While this stout fight was raging on the little island, the boatmen of the remaining divisions had landed in safety lower down on the southern shore, and moved in good order to the support of their hard-pressed comrades. The main body of the French pressed rapidly along the opposite bank toward another ford about a mile higher up the river, and many succeeded in crossing before Bradstreet's stout boatmen could intercept them. By this time, however, the British leader had arrived from the little island, and put himself at the head of his two last divisions. With prompt determination he threw himself upon the French advance, and, bravely supported by his followers, after a stubborn strife, forced it back into the river. Many of the conquered were struck down by the English marksmen in the close bush-fight, and even a greater number perished in their hurried passage of the stream.
In Bradstreet's absence, another large body of the French swarmed across the ford by the little island where they had been before repeatedly repulsed, but this last effort was even more disastrous than the preceding. Before they could form in the tangled swamps, the boatmen and their gallant chief came down at a running pace, flushed with recent success. One short struggle on the woody bank, and the assailants were forced back in utter rout. The remainder of the enemy dispersed in the forest and attacked no more, but above 100 of their number had perished in the stream or had fallen by the sword, while seventy prisoners and a great quantity of arms rewarded the successful valor of the conquerors. Many of the French regular soldiers, strangers to the American wilderness, became bewildered in its mazes, and died miserably of starvation. On the other hand, no less than sixty of Bradstreet's boatmen were killed and wounded in this gallant action.[68]
The English were too much fatigued and weakened by their hard-won victory to venture on pursuit, and prepared to rest that night upon the battle-field; they were, however, soon aroused by the approach of a body of troops, which, to their great joy, proved to be a detachment of their own grenadiers, on the march to Oswego, and the next morning 200 men also joined them from that garrison. But, in the mean time, the rain had poured down in torrents, and the stream of the Onondaga swelled to an angry flood; to cross and follow up their success was therefore impossible, and the remnant of the French found refuge in their vessels on the waters of Lake Ontario. After a time, when the subsiding flood permitted, the detachment and the grenadiers descended the river to Oswego, and the victorious boatmen, with their leader, pushed on for Schenectady, where they arrived in safety on the 14th of July. The following day Bradstreet set out for Albany to warn General Abercromby of the designs of the French against Oswego: the prisoners had informed him that a force of 1200 men was encamped on the shores of the lake, not far from the eastern fort of that port, where the thick covert of the forest concealed them from the British garrison. Abercromby at once ordered the remains of the 44th regiment, under Colonel Webb, to hasten to Oswego, but, owing to the interference of the Provincial governors,[69] a fatal delay intervened before this corps was put in motion.