Late in the afternoon, the British left being reinforced from the German column, General Learned was ordered out with four regiments of Massachusetts and another of New York. Something decisive might now have occurred, but the approach of night broke off the contest, and the Americans withdrew to their camp, leaving the field in possession of the British. They encamped upon it, and claimed the victory; but, if not a drawn battle, it was one of those victories equivalent to a defeat. The British loss was upward of five hundred, the American less than three hundred. To have held their ground in the circumstances in which the armies stood was justly esteemed by the Americans a decided triumph. In anticipation of an action, Gates had ordered the detached corps to join him. Stark, with the victors of Bennington, had arrived in camp the day before. Their term of service, however, expired that day; and satisfied with laurels already won, in spite of all attempts to detain them, they marched off the very morning of the battle. In consideration of his courage and good conduct at Bennington, Congress overlooked the insubordination of Stark, which, in a resolution just before, they had pointedly condemned, and he was presently elected a brigadier. Howe and McDougall about the same time were chosen major-generals. Before receiving Gates’ orders to join the main body, a party of Lincoln’s militia, led by Colonel Brown, had surprised the posts at the outlet of Lake George on September 17th, and had taken three hundred prisoners, also several armed vessels and a fleet of bateaux employed in transporting provisions up the lake. Uniting with another party under Colonel Johnson, they approached Ticonderoga and beleaguered it for four days. Burgoyne’s communications thus entirely cut off, his situation became very alarming, and he began to intrench. His difficulties increased every moment. Provisions were diminishing, forage was exhausted, the horses were perishing. To retreat with the enemy in his rear was as difficult as to advance.