Crutchfield sent a company of riflemen, under Captain Servant, with orders to conceal themselves in the woods near the road where Beckwith's column would pass in approaching the town, to annoy and delay it as much as possible. This was done so skilfully as to inflict considerable loss upon the enemy; and when Crutchfield saw that the barges would not approach the town again till it was in the possession of Beckwith, he marched with the greater part of his force to the assistance of the riflemen, leaving Captain Pryor with a few men to manage the battery and keep off the barges. Crutchfield's column was fired upon just as the British column had been, by riflemen concealed in a wood; and as he wheeled to charge upon the hidden foe, he was greeted by a sudden fire from two six-pounders and a discharge of rockets. The {175}enemy's artillery was so well handled that Crutchfield's column was broken up, and a portion of it driven from the field. The remainder made its way through a defile, all the while under fire, to a junction with Servant's riflemen. At the same time Captain Cooper, with what few cavalrymen the Americans had, was annoying the enemy's left flank. Crutchfield kept up the fighting with spirit as long as possible, but of course was obliged to give way at last. Captain Pryor and his men held their ground at the battery, preventing any landing from the barges, till the enemy's land force came up in the rear and was within sixty yards of the guns. He then ordered the artillerists to spike the pieces, and break through the corps of British marines approaching in the rear; which order was at once obeyed, to the astonishment of the marines, who failed to hurt or capture a single man. With Captain Pryor still at their head, the little band plunged into a creek and swam across, those who had car-fines or side-arms taking them with them, and escaped beyond pursuit. Crutchfield in his retreat was followed for two miles by a strong force, which failed to overtake him, while he frequently halted his men behind fences and walls, to deliver a volley at the approaching enemy and then continue the retreat. {176}In this fight the British had ninety men killed, and a hundred and twenty wounded. The American loss was seven killed, twelve wounded, and twelve missing.