As soon as he learned of the outbreak of war, Brock sent a canoe party led by the noted trader William McKay to Roberts with the vital news, and orders to capture Mackinac.

Colonel Edward Baynes, the Adjutant General for all British forces in Canada, also sent orders for Roberts to concentrate on defending St. Joseph Island.

[9] His force was embarked in the armed schooner Caledonia belonging to the North West Company, seventy war canoes and ten bateaux.

The United States Secretary of War William Eustis, who was apparently preoccupied with financial matters, had sent no communications to Hanks for several months.

There was no looting, although Roberts expropriated the goods in the United States storehouses and a government trading post[9] and purchased several bullocks to feed the Natives.

At least some of the "Western Indians" (those recruited from Wisconsin and other territories to the west) proceeded south to join the warriors with Tecumseh at Fort Amherstburg.

The mere threat of their arrival prompted the American Brigadier General Hull to abandon his invasion of Canadian territory and retreat to Detroit on 3 August.

[13] The news of the loss of Mackinac also prompted several Native communities such as the Wyandots near Detroit, who had been friendly to the Americans or neutral, to rally to the British cause.

Lieutenant Hanks was killed by a cannon shot at Detroit shortly before the surrender, while awaiting a court martial for cowardice.