The attack was spirited and determined, and seemed likely to succeed; but after a while the American right wing found its ammunition exhausted, and about the same time the left was discouraged and thrown into some confusion by the fall of General Covington, mortally wounded. The enemy now massed troops on his right wing, and pressed forward heavily, so that he captured one of the American guns; a charge of cavalry under Adjutant{ 156}General Walbach, and the coolness and bravery of Captain Armstrong Irvine, being all that prevented him from seizing the others.
For two hours longer the contest swayed to and fro across the miry fields for the distance of a mile, till the Americans brought up a reserve of six hundred men under Lieutenant-Colonel Upham, by which order was restored and the line firmly established, to await the next onset of the enemy. But no further assault was made, and in the night the Americans retired unmolested to their boats.
This action is sometimes called the battle of Williamsburg, sometimes the battle of Chrysler's Field. Both sides claimed the victory, and there has been much dispute both as to the number of men engaged and as to the losses. The British probably had a thousand men, including Indians; the Americans seventeen hundred. General Wilkinson reported a loss of one hundred and two killed, and two hundred and thirty-seven wounded--one man in five. The British loss was reported at one hundred and eighty-eight killed, wounded, or missing--nearly one in five. Among the American officers who distinguished themselves on this field was Lieutenant William J. Worth, who afterward rose to eminence as a major-general.
Disregarding the military maxim which forbids an { 157}invading army to leave an enemy in its rear, Wilkinson next day passed down the Long Rapids with his whole force, and near Cornwall was joined by General Brown, who had been sent forward to attack the post at the foot of the rapids. This had been done by a fight at Hoophole Creek, where about eight hundred of Brown's men, under the immediate command of Colonel Scott, had defeated an equal number of the enemy and taken many prisoners.
But here a courier arrived at Wilkinson's headquarters, bringing a letter from General Hampton, in which he announced that he would not join the expedition as ordered, or attempt to invade Canada any farther.
