Barron rejected Humphreys' offers of help, and the battered Chesapeake limped back to Norfolk, the crew working furiously to pump out water that was already several feet deep in the hold. Marine Sergeant Atkins contemptuously wrote that "we had the satisfaction of seeing the poor Yankee…return past us again, skulking close into the shore like a dog with his tail burnt and with nothing appearing but his sides well hammered."

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On July 1, Commodore Stephen Decatur took command of Chesapeake. The following day President Thomas Jefferson ordered all British warships to leave American waters.

At Halifax on August 26, the court-martial of the three Melampus men and the deserter Ratford took place. Vice-Admiral Berkeley ordered the three Americans to receive five hundred lashes each, though the punishment was never carried out. Instead, the sailors were held in prison, where William Ware died. The other two were returned to Chesapeake in 1812. Ratford "was found guilty of mutiny, desertion, and contempt, and hanged at the fore yard-arm of the Halifax, the ship from which he had deserted."

United States citizens reacted with outrage and shame at what had happened. Public meetings were held in many places, and some of Norfolk's residents rioted, smashing water casks belonging to the British squadron. Crowds demanded war with Britain; indeed, many of the British anticipated war.

Both sides made attempts to resolve the issue, the British disavowing Admiral Berkeley's decision to fire on Chesapeake. The Admiralty recalled him to England, and his fellow Royal Navy officers expressed horror at the unprovoked attack on a warship. Vice-Admiral Lord Cuthbert Collingwood wrote from his flagship, the ninety-eight-gun HMS Ocean, based off Syracuse in Sicily, that "the affair in America I consider as exceedingly improvident and unfortunate, as in the issue it may involve us in a contest which it would be wisdom to avoid. When English seamen can be recovered in a quiet way, it is well; but when demanded as a national right, which must be enforced, we should be prepared to do reciprocal justice. In the return [report] I have, from only part of the ships, there are 217 Americans. Would it be judicious to expose ourselves to a call for them?"

Still, Great Britain did continue to assert its right to search American merchant vessels for deserters. On October 16, its government issued a proclamation that ordered all British seamen engaged in the service of foreign vessels and foreign states to return home and instructed all British naval officers to seize any such seamen. It also reinforced the right of impressment from foreign merchant vessels, but disclaimed the right to search naval ships of other nations. All of this increased American ire.

In early 1808 Commodore Barron was court-martialed at Norfolk, on board his former ship, Chesapeake. Found guilty of failing to call his men to quarters when Leopard approached, he was suspended without pay from the U.S. Navy for five years and spent the time abroad, taking no part in the subsequent war against Britain. (Stephen Decatur had been a friend of Barron's, but was among the trial judges. In 1820 Barron would kill Decatur in a duel stemming from the incident.) 

Increasingly provoked by the issues of impressment and continuing interference with trade, the United States declared war on Britain in June 1812. Since Trafalgar, the overconfident British had become lax in training their crews, particularly in gunnery. They were shocked to encounter determined and skillful American opposition, as well as a few superior frigates. From an early stage in the war, the Royal Navy suffered humiliating defeats, such as USS Constitution's capture of HMS Guerriere, and USS United States taking HMS Macedonian. The British people, shocked and disillusioned, wondered what had become of their once universally victorious navy.

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