USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 58
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His first occupation after leaving college was the teaching of a school. He used to say frequently that " this was among the happiest years of his life." His parents anxiously desired that he should become a clergyman, and he commenced the study of divinity rather from the motives of filial affection than from a conviction of religious duty. He studied a year with Dr. Wales, subsequently professor of theology in Yale College. After this he changed his course of studies and entered the celebrated Law School in Litchfield, Conn., and was admitted to the bar in 1775.
The war with Great Britain was now the subject of universal interest, and while at home one evening, his father returned from a meeting of the citizens of Derby, and said to his son, " Who do you suppose has been elected captain of the company raised in this town ?" He named several, but his father replied, " It is yourself." He hesitated not in accepting the appointment so unexpectedly offered by his townsmen, and pre- pared himself to join the regiment of Colonel Webb, then being raised by the state. At this interesting period his father was seized with a severe illness, which soon terminated his useful life. By his will the property was bequeathed to his widow and children. William refused to receive any part of it. He said, "I want only my sword and my uniform." With a full but res- olute heart he left his peaceful home and afflicted mother's fam- ily, and with his company immediately joined the regiment,
12Mrs. Campbell's Military Life of Gen. Wm. Hull.
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which marched to Cambridge, the head-quarters of General Washington. ·
The next year, in the midst of the sanguinary battle on Long Island, General Washington crossed from New York to Long Island with a part of his army and took possession of Brooklyn Heights. The regiment of Colonel Webb, consisting in part of Captain Hull's company, was in this division, and took part in the masterly movements of the next forty-eight hours.
Captain Hale, whose melancholy end is a sad part of the his- tory of the Revolution, was an intimate friend of Captain Hull. They were of the same age and had been classmates at college. Two years after they graduated their names were enrolled under the standard of their country, and they marched in the same regiment to join the army of Washington. Captain Hull had every opportunity to learn the true character of his much esteemed associate, and says of him : " There was no young man who gave fairer promise of an enlightened and devoted service to his country than this my friend and companion in arms."
Captain Hale became a spy, was detected and executed within the British lines on Long Island, and thereby the English laid the foundation for the execution of Major Andre, a short time after- ward. Captain Hull urged him not to enter upon so hazardous and ignoble an undertaking, but his great desire to do some- thing for the good of his country, and this alone, led him to undertake the venture.
Captain Hull was with his company in the battle of White Plains, in Colonel Webb's regiment, which sustained the heavy onset of the enemy in that engagement so as to receive the thanks of Washington. From this place Captain Hull's com- pany marched to the Highlands and thence across New Jer- sey to Delaware, and in December joined the main army in Pennsylvania. In five days they were again on the march for Trenton, where a battle was fought and a great victory gained for the colonies. Captain Hull was acting field officer during this battle at the personal request of General Washington. At this time the weather was extremely cold and the soldiers suf- fered beyond description. The victory was worth the effort. Hull wrote: "To give you some idea of the excessive fa- tigue of the troops engaged in this enterprise, I relate the
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following respecting myself. It was between two and three o'clock in the morning of the second night, when my company recrossed the Delaware. I marched them to the house of a farmer, and halted to obtain refreshments and rest. After my men were accommodated, I went into a room where a number of officers were sitting around a table, with a large dish of hasty- pudding in its centre. I sat down, procured a spoon, and began to eat. While eating, I fell from my chair to the floor, overcome with sleep, and in the morning, when I awoke, the spoon was fast clenched in my hand."
Soon after this, Washington marched to meet Cornwallis, and on the way promoted Captain Hull to be a major in the eighth Massachusetts, and the battle with a part of the enemy's troops was fought, resulting in great gain to the Americans. It was the fortune of Major Hull to be in the severest parts of these memorable battles of Trenton and Princeton. The classical and eloquent Italian historian of the war, Charles Botta, after de- scribing these transactions, adds : " Achievements so astonish- ing acquired an immense glory for the Captain General of the United States. All nations shared in the surprise of the Amer- icans ; all equally admired and applauded the prudence, the constancy and the noble intrepidity of General Washington."
