The disastrous event blasted the prospects of the first campaign, and opened the northern and western frontiers of Ohio to savage incursions.
"Previous to the surrender of Detroit, the governors of Ohio and Kentucky, in obedience to the directions of the war department, had detached powerful reinforcements to the aid of General Hull.

Had he deferred the capitulation but a few days longer, his army, Detroit, and the Michigan territory, would have been saved.
"The forces advancing to his support consisted of 2,000 militia, under Brigadier-General Payne, and a battalion of mounted riflemen, under Colonel R.M.Johnson, from Kentucky; a brigade of Ohio militia, under the orders of Brigadier-General Tupper;[73] and nearly 1,000 regulars, under the command of General Winchester.

They had reached the St.Mary's River when the news of the capture of Detroit was received.

But for the well-timed arrival of the above force a wide scene of flight and misery, of blood and desolation, must have ensued.

Nearly half of the territory of Ohio must have been depopulated, or its inhabitants fallen victims to the scalping knife." "The chagrin felt at Washington," observes James in his Military Occurrences, "when news arrived of the total failure of this the first attempt at invasion, was in proportion to the sanguine hopes entertained of its success.