Two of his officers pick up their gallant leader, and hurry forward; but it is only a scalp wound, and Wayne returns to the fight.
Wayne's column scales the ramparts.
The first man over shouts, "The fort's our own," and pulls down the British flag.
The second main column follows.
"The fort's our own!" "The fort's our own!" echoes and reëchoes over the hills.
The bayonet is now doing its grim work. The darkness is lighted only by the flashes from the guns of the redcoats. The bewildered British are driven at the point of the bayonet into the corners of the fort, and cry, "Mercy, mercy, dear Americans!" "Quarter! quarter!" "Don't kill us! we surrender!"
At one o'clock the work was done,—thirty minutes from the time the marsh was crossed! As soon as they were sure of victory, Wayne's men gave three rousing cheers. The British on the war vessels in the river, and at the fort on the opposite side of the river, answered; for they thought that the attacking party had been defeated. The only British soldier to escape from Stony Point was a captain. Leaping into the Hudson, he swam a mile to the Vulture and told its captain what had happened. In this way the news of the disaster reached Sir Henry Clinton at breakfast.
After the surrender, Wayne wrote the following letter to Washington:
Stony Point, 16th July, 1779, 2 o'clock.