Hull wrote : "When I left the Highlands my company con- sisted of about fifty, rank and file. On examining the state of the clothing, I found there was not more than one poor blanket to two men ; many of them 'had neither shoes nor stock- ings ; and those who had, found them nearly worn out. All the clothing was of the same wretched description.
"In the attacks at Trenton and Princeton we were in this destitute situation, and continued to sleep on the frozen ground, without covering, until the 7th of January, when we arrived at Morristown, N. J., where General Washington established his winter quarters. The patient endurance of the army at this period is perhaps unexampled in this or any country."
As soon as the army was established in winter quarters, Major Hull was ordered to Boston to recruit his regiment, and thence to Springfield soon after to take command of the disci- pline of the new forces then gathering there. Here he re- mained until April (1777) when he was directed to march with
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his men to reinforce the army at Ticonderoga, under St. Clair, where he arrived in May. In the retreat from that place he, as also the other officers, lost all but the clothes he wore. This retreat continued to Fort Edward, and thence across the Hudson above Saratoga, Hull commanding the rear guard under General Schuyler. The next morning Major Hull was forced to meet a much superior force and repelled their attack with much energy and bravery until reinforcements arrived, and received the thanks of General Schuyler for his conduct on this occasion.
In the battle at Saratoga, September 19, Major Hull held a separate command on the right of the main army and did very efficient service, being under fire from one o'clock until nearly dark. At the second day's battle at Saratoga, October 7, he held an important command in the midst of the battle, being connected with Arnold's division, and maintained himself nobly, and the victory of the day was very great to the Americans.
From this field of victory Major Hull and his regiment were ordered to reinforce General Washington at Whitemarsh, Penn., where they went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, about twenty miles from Philadelphia.
At this place, during the winter, the sufferings of the army were indescribably wretched, and Hull was in the thickest of it ordered to pursue a foraging party of the English under circum- stances of intense suffering.
He speaks of his own house at this place, which was con- structed of logs like all the rest, as follows :
"The hut we occupied consisted of one room. This was dining-room, parlor, kitchen and hall. On one side shelves were put up for our books, on another stood a row of Derby cheeses sent from Connecticut by my mother, a luxury of which the camp could rarely boast, and with which visitors to the hut were often regaled."
The conduct of Congress that winter, in debating and strug- gling over place and position, while the soldiers were starving in their camp, unable for want of food and clothing to pursue the British foraging parties, was worthy of the disgust of every patriot. It was this struggle for personal preferment that sent General Gates to Saratoga in the midst of the battle, to super-
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sede General Schuyler, and who took to himself all the glory of that victory, (who scarcely left his tent during the day of that battle,) not so much as mentioning Arnold, who was really the general of the day, in his report ; it was this that made Benedict Arnold what he became, and caused mutiny in the camp at Valley Forge ; and which rose so high that Washington was urged to join the uprising and make himself Dictator of his country, instead of submitting to the shameful neglect of Con- gress. This Congress would change the appointee over the commissary, against the protest of Washington, and that was what fed the soldiers with hunger and secured frozen feet in the camp. It was this political faction that favored the starv- ing of the soldiers so as to raise prejudice against Washington and secure his removal as Commander-in-Chief and instate Gen- eral Gates in his place, a man who never won a great battle ex- cept through his political friends.
Major Hull, commanding the eighth Massachusetts, was pres- ent, under General Sterling, at the battle of Monmouth, N. J., directly in front of the enemy's right, which division was in a severe part of the battle, which lasted until dark and was unde- cided. The American army lay on their arms that night, during which the enemy retreated.
Hull writes: " I went over the field of battle the next morning, and discovered a large number of dead bodies without wounds, who probably died of heat. We buried four officers and two hundred and forty-five privates, and more must have been killed, for there were a number of new-made graves."
