 The Loyalists were besieged and, after rifle bullets struck down Major Ferguson, Captain de Peyster became the struggling regiment's scratch commander.His strategic position was hopeless and he was almost immediately forced to offer the white flag of surrender.In a scene of brutality and poor discipline, many of the Patriots continued to storm parts of the enemy encampment and shoot down their defeated enemies, and de Peyster was forced to watch many of his men get massacred.