28 Facts About William Hull

William Hull was an American military officer and politician.

William Hull was assigned to several other commands in the next two years of the war, before the 1815 peace Treaty of Ghent and return to the pre-war status quo with the British.

William Hull graduated from Yale College in 1772 and initially studied religion at his parents' behest.

William Hull joined the local militia, quickly rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel due to his leadership skills.

At the outbreak of fighting in the American Revolutionary War, William Hull joined a local militia and was quickly promoted to captain, then through the ranks to lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army.

William Hull fought in the following battles of the Revolutionary War: White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Stillwater, Saratoga, Fort Stanwix, Monmouth, and Stony Point.

William Hull was recognized by commanding General George Washington, of the Continental Army and by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Independence Hall in the temporary capital city of Philadelphia for his service.

William Hull was a friend of the famous patriot Nathan Hale and tried to dissuade him from the dangerous spy mission that ultimately cost him his life at the young age of 21, when he was caught and hung by the British.

All of the territory was in the hands of the Indians except for two enclaves around Detroit and Fort Mackinac, so William Hull worked to gradually purchase Indian land for occupation by American settlers.

William Hull negotiated the Treaty of Detroit in 1807 with the Odawa, Chippewa, Wyandot, and Potawatomi tribes, which ceded most of Southeast Michigan and northwestern Ohio to the United States, to the mouth of the Maumee River where Toledo developed.

Hull was in Washington, DC, when 6th US Secretary of War William Eustis, informed him that President James Madison wished to appoint him a Brigadier General in command of the newly organized Army of the Northwest.

William Hull's orders were to go to Ohio, whose Governor had been charged by President Madison with raising a 1,200-man militia United of Ohio men that would be augmented by the regular Army United of the 4th Infantry Regiment from duty at Vincennes in the Indiana Territory, to form the core of the Northwest Army.

William Hull arrived in Cincinnati on May 10,1812, and took command of the militia at Dayton on May 25.

Unbeknownst to William Hull, the United States United States Congress declared war on the United Kingdom on June 18,1812, and that same day Secretary Eustis sent two letters to commanding General William Hull.

William Hull was partly the victim of his government's poor preparation for war and poor communication.

William Hull had repeatedly urged his superiors while he was governor to build a naval fleet on Lake Erie in order to defend Detroit, Fort Mackinac, and Fort Dearborn, but his requests were ignored by General Henry Dearborn, the commander of the northeast.

William Hull began an invasion of Canada on July 12,1812, crossing the Detroit River east of Sandwich.

William Hull had faced a lack of support from his officers and fear among the troops of a possible massacre by Indian forces.

William Hull surrendered Fort Detroit to General Isaac Brock on August 16,1812, because Brock had tricked him into thinking that he was vastly outnumbered by his foes.

The number of troops under William Hull's command was estimated at between 750 and 1060 by his grandson.

William Hull believed that the surrender was a valid step because he was lacking adequate gunpowder and cannonballs to withstand a long siege.

In 1814, William Hull was court martialed at a trial presided over by General Henry Dearborn, with future president Martin Van Buren as the special judge advocate in charge of the prosecution.

William Hull was convicted of cowardice and neglect of duty and was sentenced to be shot.

William Hull lived the remainder of his life in Newton, Massachusetts with his wife Sarah Fuller.

William Hull's son Abraham was an Army captain during the War of 1812 and died at the Battle of Lundy's Lane at age 27.

William Hull's remains were buried in the Drummond Hill Cemetery in Niagara Falls, Ontario, the only American officer to be buried there.

William Hull was uncle to Isaac William Hull, son of his brother Joseph.

Joseph died while Isaac was young, so William Hull adopted the boy.