The campaign of 1779, with Major Hull and his command at the Highlands, opened with the purpose of the British com- mander to obtain possession of the Highlands on the Hudson, and the purpose of Washington was to retain possession of this stronghold. The enemy, in order to draw off Washington's forces, sent General Tryon to pillage and burn the villages along the shore in Connecticut, and well did he perform his errand, beginning at New Haven, and burning Fairfield and Norwalk. General Washington determined to attack a stronghold of the enemy rather than send troops to oppose General Tryon. He therefore organized an expedition to capture the fort at Stony Point, and gave the command to General Wayne, a
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brave officer, whose troops included Hull in command of about four hundred men. At eleven o'clock on the 15th of July, the march was commenced over rugged and almost impas- sable mountains, and continued for fourteen miles, when the detachment arrived a little before dusk within a mile and a half of Stony Point. Here it halted and the object of the march was made known to the troops. The fort was garrisoned with about six hundred men under the command of Lieutenant Col- onel Johnson.
" About half-past eleven o'clock in the evening," writes Major Hull, " the two columns commenced their march in platoons. The beach was more than two feet deep with water, and before the right column (in which was Major Hull) reached it, we were fired on by the outguards, which gave the alarm to the garrison. We were now directly under the fort, and closing in a solid column ascended the hill, which was almost perpen- dicular. When about half-way up, our course was impeded by two strong rows of abattis, which the forlorn hope had not been able entirely to remove. The column proceeded silently on, clearing away the abattis, passed to the breastwork, cut and tore away the pickets, cleared the cheveaux-de-frise at the sally-port, mounted the parapet, and entered the fort at the point of the bayonet. All this was done under a heavy fire of artillery and musketry, and so strong a resistance as could be made by the British bayonet. Our column on the other side entered the fort at the same time. Each of our men had a white paper in his hat, which in the darkness distinguished him from the en- emy ; and the watch-word was, 'The fort's our own.' Our troops reached the area of the garrison not having fired a gun, the enemy still firing on us. The men made free use of the bay- onet, and in every direction was heard 'The fort's our own.' The enemy did not surrender until nearly one hundred men were killed or wounded, after which their arms were secured, and they were assembled under a strong guard in an angle of the fort until morning. In ascending the hill, just after he had passed the abattis, General Wayne was wounded in the head by a musket ball and immediately fell. He remained on the spot until the British surrendered, when some other officers and myself bore him into the fort, bleeding, but in triumph. The
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prisoners amounted to five hundred and forty-three. One ball passed through the crown of my hat, another struck my foot."
Of the capture of Stony Point, Sparks, in his Life of Wash- ington, says : "The action is allowed to have been one of the most brilliant of the Revolution."
Late in the autumn the detachment of Major Hull was re- turned to West Point, and was established in winter quarters, and the Major was promoted to be Lieutenant Colonel of the Massachusetts Third.
During the campaign of 1780, the attention of Colonel Hull was devoted to the discipline of the division of the army com- manded by Major-General Howe, of which he was appointed deputy inspector under Baron Steuben.
At this time Colonel Hull writes : "General Parsons called one morning on me, and informed me that he was requested by General Washington to inquire if it would be agreeable to me to come into his family as one of his aids, and if so the appoint- ment would be made."
This honor Lieutenant Hull, after consideration and consul- tation specially with Baron Steuben, declined with expressions of gratitude, and he recommended David Humphreys, then cap- tain, who had been aid to General Putnam. Colonel Hum- phreys was appointed and remained in that situation until the end of the war. During the following winter Colonel Hull was in the vicinity of White Plains with his command, and did very great service for the American cause, receiving the thanks of General Washington and of Congress.
In February, 1781, he asked, for the first time in six years, leave of absence to pass the remainder of the winter in Boston. Having obtained his request, he repaired to Boston and was soon after married to the only daughter of the Hon. Judge Ful- ler of Newton, Mass.
