The victory had been won, but hardly won. The casualties in the two days’ fighting numbered 115. That the whole force was not exterminated was due to the extraordinary steadiness of the troops, notably the Highlanders, and to the resolute self-possession of their leader. ‘Never found my head so clear as that day,’ wrote Bouquet to a friend some weeks later, ‘and such ready and cheerful compliance to all the necessary orders.’[13] On the 10th of August the expedition reached Fort Pitt without further fighting, and relieved the garrison, whose defence of the post had merited the efforts made for their rescue. [Sidenote: Importance of Bouquet’s victory.] Bouquet’s battles at Edgehill were small in the number of troops employed, and were fought far away in the American backwoods. They attracted little notice in England--to judge from Horace Walpole’s contemptuous reference to ‘half a dozen battles in miniature with the Indians in America’;[14] but none the less they were of vital importance. Attacking with every advantage on their side, with superiority of numbers, in summer heat, among their own woods, the Indians had been signally defeated, and among the dead were some of their best fighting chiefs. In Bouquet’s words, ‘the most warlike of the savage tribes have lost their boasted claim of being invincible in the woods;’[15] and he continued to urge the necessity of reinforcements in order to follow up the blow and carry the warfare into the enemy’s country. But the colonies did not answer, the war dragged on, and at the beginning of October Bouquet had the mortification of hearing of a British reverse at Niagara. [Sidenote: British reverse at Niagara.] [Sidenote: Ending of the siege of Detroit.] [Sidenote: Amherst succeeded by Gage.]