The Indians, firing suddenly, killed 20, including 5 officers, and wounded about the same number of the Americans, who hastily retreated, and were pursued seven miles by the warriors alone, not a British soldier being engaged.

In this affair, General Hull's dispatches and the correspondence of his troops fell into the hands of Tecumseh, and it was partly the desponding nature of their contents which afterwards induced Major-General Brock to attempt the capture of the American army.

Foiled in the reduction of Fort Amherstburg; disappointed in his hope of a general insurrection of the Canadians; and, "above all, dismayed at the report of General Brock's resolution to advance against him,"[62] Hull's schemes of conquest vanished; and he who, less than a month before, had landed in Canada boastful of his strength and with threats of extermination, now saw no other alternative than a hasty return to Detroit, under the pretence of concentrating his forces; and after re-opening his communication with the rivers Raisin and Miami, through which he received his supplies, of resuming offensive operations.

Accordingly, on the 7th and 8th of August the American army re-crossed the river, with the exception of a garrison of 250 men left in charge of a small fortification they had thrown up on the British side, a little below Detroit, and which they evacuated and destroyed before the arrival of Major-General Brock.[63] On the 9th of August, a body of 600 Americans, sent to dislodge the British from Brownstown and to open a communication with the Rivers Raisin and Miami, was met by the white troops and Indians under Captain Muir, of the 41st, at Maguaga, between Brownstown and Detroit, but, after a severe conflict, Captain Muir was compelled to retreat.
From the moment that Major-General Brock heard of the invasion of the western district, he determined on proceeding thither in person after he had met the legislature and dispatched the public business.

Having expressed a wish of being accompanied by such of the militia as might voluntarily offer their services, 500, principally the sons of veteran soldiers who had settled in the province, cheerfully came forward for that purpose.