Colonel Hull was now appointed Adjutant and Inspector General of the army at West Point and the neighboring posts in the Highlands. The duties of these offices he performed un- til the summer of 1783, when General Washington had returned from the South, after the capture of the army of Lord Cornwallis.
At this period the preliminary articles of peace were signed, and hostilities between Great Britain and America ceased.
·
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On the memorable 25th of November, Colonel Hull had the honor of escorting, with his light infantry, the Commander-in- Chief into New York, upon the delivering up of the city by the British ; and for thirty years thereafter whenever General Hull was in New York on that anniversary, he was invited to the public dinner and treated with particular honor.
Before General Washington retired from his command he was authorized by Congress to disband the whole army excepting one regiment and a corps of artillery. The regiment was com- posed of such officers as he should designate, and soldiers whose time of service had not expired. Colonel Hull was selected by the Commander-in-Chief as the Lieutenant Colonel of the regi- ment, and accepted the appointment ; General Heath being first in command, and Colonel Hull second.
In 1786 Colonel Hull retired to civil life and commenced the practice of law at Newton, Massachusetts, at which place he led a busy life in his profession and as a prominent man in the community.
In 1798 he passed the winter in London and the spring in France, amidst the public commotions of that time.
On his return he was appointed by the Governor and Council Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, and also selected by the third division, in the place of General Brooks, to whom he had been second in command many years, both in the Revolution- ary army and in the militia. He was likewise elected senator in the Legislature of Massachusetts, and thereafter was annually elected senator, and continued in other public situations until he voluntarily resigned them on being appointed Governor of the Michigan territory. This appointment he received in 1805 from Thomas Jefferson, and held it until 1812, when he was appointed brigadier-general to command the north-western army. He was also while governor appointed Indian agent, an office then connected with that of executive magistrate.
In the war of 1812 General Hull, while in command at De- troit, Mich., being overwhelmed by the combined forces of the British and the north-western Indians, surrendered that military post in order to save the lives of the people, not only of Detroit but of Michigan, and for this conduct was denounced as a traitor, tried by a court-martial and condemned to death, but
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the President of the United States reprieved him from the execution of the sentence. It has since been shown that the charge against the General and the conducting of the court- martial were all pursued for the purpose of saving the President and his advisers in that war from just censure, and to save the party that supported him from defeat before the country. Not until after twelve years did General Hull have access to his own letters and other papers at Washington by which to clear him- self from the charges made against him. When Mr. Calhoun became Secretary of War, he gave Gen. Hull full access to the papers, when he vindicated himself in the eyes of the country most clearly, by a series of articles published in the American Statesman of Boston and copied into many other papers throughout the country. A review of the circumstances con- cerning the surrender has been published in book form by the Rev. James Freeman Clarke of Boston, which most clearly es- tablishes the above statement of judgment.
The " North American Review," in a notice of these letters, understood to have been written by Jared Sparks, said that " from the public documents collected and published in them, the con- clusion must be unequivocally drawn that General Hull was required by the Government to do what it was morally and physically impossible that he should do." Many other periodi- cals. throughout the Union expressed the same opinion.
After this a public dinner was given to General Hull in Boston, by citizens of both parties. He also received very gratifying letters from various quarters, particularly from old companions of the Revolutionary army, expressing their pleas- ure at his having vindicated so completely his conduct and his character.
General Hull did not live long after his vindication. He however had the pleasure of meeting Lafayette in 1825, who paid him a visit when in Boston during that year. He was present at the celebration of the battle of Bunker Hill, and afterwards visited his mother in his native town of Derby. While on this visit the citizens of Derby gave him a public dinner at the Narrows, at which many distinguished persons were present, including veterans of the Revolution and the war of 1812. James Bassett then kept the Derby Hotel and pro-
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vided the entertainment. The occasion was one of great rejoic- ing. Cannons corresponding to the number of states were discharged, flags floated in the breezes, toasts were volun- teered, and speeches exhumed from the vaults of tradition were made. Among other things said, a veteran of the war of 1812 presented the following toast : " General William Hull -- Derby's born. His civic and military services in the war of the Revolution and the war of 1812 justly entitle him to the grati- tude of his countrymen." To this, the General, then seventy- two years of age and feeble in health, feelingly responded at some length, which proved to be his last public address. A citizen of this town, now living, was employed at the time by a man who attended this dinner.
