Without any formal orders to retreat, what was left of the several organizations yielded to a general impulse to abandon the field. Officers and men became controlled by the one thought of getting as far as possible from the enemy.

Villard returned to Europe helping German investors acquire stakes in the transportation network and returned to New York in 1886. He then succeeded in obtaining a controlling interest in the Northern Pacific property and organized a new corporation that was named the Oregon and Transcontinental Company. He died of a stroke at his country home in New York in 1900.

He supported John C. He visited Oregon that summer and being impressed with the region's natural resources began acquiring various transportation interests in the region. Villard returned to Europe helping German investors acquire stakes in the transportation network and returned to New York in 1886.