Hull was genuinely terrified of what would happen to the civilians in Detroit if the city were taken by storm.

The combination of British regulars, Canadian militia, and the very visible presence of Tecumseh’s warriors — who had a fearsome reputation that was partly based on fact and partly on the exaggerated accounts that fear generates — convinced Hull that capitulation was preferable to fighting.

Tecumseh is credited with participating in a tactical deception during the Detroit campaign: having his warriors march in circles through the forest visible from the American positions, making their numbers appear larger than they were.

Whether the specific story is accurate in its details, it captures something real about his approach: he used the psychological dimensions of his reputation and the impression of overwhelming force to achieve results that would have required far more fighting and far more loss to achieve through direct assault.