The First Stroke Of The War - Capture of Mackinac July 17, 1812

The capture of Mackinac, the first stroke of the war, was of the highest importance to the British interests.


Early Mackinac: a sketch, historical and descriptive  By Meade C. Williams:

• It exposed Detroit and all lower Michigan It greatly terrified General Hull who commanded the department of Michigan.

•  It arrested his (Hull's) operations in Canada. 

• His (Hull's) surrender just one month later was in part due to the panic it caused one historian of that day, saying, "Hull was conquered at Mackinac."

Lieutenant Porter Hanks, while awaiting court martial for the surrender of Mackinac, was killed by a cannon ball in Detroit.