American Military History, Volume 1

The first blows of the war were struck in the Detroit area and at Fort Mackinac. President Madison gave Brig. Gen. William Hull, Governor of the Michigan Territory, command of operations in that area. Hull arrived at Fort Detroit on July 5, 1812, with a force of about 1,500 Ohio militiamen and 300 regulars, which he led across the river into Canada a week later. (See Map 15.) At that time the whole enemy force on the Detroit frontier amounted to about 150 British regulars, 300 Canadian militiamen, and some 250 Indians led by Tecumseh. Most of the enemy forces were at Fort Malden, about twenty miles south of Detroit, on the Canadian side of the river. General Hull had been a dashing young officer in the Revolution, but by this time age and its infirmities had made him cautious and timid. Instead of moving directly against Fort Malden, Hull issued a bombastic proclamation to the people of Canada announcing their imminent liberation from "tyranny and oppression"; but he stayed at the river landing almost opposite Detroit. He sent out several small raiding detachments along the Thames and Detroit Rivers, one of which returned after skirmishing with the British outposts near Fort Malden.

"REGULARS BY GOD" / On July 5, 1814, the 22d U.S. Infantry demonstrated at Chippewa, Canada, that the American republic had fielded a professional army capable of standing up to the British Army on a conventional battlefield. That spring Brig. Gen. Winfield Scott formed the 1st Brigade of regulars, consisting of the 9th, 11th, 22d, and 25th Infantries, near Buffalo, New York. An ardent student of European military training, Scott quickly shaped his brigade into a disciplined force that took the British by surprise when deployed to block a British advance into New York. Deceived by the gray uniforms American militia units usually wore, the British only belatedly realized they had encountered regular troops. The U.S. soldiers steadily advanced toward their opponents, seemingly unperturbed by musket volleys that tore through their ranks, causing the British commanding general to exclaim, "Those are Regulars, by God!" Today the memory of the victory at Chippewa lives on in the tradition of gray uniforms worn by cadets of the Military Academy at West Point and in the unofficial motto, "Regulars by God," of the 6th and 22d Infantries.