William Hull
William Hull | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1823 | |
| 1st Governor of Michigan Territory | |
| In office March 22, 1805 – October 29, 1813 | |
| Appointed by | Thomas Jefferson |
| Succeeded by | Lewis Cass |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 24, 1753 |
| Died | November 29, 1825 (aged 72) Newton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Children | 4 |
| Alma mater | Yale College |
| Signature | |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch/service | Continental Army United States Army |
| Years of service | 1775–1783, 1812–1814 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Commands | Army of the Northwest |
| Battles/wars | |
William Hull (June 24, 1753 – November 29, 1825) was an American military officer and politician. A veteran of the American Revolutionary War, he later served as governor of the Michigan Territory (1805–1813), where he negotiated land cessions with Native Americans through the Treaty of Detroit in 1807. Hull is most widely remembered, as the general in the first months of the War of 1812 (1812–1815), who surrendered Fort Detroit to the British Army on August 16, 1812, ending the siege of Detroit.
Following the siege, he was paroled by the British and returned east, but court-martialed, convicted, and sentenced to death in a military court trial by the United States Army and the U.S. War Department, but later received a pardon from fourth President and military commander-in-chief James Madison (1751–1836, served 1809–1817), so his military and personal reputation somewhat recovered. He was assigned to several other commands in the next two years of the war, before the 1815 peace Treaty of Ghent and return to the pre-war status quo with the British.