At the beginning of the War of 1812, General Hull's army cut the first Michigan road out of the wilderness as it advanced from the River Raisin to Detroit. In Monroe, Hull's Army originally crossed the river at a ford near the present Winchester bridge. North of Monroe, the road followed an old Indian trail that is now the course of M-56, long known as the Old Dixie, along the shoreline of Lake Erie and, northwest of Oldport, into the Old River Road and then Jefferson Avenue in Detroit. Hull's army engineers were also the first to bridge the Huron River in anticipation of moving men and supplies to Detroit from Monroe, where a quartermaster depot had been established.