Van Rensselaer forgot his bickering with General Smyth and sent him urgent word to hasten to the rescue.

Winfield Scott, then a lieutenant colonel, came forward as a volunteer and took command of young Captain Wool's forlorn hope.
Gradually more men trickled up the heights until the ground was defended by three hundred and fifty regulars and two hundred and fifty militia.
Meanwhile the British troops were mustering up the river at Chippawa, and the red lines of their veterans were descried advancing from Fort George below.

Bands of Indians raced by field and forest to screen the British movements and to harass the American lines.

The tragic turn of events appears to have dazed General Van Rensselaer.

The failure to save the beleaguered and outnumbered Americans on the heights he blamed upon his troops, reporting next day that his reinforcements embarked very slowly.