General Hull surrenders Michilimackinac and Detroit...
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September 24, 1812
BOSTON GAZETTE, Sept. 24, 1812
* Siege of Detroit - surrender
* Battle of Fort Detroit
* General William Hull
The front page has nearly a full column letter headed: "Surrender Of Mackinack - Extract of a Letter from Lt. Hanks...Late Commandant of Michillimackinac..." with great detail on the notable battle in which the post was surrendered to the British without a shot. Also on the front page: "Success Of The War".
Page 2 has: "Official - Dispatches from Gen. Hull relating to his surrender. This a great and quite lengthy account which begins: Enclosed are the articles of capitulation by which the Fort of Detroit has been surrendered to Major General Brock, commanding his Britannic Majesty's forces in Upper Canada..." with terrific detail, signed in type: Wm. Hull, Brig. Gen. A whole at the top of the first leaf causes loss to about 7 words.
Four pages scattered foxing, the mentioned hole at the top of the first leaf.
background: The primary significance of this issue lies in its real-time documentation of the total collapse of American defenses in the Northwest Territory at the start of the War of 1812. By featuring both Lieutenant Hanks’ account of the loss of Fort Mackinac and General Hull’s lengthy justification for the surrender of Detroit, the paper captures a moment of profound national crisis where the U.S. lost control of the Great Lakes and the Michigan Territory in a matter of weeks. These reports represent more than just military news; they are the primary source evidence of General Hull’s "cowardice"—an act so controversial it led to the only time an American General was sentenced to death by court-martial—and the strategic failure of the War Department to communicate the declaration of war to its frontier outposts. For a reader in 1812, this front page was a shocking catalog of humiliation that threatened the security of the entire American frontier and fundamentally shifted the early momentum of the war in favor of the British and their Indigenous allies under Tecumseh.
* Siege of Detroit - surrender
* Battle of Fort Detroit
* General William Hull
The front page has nearly a full column letter headed: "Surrender Of Mackinack - Extract of a Letter from Lt. Hanks...Late Commandant of Michillimackinac..." with great detail on the notable battle in which the post was surrendered to the British without a shot. Also on the front page: "Success Of The War".
Page 2 has: "Official - Dispatches from Gen. Hull relating to his surrender. This a great and quite lengthy account which begins: Enclosed are the articles of capitulation by which the Fort of Detroit has been surrendered to Major General Brock, commanding his Britannic Majesty's forces in Upper Canada..." with terrific detail, signed in type: Wm. Hull, Brig. Gen. A whole at the top of the first leaf causes loss to about 7 words.
Four pages scattered foxing, the mentioned hole at the top of the first leaf.
background: The primary significance of this issue lies in its real-time documentation of the total collapse of American defenses in the Northwest Territory at the start of the War of 1812. By featuring both Lieutenant Hanks’ account of the loss of Fort Mackinac and General Hull’s lengthy justification for the surrender of Detroit, the paper captures a moment of profound national crisis where the U.S. lost control of the Great Lakes and the Michigan Territory in a matter of weeks. These reports represent more than just military news; they are the primary source evidence of General Hull’s "cowardice"—an act so controversial it led to the only time an American General was sentenced to death by court-martial—and the strategic failure of the War Department to communicate the declaration of war to its frontier outposts. For a reader in 1812, this front page was a shocking catalog of humiliation that threatened the security of the entire American frontier and fundamentally shifted the early momentum of the war in favor of the British and their Indigenous allies under Tecumseh.
Item from last month's catalog - #364 - released for March, 2026.
Category: War of 1812
