Background
On August 17, 1812, Brigadier General William Hull, commanding the American Army of the Northwest, surrendered his troops and Fort Detroit to the British following the Siege of Detroit. The British success convinced many Native Americans to side with them. General Hull was later tried by a military court and sentenced to death for his disgraceful conduct at Detroit. However, President James Madison commuted the sentence to dismissal from the army in recognition of Hull’s honorable service during the American Revolution.
At the time, Fort Detroit was an important outpost that could allow the Americans to invade British Upper Canada. Its capture instead allowed British forces to increase their numbers in the Michigan Territory. After the British seized Detroit, the militia around Frenchtown also surrendered and were disarmed. Only 25 miles (40 km) south of Fort Detroit, the residents of Frenchtown feared threats from the British and Native Americans, who had now occupied the area. The people of Frenchtown urged the American army to regroup to drive the invaders back to Upper Canada.
After Hull's dismissal, Brigadier General James Winchester was given command of the Army of the Northwest. Rather than pushing north to attempt to retake Detroit, Winchester had a lesser agenda, and his unpopularity led to the command of the army being given to Major General William Henry Harrison. Winchester was made second-in-command. Harrison's first plan of action on taking command was to move the army north to recover Detroit. To accomplish this, he divided the army and personally led one column, the second column marching under command of Winchester. Meanwhile, Brigadier General Henry Procter, commanding the British Army around Detroit, had assembled all the British troops in the area, as well as around 500 allied Native Americans under the Shawnee leader Tecumseh. While Tecumseh was present in Frenchtown, he would not participate in the fighting.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Frenchtown
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