In December 1807, Henry Brush represented Nathaniel Massie who was contesting the election of Return J. Meigs, Jr., as governor of Ohio.

Meigs, who was at the time serving as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ohio, was ruled ineligible to hold the office of governor due to residency requirements.

Chief Justice Samuel Huntington and Judge George Tod had written the opinions supporting the ruling, essentially a restatement of the federal holding of Marbury v. Madison.

In August 1812, Governor Meigs received at Marietta, Ohio a letter from Gen. William Hull at Detroit stating that the army was very deficient in provisions and would perish if not resupplied by the militia.

Provisions were already at Urbana, Ohio ready to be packed on horses, but awaiting a convoy of troops to protect them and open a new road, as the old one was almost impassable.

On Monday morning the company paraded at the Ross County, Ohio court house and elected Henry Brush, Captain.

When Brush and his company of Ohio volunteers were near the River Raisin, he sent word to General Hull that he should be reinforced and protected by an escort, as it was understood that some British soldiers and a confederate band of Shawnee Indians, all under command of Tecumseh, had crossed the Detroit river with the intention of intercepting the provision train under Captain Brush.

In the Battle of Brownstown the first skirmish of the War of 1812, the American soldiers were panic-stricken and fled precipitously with a loss of eighteen killed, thirteen wounded and seventy missing.

Hull sent another American detachment of six hundred men under Colonel James Miller to open communication with Captain Brush.

Colonel Miller would have pushed to the rescue of Captain Brush, but was peremptorily ordered to return to Detroit by General Hull.

When notified on the 17th by a British officer with a flag of truce, of Hull's surrender with his army, including his own command, Brush refused to accept the notice as authoritative, and escaped with most of his stores to Ohio.

When Goodenow resigned because of eye trouble, his place was taken by Henry Brush who was appointed by Governor Allen Trimble and served again as Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio from 1830 to 1831.