As soon as the right wing gave way, Washington hastened, with Greene, to the front. There was no retreat except toward Dilworth. By a direct march of nearly four miles in fifty minutes, and a wheel to the left, of half a mile, Washington was enabled to occupy a defile from which to open a passage for the retreating battalions. He then closed in upon their rear, and prolonged the resistance with vigor. In an orchard beyond Dilworth, three regiments made another stand. Night separated the two armies. Stirling and Stephen saved both artillery and baggage. Armstrong’s brigade, on the extreme left, below Chadd’s Ford, was not engaged: but, together with Maxwell’s, and Wayne, who was compelled to abandon his guns, joined the main army, without further loss. They had, however, kept Knyphausen beyond the river. The entire army fell back to Chester. The American casualties were seven hundred and eighty, and those of the British were six hundred. Lafayette lost a horse, and was himself wounded, in this his first service after receipt of his commission. Deborre was dismissed for cowardice. Conflicts as to the defective reconnoissance that nearly sacrificed the army arose, which need not be discussed. In justice to General Sullivan, Washington wrote a letter responsive to his request for some testimonial to submit to Congress, which is here given in part: “With respect to your other query, whether your being posted on the right was to guard that flank, and whether you had neglected it, I can only observe that the only obvious if not the declared purpose of your being there, implied every necessary precaution for the security of that flank. But it is at the same time to be remarked, that all the fords above Chadd’s from which we were taught to apprehend danger were guarded by detachments from your division, and that we were led to believe by those whom we had every reason to think well acquainted with the country, that no ford above our picket-lines could be passed without making a very circuitous march.” The British army remained on the field; and the wounded of both armies were properly cared for by General Howe. His skill as a scientific soldier was again illustrated, as well as his habitual failure to follow up a first success; but he was under peculiar conditions which must have influenced his judgment. His army had left its ships, which had been ordered to go to the Delaware; as his objective was the capture of Philadelphia, after first destroying the American army. That army had retreated in remarkable order and under good control. Humanity alone would have persuaded Howe to care for the wounded, and a night pursuit, of the Americans through that country, would have been a wild venture.