[cRUIKSHANK] GENERAL HULL’S INVASION OF CANADA IN 1812 235 
Tecumseh was distinguished by his ardent and thorough-going advo- 
cacy of the British cause. A small troop of Essex militia dragoons was 
organized for patrol duty and conveyance of despatches. 
Finding that the militia stationed at Sandwich were in a very 
nervous mood, St. George determined to withdraw them from that 
place before it was attacked, although Muir was anxious to dispute the 
passage of the river. Orders were accordingly given to the inhabitants 
to drive all their cattle to the vicinity of Amherstburg, the guns and 
baggage were removed, and Sandwich was evacuated on the afternoon 
of the 11th, Captain Muir’s detachment of the 41st retiring behind the 
River Canard, while the militia, who had manifested a strong disposition 
to disband and return to their farms, were marched to Amherstburg. 
In carrying out the instructions of the Secretary of War to estab- 
lish his base of operations at Detroit, General Hull perceived that his 
long line of communication with Ohio must necessarily be exposed to 
attack, but he seemed to believe that they allowed him no discretion in 
this respect. The main-travelled road by which he had advanced, 
closely followed the shore of the river and lake to the Miami, a distance 
of some seventy miles, although there was a little known trail through 
the woods some distance farther back seldom, if ever, passable by wag- 
gons. To provide for the safety of either of these routes, it was neces- 
sary to secure and preserve the friendship of the neighbouring Indians, 
and to ensure this he announced his intention of building blockhouses 
and establishing small garrisons at the River Rouge, Brownstown, and 
the River Raisin. The necessary preparations for the invasion of 
Canada caused him to defer this most unwisely, until it became too late.t - 
A sufficient number of boats to carry two regiments across the 
river at once had been collected at Detroit, and on the afternoon of July 
11th, these were taken down the river to the shipyard at the mouth of 
the Rouge where the brig Adams was being rebuilt, and McArthur’s 
regiment was ostentatiously marched in the same direction in broad 
Gaylight. After dark the boats were again taken up the river to Bloody 
Bridge, where several heavy guns were placed in position to cover the 
passage of the troops. The 4th United States Infantry and Dyson’s 
artillery company, with three field guns, crossed the Detroit shortly 
after midnight, followed by the three Ohio regiments with the exception 
of about one hundred men who still positively refused to pass the boun- 
dary of the United States under any circumstances. At daybreak their 
patrols entered Sandwich and ascertained that it had not only been 
abandoned by the garrison but by nearly all the inhabitants as well, 

1Hull, Defence, pp. 79-80. 
