The British held Detroit for more than a year before their small fleet was defeated on Lake Erie, which forced them to abandon the western frontier of Upper Canada.

[3] It was also suggested that this army might invade the western districts of Upper Canada, where support might be expected from the many recent immigrants from the United States who had been attracted by generous land grants.

His draft horses were worn out by the arduous march, so he put his entrenching tools, medical supplies, officers' baggage, despatches, some sick men and the army's band aboard the packet vessel Cayahoga at the foot of the Maumee River, to be transported across Lake Erie.

On 2 July, the unsuspecting Cayahoga was captured by General Hunter, a Canadian-manned armed brig of the Provincial Marine, under the command of Lieutenant Frédérick Rolette, near the British post at Amherstburg, Ontario at the foot of the Detroit River.

He issued several proclamations which were intended to induce Canadians to join or support his army while some of his mounted troops raided up the Thames River as far as Moraviantown.

Hull decided that he could not attack the British fort without artillery, which could not be brought forward because the carriages had decayed and needed repair, and fell back.

[13] On 17 July, a mixed force of British regulars, Canadian fur traders, and Indians captured the important trading post of Mackinac Island on Lake Huron from its small American garrison who were not aware that war had been declared.

A raiding party under Tecumseh ambushed and routed an American detachment under Major van Horne on 4 August at the Battle of Brownstown, capturing more of Hull's despatches.

Hull sent a larger party under James Miller to clear his lines of communication and escort a supply convoy of 300 head of cattle and 70 pack horses loaded with flour, which was waiting at Frenchtown, Michigan under Major Henry Brush.

Miller was ill and his losses in the engagement were heavier than those of the enemy, and he lost confidence and remained encamped near the battlefield until Hull ordered him to return to Detroit.

Meanwhile, British Major General Isaac Brock was in York, the provincial capital, dealing with the unwilling Legislative Assembly and mobilizing the province's militia.

It is far from my intention to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware, that the numerous body of Indians who have attached themselves to my troops, will be beyond control the moment the contest commences.

Major Thomas Evans at Fort George suggested that Brock give his militia the cast-off uniforms of the 41st Regiment to make Hull believe that most of the British force were regulars.

[1] Elements of the Essex militia, which had been disheartened in the face of Hull's initial advance into Upper Canada, also constituted part of Brock's reinvigorated force.

[23] Brock originally intended to occupy a fortified position astride Hull's supply line and wait for starvation and bombardment to force the Americans to surrender or come out to fight, but he then learned that Hull had sent a detachment of 400 men the previous day under Colonels Cass and McArthur to escort Brush's convoy to Detroit via a backwoods trail some distance from the lake and river,[24] and this detachment was only a few miles from the British rear.

To avoid being caught between two fires, Brock advanced immediately against the rear of Fort Detroit, the side farthest from the river where the defences were weakest.

Militia cavalry leader William Hamilton Merritt noted that "Tecumseh extended his men, and marched them three times through an opening in the woods at the rear of the fort in full view of the garrison, which induced them to believe there were at least two or three thousand Indians.

Hull despaired of holding out against a force which seemingly consisted of thousands of British regulars, because he was lacking adequate gunpowder and ammunition to withstand a long siege.

"[29] The British bombardment killed seven Americans before the surrender, including Lieutenant Porter Hanks, the former commander of Fort Mackinac who was awaiting a court-martial.

[30] Among the booty and military stores surrendered were 33 cannon,[31] 300 rifles, 2,500 muskets, and the brig Adams, the only armed American vessel on the Upper Lakes.

[34] The British gained an important post on American soil and won control over Michigan Territory and the Detroit region for most of the following year.

Brock was killed at the ensuing Battle of Queenston Heights while leading a hasty counter-attack to recover a battery that had been captured by the Americans.

The Vermont newspaper Green-Mountain Farmer wrote in January 1813: "The whole Canadian campaign had produced nothing but 'disaster, defeat, disgrace, and ruin and death'".

Hull's successor Major General William Henry Harrison pursued the retreating British and their Indian allies and defeated them at the Battle of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed.

[37] Seven infantry, armored and artillery regiments of the Canadian Army carry the battle honor "Detroit" to commemorate the service of ancestor units in the campaign.

It depicts Brock examining Detroit through a telescope while Tecumseh, mounted on horseback, is watching the British battery bombard the fort.

The statue commemorates the partnership between the two leaders which resulted in the capture of Detroit, and was sculpted by Canadian Mark Williams, who also created the Provincial Marine monument at the King's Navy Yard in Amherstburg.