[CRUIKSHANK} GENERAL HULL’S INVASION OF CANADA IN 1812 283 
This probably included a number of sick men, and*as the event 
proved, little reliance could be placed upon a part of the Michigan 
militia. Deducting the whole of these, upwards of twelve hundred of 
all ranks remain. Most of General Hull’s official returns were destroyed 
in the brig Detroit, near Fort Erie, on the 9th of October, 1812, and 
the evidence on this point given at his trial was conjectural and 
contradictory. 
During the night the Ohio volunteers and Michigan militia had 
been quartered in the town, but when the cannonade recommenced, 
most of them were withdrawn into the fort for protection, crowding it 
to its utmost capacity. On the approach of the British the Ohio 
volunteers marched out in three columns and formed in line behind the 
palisades, in which they began to enlarge the loopholes with their toma- 
hawks. Major Denny, with part of McArthur’s regiment (1st Ohio) 
was stationed on the right, Findlay occupied the centre, and Captain 
Sanderson, with a detachment of Cass’s regiment and Captain Kemper’s 
company of armed waggoners, the left of the line. According to the 
sworn statements of their officers these troops numbered between eight 
and nine hundred The Michigan militia were ordered to assist in 
the defence of the town, while the regular infantry garrisoned the 
fort and detached batteries and assisted the artillerymen in working the 
guns, for which service a number had been specially trained. Nearly 
the whole of the population of the adjacent country had sought refuge 
within the stockade with their cattle and horses, whose presence created 
serious disorder and obstructed the movements of troops. 
Observing some of the Ohio Volunteers loitering idly in the streets, 
Captain Hull, the General’s son and aide-de-camp, peremptorily ordered 
them to join their corps, and receiving an insolent reply, he drew his 
sword and drove them before him. This was followed by a quarrel 
with their commander in his father’s presence, during which this hot- 
headed young man challenged that officer to fight a duel, thereby greatly 
increasing the General’s agitation at this critical moment.? 
The British mortars at Sandwich began to throw shrapnel shells, 
creating such alarm that Findlay’s regiment, which was most exposed, 
was soon withdrawn into the fort, whither many non-combatants also 
fled for refuge. One of these shells exploding in an open space near 
the officers quarters instantly killed Lieut. Hanks (lately commandant 
at Mackinac), Ensign Sibley and Surgeon Reynolds, and _ severely 
wounded Surgeon Blood. Another killed two private soldiers inside 

l Forbes, Trial. 
? Letter of Robert Wallace in Appendix to Clark’s Life of Hull, pp. 453-61. 
