Siege of Detroit | |||||||
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Part of the War of 1812 and Tecumseh's War | |||||||
![]() The Surrender of Detroit, by J.C.H. Forster | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United Kingdom Tecumseh's Confederacy | United States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Isaac Brock Tecumseh |
William Hull ![]() | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
330 regulars 400 militia 600 Natives 5 field guns 2 ships[1] |
2,500 1 brig[2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
2 wounded |
7 killed 2,493 captured 1 brig captured |
The siege of Detroit, also known as the surrender of Detroit or the Battle of Fort Detroit, was an early engagement in the War of 1812. A British force under Major General Isaac Brock with indigenous allies under Shawnee leader Tecumseh used bluff and deception to intimidate U.S. Brigadier General William Hull into surrendering the fort and town of Detroit, Michigan, along with his dispirited army which actually outnumbered the victorious British and Indians (the first nations of then to become Canada).
The British victory reinvigorated the militia and civil authorities of Upper Canada, who had previously been pessimistic and affected by pro-U.S. agitators. Many Indians in the Northwest Territory were inspired to take arms against U.S. outposts and settlers. The British held Detroit for more than a year before their small fleet was defeated on Lake Erie, which forced them to abandon the western frontier of Upper Canada.