Returning home he was attacked by a disease which soon proved fatal. On his death-bed he declared, in the most solemn manner, his conviction that he had done right in surrendering Detroit, and expressed his happiness that he had thus saved the lives of the peaceful citizens of Michigan from being needlessly sacrificed. He died in November, 1825, in the seventy-third year of his age.
The sources of information upon which the above statements are founded are very numerous, an enumeration of which may be seen on page 302 of the " History of the Campaign of 1812," by James Freeman Clarke.
Mr. Benson J. Lossing, the historian of the American Revo- lution and the war of 1812, has given a review of " Hull's Sur- render of Detroit," in pamphlet form, which was a reprint from " Potter's American Monthly " for August, 1875, in which, after examining carefully the historical matter he renders the follow- ing conclusions :
" This sensational history18 was scattered broadcast over the country by the newspapers, and excited intense indignation against the unfor- tunate General in the public mind. It was welcomed by Dr. Eustis, the Secretary of War, and General Dearborn, the Commander-in-Chief, as a foil to the just censure which they would have received for remiss- ness in official duty had the whole truth been known ; how the Secre- tary omitted to inform Hull of the declaration of war until it was known
13The letter written by Col. Cass, concerning the surrender.
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in Canada, and even in the wilderness near Mackinaw, and how Dear- born had failed to communicate to Hull the fact that he had agreed to an armistice which relieved Brock from duty on the Niagara frontier and allowed him to hasten to the western frontier of Canada. Hull was made the scapegoat of these officers, and they allowed him to suffer for their own sins. He was abused by almost everybody and every- where, without stint, and the most impossible stories were told and believed about his being bribed by the British to surrender. The absurd story was put afloat and absolutely credited that a wagon-load of ' British gold' had been taken to his house at Newton, whither he had retired to the shelter of domestic life from the storm of vituperation, after his return from captivity in September.
" The well informed government and the ill informed people joined in the pursuit of General Hull with the lash of bitter calumny ; the former with the selfish intention to shield itself from reproach, and the latter impelled by a righteous indignation against one whom they regarded as an almost unpardonable sinner. The people had been made to believe by the politicians of the war party that Canada might be very easily conquered by a small American force, and public expec- tation ran high, when news came that our flag had been unfurled upon its soil. But men of more wisdom and experience had formed contrary opinions. General Harrison had seen from the beginning the danger of such an invasion as that undertaken by Hull. And when he heard of the fall of Mackinaw, he regarded it as the forerunner of the capture of Chicago and Detroit. This opinion he expressed in a letter written on the 6th of August. On the 10th he again wrote to the Secretary of War, saying : ' I greatly fear that the capture of Mackinaw will give such eclat to the British and Indians that the Northern Tribes will pour down in swarms upon Detroit, oblige General Hull to act on the defen- sive, and meet and perhaps overpower the convoys and reinforcements which may be sent to him.' This is precisely what happened when Van Horne, with a detachment, went to meet a convoy of supplies from Ohio. Harrison continues : ' It appears to me, indeed. highly probable that the large detachment which is now destined for his (Hull's) relief, under Colonel Wells, will have to fight its way. I greatly rely on the valor of those troops, but it is possible that the event may be adverse to us, and if it is Detroit must fall, and with it every hope of re-establish- ing our affairs in that quarter until the next year.
" This trial, in most of its aspects, was a remarkable and most dis- graceful one, and no sensible man can read the record of it without a conviction that General Hull was offered a sacrifice to appease public indignation, and to the necessity of preserving the administration from
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