The Third Great Blunder

[General] Hull directed Captain Van Horn to cross to Detroit with two hundred men and go to Brush's relief.  This was the third great blunder of the campaign; the loss of the Cuyahoga being the first and the failure to capture Malden the second.

 If Brush's two hundred men were in peril would not Van Horn's two hundred men be in equal peril in going to their relief? [Source - links added]

Pre-War To The News Of War.

Guide to the materials in London archives for the history of the United ...:

How Brock First Learned Of War

Source

(Hint....it was not through Official Channels):

[Robert] Nichol, himself, stated that the first intelligence of the actual declaration of war by the United States was communicated to Brock in seven days from Washington through mercantile connections of his own, and that the government dispatches, announcing that important event, were not received until fourteen days later. [Source]

Source

Portrait Of A 41st Regiment Officer

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Officer Of Light Infantry Company, 41st Regiment--With Brock At Capture Of Detroit

Loyalist Sons, Robinson And Merritt

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"During the war two young native Canadians, the sons of U.E. Loyalists, took a prominent part, and both were present at the surrender of Detroit, one as captain on the staff of General Brock, and the other of a similar rank in the cavalry. The latter fought with General Brock at Queenston Heights, and subsequently at Lundy's Lane, when he was made a prisoner and transported into the interior of the State of New York, where he remained until peace had been proclaimed. The A.D.C. was...Sir John Beverley Robinson, and the prisoner on parole the late Honorable William Hamilton Merritt*." [Source]

*War had no terrors for him [William Hamilton Merritt] and he decided to do what he could to repel the army that was threatening to invade Canada. From his earliest days he had been a fine horseman, and shortly before war was declared had been given a lieutenant's commission in the militia. He at once got into the saddle and until the battle of Lundy's Lane was one of the most distinguished cavalry leaders in Canada. [Source]

Major Thomas Merritt, U.E.L. Portrait

Source

Also see the Memoirs of Major Thomas Merritt, U.E.L. (1759-1842), Cornet in Queen's Rangers (1776-1803) under Col. John Graves Simcoe, Major Commandant, Niagara Light Dragoons, in the War of 1812-14, Surveyor of Woods and Forests, and Sheriff of the Niagara District for about twenty years ([1910])

Another blog post involving Major Merritt here.

Dr. Robert Kerr

From the Grimsby Museum Digital Collections, Assistant Surgeon Appointment: Letter from Dr Robert Kerr to Dr Cyrus Sumner- July 22, 1814

Description: A letter from Dr. Robert Kerr to Dr. Cyrus Sumner (1772-1834) appointing him Assistant Surgeon at the hospital in Niagara during the War of 1812. His pay is quoted as one dollar and a half per day.
Sumner....was requested by Major-General Brock to accompany him to Detroit. 

Signature from the letter referenced above

Dr. Kerr in the Indian Department:

(8) Surgeons Robert Kerr. Niagara.  27 April, 1788.....
(8)  Arrived at Quebec, 13 Sept., 1776, as Hospital Mate.  Served on Burgoyne's expedition of 1777 (prisoner); also under Clinton; went to Halifax, N.S., 1778.  Surgeon Royal Reg't. of New York (Sir John Johnson's), 1779--24 June, 1784; Surgeon to the Loyalists, 24 Oct., 1784; Surgeon Indian Dept., 27 Apr., 1788.  Married a daughter of Sir William Johnson, 1st Bart., by Molly Brant.  Died at Albany, N.Y., March 1825, aged 60. [Source]

A present day, simulated "interview" with Dr. Robert Kerr!

First Scalp Taken In War Of 1812

It was in one of these attacks that the first scalp in the war of 1812 was taken—not by one of Brock's terrible Indians, whose expected excesses had been referred to by Hull, but by a captain of Hull's spies. This officer—one hates to describe him as a white man—wrote his wife, he "had the pleasure of tearing a scalp from the head of a British redskin," and related at length the brutal details of his methods. They were those of a wild beast. "The first stroke of the tomahawk," Hull had stated in his proclamation, "the first attempt with the scalping-knife, will be the signal of a scene of desolation." Yet the first scalp taken in the Detroit campaign was by one of his own officers!

From The Story of Isaac Brock: Hero, Defender and Saviour of Upper Canada.

Battle Of Queenstown Heights

A drawing depicting the Battle of Queenstown Heights, from The military heroes of the war of 1812: with a narrative of the war:

The Battle of Queenstown Heights, October 13, 1812, was a British victory.  British commander, General Isaac Brock was killed in that battle..

The Queen Charlotte

From "The Battalion":

In August, General Brock would lead his British forces in an attack on Fort Detroit and General Hull’s American Army. They would begin this siege with the help of the provincial Marine. The “Queen Charlotte” (18 Guns, Elting) and the “General Hunter” (10 Guns, Elting) began shelling the fort. The bombardment would fall off through the night and then continue the next day. Fearing for the safety of his Army and the citizens of Detroit, Hull surrendered.

Captain Snelling

From the Mackinac Michigan GenWeb site (Captain Snelling's activities before General Hull surrendered Detroit):

Miller sent a spy into Brownstown and understood from Captain Maxwell that the enemy had disappears. He then returned to the battle field to collect his dead and wounded and encamped there for the night. Next day Miller got the wounded into boats, and thinking that the communication with Brush on the Raisin had been opened, and failing to get sufficient supplies of provisions for his men, although he had sent Captain Snelling to Hull for that purpose, he took up his line of march on the 11th for Detroit, reaching there next day.

On the morning of the 15th Brock opened his battery, which was followed by a flag of truce, received by Captains Charles Fuller and Josiah Snelling, 4th U. S. Infantry, with the demand for surrender, coupled with the threat that if not complied with he could not control the Indians then under his command.

In the evening of the 15th movements of the enemy indicated a crossing at Springwells by the collecting of boats and bringing up of British vessels. Captain Snelling, with a few men and a field piece, had been sent down to the sand hill, nearly opposite Sandwich, to reconnoitre and to watch the crossing, with orders to return and report before daylight.

Gen. Hull sent Captain Snelling with a note to Gen. Brock, which he delivered; the purport of which was that he agreed to surrender the fort. Col. McDonald and Captain Glegg were sent by Gen. Brock to agree upon the terms of the surrender. [Source]