Isaac Brock The Fall of Fort Detroit

Brock at Detroit With the news that General Hull had invaded Upper Canada and established a headquarters at Sandwich, Brock could no longer remain stationary. Despite Sir George Prevost's orders not to provoke the enemy, Brock left York for the front. Prevost, meanwhile was still hoping for a diplomatic solution to the conflict. Brock left York on August 5, marching his troops overland to Fort Erie, where they commandeered boats from the local population. Nine days later, ten large and leaky bateaux deposited his modest force of four hundred soldiers, the bulk of whom were militia he had gathered along the way, on the east side of the Detroit River. Brock sailed to Amherstburg secure in the knowledge that morale was low among the poorly-supplied American troops. The British acquired this information after seizing the American schooner, Cuyohoga Packet. The schooner contained, among other things, a bag of Hull's personal correspondence. These letters betrayed both Hull's overestimation of the size of his enemy and his intense fear of Tecumseh's warriors. En route to Amherstburg, Brock learned that Hull's insecurity about the strength and ability of the British forces was so great that he had abandoned his foothold at Sandwich. Shortly after arriving, Brock had his first meeting with the legendary Tecumseh and was deeply impressed by his ally. Brock was inspired when he learned that Tecumseh and his warriors had already fought the enemy twice. These skirmishes had effectively stopped badly-needed supplies from reaching the American forces upriver at Fort Detroit. Using the captured information about the American forces, Brock decided that his best chance at success lay in playing on Hull's fears. He decided to launch a British offensive spearheaded by a large and visible Indian force. Tecumseh agreed wholeheartedly. Brock was aware that he was overstepping the mandate given him by his superiors. Direct action with the Americans was exactly what Governor General Prevost had been trying to avoid. Brock however, had made no secret of his distaste for Prevost's policy. Undoubtedly, Brock and Tecumseh would have been equally disgusted to learn what Prevost was up to while they were preparing for the first major confrontation of the war. One week earlier, Governor General Prevost had agreed to an armistice with U.S. General Dearborn. Brock was unaware of the deal, however. His strategy was to attack.