After arranging his camp, Harrison summoned the officers and agent of the fort and there, from Lieutenants Curtis and Ostrander, with Benjamin Stickney as a corroborative witness, heard the charges preferred against Captain Rhea. Rhea was placed under arrest and after a careful consideration of the charges, Harrison was in favor of having him brought before a court martial. However, on account of his age and his having a young family, Rhea was allowed to resign. He was given until December 20 to return home, at which time his pay and emoluments ceased. On September 18, General James Winchester arrived at Fort Wayne to take command of the army. It was only after the troops had been promised that Harrison would soon be re-appointed commander that they consented to march toward Detroit under Winchester. General Winchester chose to follow the usual route to Detroit by moving down the north bank of the Maumee. The American army left Fort Wayne on September 22. Meanwhile unaware that the siege of Fort Wayne had been lifted, the British commander at Detroit, Colonel Proctor, dispatched two hundred British regulars under Major Muir together with a thousand Indians under Captain Elliot to assist in taking Fort Wayne. Having brought their baggage and artillery up the Maumee as far as Fort Defiance, the British discovered the approach of Winchester’s stronger army. A hasty retreat on the part of the British followed. Their cannon and heavy equipment were thrown into the river. As pointed out previously the British had delayed sending this expedition because of the temporary armistice. Had the force under Major Muir reached Fort Wayne before Harrison’s army, it is likely that the fort would have fallen, which would have rendered the recapture of Detroit much more difficult. General Brock in writing to his superior, Sir George Prevost, expressed the belief that Fort Wayne would surely fall to Major Muir and added, “The Indians were likewise looking to us for assistance. They heard of the Armistice with every mark of jealousy, and had we refused joining them in the expedition it is impossible to calculate the consequences.”[26] That the British troops were prepared to batter down the palisades of Fort Wayne is shown by the official report of Major Muir to Colonel Proctor. Some of his officers endeavored to induce Major Muir to hold his position at Defiance and use their cannon to prevent the advance of Winchester’s troops. “I told them”, Major Muir wrote, “that the guns were brought for the purposes of battering Fort Wayne, but would not answer to fight in the woods.”[27] Colonel Proctor, in turn explaining the movement to General Brock, wrote, “The delay occasioned by the armistice prevented the attainment of the object of our expedition, which was destruction of Fort Wayne.”[28]