
and the Secretary’s letter of the 18th of June, directing him to hasten 
his march to Detroit. St. George was not in a position to take any 
immediate advantage of the information thus unexpectedly thrown into 
his hands, but transmitted the most important documents to Brock, 
who eventually made effective use of them. Among the prisoners taken 
were Captain Sharp, Hull’s Adjutant-General, his principal medical 
officer, three infantry officers, and thirty-five non-commissioned officers 
or privates, most of whom were sick. A few hours later a momentary 
alarm was caused by the appearance of a flotilla of boats, which were 
soon ascertained to be a brigade of bateaux belonging to the Southwest 
Fur Company, commanded by Messrs. Lacroix and Berthelet, loaded 
with stores for Lake Superior. As the directors of the Company had 
long since placed all their resources at the disposal of the Government 
in case of war, these bateaux, eleven in number, were detained, their 
crews, numbering seventy men, were pressed into service, and their 
cargoes, consisting largely of arms, ammunition, and blankets, appro- 
priated for the use of the militia and Indians.  Hitherto the advantage 
derived from the presence in the river of two vessels of the Provincial 
Marine had been almost neutralized by the weakness of their crews, 
as the Queen Charlotte was manned by a single lieutenant and twenty- 
seven petty officers and men, and the General Hunter by a lieutenant 
and seventeen petty officers and men.t The opportune arrival of these 
voyageurs enabled St. George not only to strengthen their crews but to 
man some of the boats to patrol the river. The deficiency of trained 
naval officers could not be supplied. Commodore Alexander Grant, 
who was nominally in command, was upwards of eighty years of age, 
and totally unfit for service, while Captain Hall, the next senior officer, 
was acting as superintendent of the dockyard. 
, On the 2nd of July, at noon, another messenger arrived with a 
letter from Brock instructing St. George to remain upon the defensive 
until further orders were received. Brock explained in a letter to 
Prevost that this change of policy was due to “the reflection that at 
Detroit and St. Joseph’s the weak state of the garrisons would prevent 
the commanders from attempting any essential service connected in any 
‘Can. Arch. 
