Madison and Eustis concurred with this plan and offered command of the army to Hull, an aging veteran of the American Revolutionary War. He was reluctant to take the appointment, but no other officer was available with his prestige and experience. He accepted after repeated pleas from Madison and was commissioned as a brigadier general in the United States Army. His army consisted of three regiments of Ohio militia under Colonels Lewis Cass, Duncan McArthur, and James Findlay. Hull took command of them at Dayton, Ohio on 25 May but found that they were badly equipped and ill-disciplined, and no arrangements had been made to supply them on the march. He made hasty efforts to remedy the deficiencies in equipment.