HULL, ls.‘Ac (1773-1843). An American naval (aver. Ile Wit, born at Derby, Conn., cabin boy on a merchant vessel at the age of fourteen. soon showed great aptitude for the handling of a ship, and before he was twenty one was placed in command of a merchantman. In 1798 he entered the Unite I States Navy as lieutenant. serving for several t ears on the Con st it ill ion, and becoming first lieutenant in 1MH; and, after distinguishing himself against the French at Port Plate, Haiti, participated, as eoniniander of the .1 roux, in the war with Tripoli. Ile becalme captain in I806, and at the opening of the War of I ti12 was in command of the Con s t ion. 1Vhile on his way from Annapolis to New York in July, 1st 2, he escaped by masterly seamanship from a IIritish squadron of live strong men-of-war. wlikb pursued for three days. On August Ifith he fought his celebrated engagement with the qu•rrii-re, a slightly weaker British frigate. Mild] after a brief (amine( was forced to surrender. (See In this battle his seamanship is pronounced by naval critics to have been alnin•4 perfect. The victory was the first obtained by the Americans over the British in this war. and nron:(41 the greatest enthusiasm throughout t he I "nited :states. Subsequently he was a member of the Naval Itoard, at t he head of the Boston and New York navy .•ards. and as eillittilialore. Was in command for a time of squadrons in the Pacific and the :Mediterranean. lle is regarded by naval critics as the ablest single-ship com mander on either side during the War of 1812.
HULL, An American soldier. Ile was born in Derby, Conn.. graduated at Yak in 1772. studied law at Litchfield, Conn., and was admitted to the bar in 1775. In July, 1775, soon after the outbreak of the Revolution ary Wa r, he entered t he American Army as a cap tain. and served thereafter until the close of the war, taking part in the kitties of Trenton. Prince ton. Saratoga. and NIoninouth, leading a column in the assault on Stony Point. and rising(August,
1779) to the rank of lientenant-eolonel. After the war he removed 10 Newton, \lass.. became nutior-general of llassaehusetts militia, and was elected to the State Senate. In I805 he was ap pointed. by President Jelfer:on. to the Oovernor ship of the Territory of 'Nliehigan. which position he held until 1812, when he was raised to the rank of brigadier general and placed in command of the Northwestern Army. Ile joined his troops at Dayton on Max- 25th. and led them through the wilderness to Detroit. where he arrived on duly 5th. heard three days before of the declaration of war against England. On the 12th he took the offensive and crossed over to Sand •ich. Canada. but wasted time in issuing futile proclamations.-and, soon becoming alarmed. re crossed to Detroit. On August 16, 1812, intimi dated by the aggressive movements of the British General Brock, he surrendered without making any real attempt at resistance. A general out cry was raised against flu11, and finally. on .larch 26, 1814, a court-martial, assembled at Albany, N. Y., sentenced him to be shot. This sentence was approved by President Madison, who, however, remitted the punishment. There has since been much controversy over Hull's case, but it is now pretty generally agreed by histo rians that though he surrendered with unsoldier ly alacrity, and might possibly have preserved De troit and his army altogether, the blame for his surrender must rest fully as much with the Ad ministration as with himself. Consult: Hull, De fense of Brigadier-General Hull, with an Ad dress to the People of the l'aited Mates ( Bos ton, 1814) ; Forbes, Report of the Trial of Briga dier-General Hull (New York, 1814) ; and the somewhat biased Revolutionary Serrices and Civil Life of Gen. William Hull, Together with the History of the Campaign of 1SI by James Freeman Clarke (New York, 1848), by Maria Campbell. Hull's daughter.