The Congress, Arnold’s flagship, was hulled by the British round shot no less than twelve times during the afternoon, and seven of these projectiles passed through her at the water-line. But the crew, farmers though they were, plugged her up and fought on as before. General Waterbury, who was on the Washington, fought her until he was the only officer left on deck—her captain, lieutenant, and master having all been killed. The Washington, like the Congress, was full of holes when the fight ended. The Philadelphia, Captain Grant, sank within an hour after firing ceased.
On the whole, the American loss for the day was reported at “about sixty,” while that of the British was less than forty. Two of the British gunboats were sunk and one was blown up.
The Americans had checked the enemy in his advance along the lake, and had damaged him materially, but they had suffered more than he had, and, what was worse, had used up nearly all their ammunition. “Being sensible that with his inferior and crippled force all resistance would be unavailing” on the morrow if they remained where they were, Arnold determined to slip away to the shelter of the American post either at Crown Point or at Ticonderoga.
The night came on dark and stormy and with a northerly gale driving over the lake. So the fleet up anchor, and “one following a [shaded] light on the stern of the other,” they slipped through the enemy’s line that lay across the south end of the channel, with Arnold on the Congress bringing up the rear, because that was the post of danger, and at daylight on the morning of Thursday, October 12th, they were ten miles away and under the lee of Schuyler Island.
A View on Lake Champlain Showing the Fight of 1776.
From Hinton’s History of the United States.
At this point the fleet came to anchor and began to make such repairs as were possible. Two gondolas were sunk because they were past remedy, and when the patching of the rest had been carried far enough to enable them to float without too much pumping, the fleet started on. Meantime, however, the wind shifted to the south, and the progress, depending on the oars, was necessarily slow.
But, although the wind retarded the American fleet, it had retarded the British as much, if not more. The British had discovered that the Americans were gone as soon as daylight came on Thursday morning, but so slow was the progress of the square-rigged Inflexible against the head-wind that it was not until Friday that the British were able to overtake the Americans.
The Americans were at this time just south of the narrow water at Split Rock. Arnold, with the Congress and the Washington and four smaller (three-gun) boats, was guarding the rear, and until noon there was an anxious race to escape to the shelter of Crown Point—anxious because the choice of the British fleet—the uninjured Inflexible, with the schooners Carleton and Maria—were in the van of the chase, and Arnold’s rowboats were together no match for the least of these.