Before he could move, Detroit had fallen.

But a high tide of enthusiasm swept him on toward an attempt to recover the lost empire.
The Federal Government approved his plans and commissioned him as commander of the Northwestern army of ten thousand men.
In the early autumn of 1812, General Harrison launched his ambitious and imposing campaign, by which three separate bodies of troops were to advance and converge within striking distance of Detroit, while a fourth was to invade and destroy the nests of Indians on the Wabash and Illinois rivers.

An active British force might have attacked and defeated these isolated columns one by one, for they were beyond supporting distance of each other; but Brock now needed his regulars for the defense of the Niagara frontier.

The scattered American army, including brigades from Virginia and Pennsylvania, was too strong to be checked by Indian forays, but it had not reckoned with the obstacles of an unfriendly wilderness and climate.

In October, no more than a month after the bugles had sounded the advance, the campaign was halted, demoralized and darkly uncertain.