Fort Detroit

Uh, d- as part of the Treaty of, uh, Paris, Britain retained, uh, the Canadian provinces.

They also retained Fort Detroit, uh, and that, uh, didn't pass to the United States un- until 1796.

At the same time, uh, the continental army was, uh, disbanded except for, for, uh, a few garrisons, like at West Point and Fort Pitt, and, uh, Washington resigned his commission and, and moved back to Mount Vernon.

W- Washington never took a salary during the entire Revolutionary War, but he did, uh, submit $100,000 in expenses.

Another Quebec figure to know about on the British side, because, of course, Quebec is going to remain under British control for the rest of the war, is actually Haldeman's lieutenant general, which was Henry Hamilton.

And he's going to be commanding at one of these British outposts, Fort Detroit, He had a lot of experience as a colonial administrator, and he ends up being one of those exceptions to the broad rules that the British don't want to use indigenous warriors against the Americans.

He is one of these guys who is very eager to ally with indigenous groups and is very sophisticated in his approach to securing those alliances.

So he will engage diplomatically with the Huron people, Lenape, Potawatomi, Shawnee representatives, Miami representatives.

He will invite them to Fort Detroit and he will host dinners and other celebrations.

He even participates in indigenous war rituals in order to really cement that relationship.

And then he sends them off to begin attacking settlements on the frontier, as we talked about earlier.

Only the French were to be spared.

Pontiac himself was to attack Fort Detroit, and so quietly and secretly were the preparations made, that no one had the slightest suspicion of what was going forward.

but the day before the attack a farmer's wife rode across the river and went to the indian village to buy some maple sugar while she was there she was much astonished to see some of the indian braves filing off the barrels of their guns the sight made her uneasy i wonder what they are up to she said when she got home she told her friends what she had seen i believe they are up to some mischief she repeated i think so too said a blacksmith they have been asking me to lend them files and saws as the settlers talked the matter over they became at length so uneasy that they sent to tell major gladwyn the commander of the fort of what they had seen he however thought nothing of it But later in the day a young Indian girl came to see him, to bring him a pair of moccasins, which he had asked her to make.

She seemed very sad and downcast, and after she had given the major the moccasins, she still loitered about.

the friendship of the british should be theirs he said so long as they deserved it the council was at an end the gates of the fort which had been closed were now thrown open again and the savages balked in their treachery stalked back to their wigwams But Pontiac was not yet beaten, and again he tried to master the fort by treachery.

And when he found the gates of the fort shut against him, his rage was terrible.

Then, seeing they could not win Fort Detroit by treachery, the Indians attacked it in force.

But in spite of all his horde of warriors, in spite of all his wiles, Pontiac could not take the fort, although he besieged it, for a whole year.