At Detroit we stopped for half a day. This place is famous in our
history, and the unjust anger at its surrender is still expressed by
almost every one who passes there. I had always shared the common
feeling on this subject; for the indignation at a disgrace to our arms
that seemed so unnecessary, has been handed down from father to child,
and few of us have taken the pains to ascertain where the blame lay. But
now, upon the spot, having read all the testimony, I felt convinced that
it should rest solely with the government, which, by neglecting to
sustain General Hull, as he had a right to expect they would, compelled
him to take this step, or sacrifice many lives, and of the defenceless
inhabitants, not of soldiers, to the cruelty of a savage foe, for the
sake of his reputation.
I am a woman, and unlearned in such affairs; but, to a person with
common sense and good eyesight, it is clear, when viewing the location,
that, under the circumstances, he had no prospect of successful defence,
and that to attempt it would have been an act of vanity, not valor.
I feel that I am not biased in this judgment by my personal relations,
for I have always heard both sides, and, though my feelings had been
moved by the picture of the old man sitting down, in the midst of his
children, to a retired and despoiled old age, after a life of honor and
happy intercourse with the public, yet tranquil, always secure that
justice must be done at last, I supposed, like others, that he deceived
himself, and deserved to pay the penalty for failure to the
responsibility he had undertaken.
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