The disgraceful surrender of Detroit, excited universal indignation throughout the country.  When McArthur’s sword was demanded, he indignantly broke it, tore the epaulettes from his shoulders and threw himself upon the ground.  When General Hull was exchanged, he was tried by a court-martial, found guilty of cowardice and sentenced to be shot; but, in consequence of his revolutionary services and his advanced age, the president pardoned him.  His fair fame, however, has ever since been blasted with the breath of cowardice.

While General Hull was in Canada, he dispatched Winnemeg, a friendly Indian, to Captain Heald, the commander of Fort Dearborn, at the small trading post of Chicago, with the information of the loss of Mackinaw, and directed him to distribute his stores among the Indians, and return to Fort Wayne.  Captain Heald had ample means of defence; but the order received on the 9th of August left nothing to his discretion.  The Pottawatomies, however, having obtained intelligence of the war from a runner sent by Tecumseh, collected, to the number of several hundred, around the fort.  Notwithstanding the evident hostile demonstration of the Indians, Captain Heald proceeded to obey his superior’s orders.  He distributed his stores among the Indians, excepting what was most wanted; while liquors and ammunition which they could not take, were thrown into the lake.  This act enraged the Pottawatomies.  On the 14th, Captain Wells arrived with fifteen friendly Miamies from Fort Wayne.  This intrepid warrior, who had been bred among the Indians, hearing that his friends at Chicago were in danger, had hastened thither to avert the fate, which he knew must ensue to the little garrison, if they evacuated the fort; but he was too late; the ammunition and provisions both being gone, there was no alternative.  The next day (August 15th), all being ready, the garrison left the fort with martial music and in military array.

Captain Wells, at the head of the Miamies, led the van, his face blackened after the manner of the Indians.

The garrison, with loaded arms, followed, and the wagons with the baggage, the women and children, the sick and the lame closed the rear.  The Pottawatomies, about five hundred in number, who had promised to escort them in safety to Fort Wayne, leaving a little space, afterward followed.  The party in advance took the beach road.  They had no sooner arrived at the sand-hills, which separated the prairie from the beach, about a half mile from the fort, when the Pottawatomies, instead of continuing in the rear of the Americans, left the beach and took to the prairie.  The sand-hills intervened and presented a barrier between the Pottawatomies and the American and Miami line of march.  This divergence had scarcely been effected, when Captain Wells, who, with the Miamies, was considerably in advance, rode back and exclaimed: 

“They are about to attack us; form instantly and charge upon them.”