During the twelve days, only two sorties were made; one under Major Graham,Sept. 24 and the other under Major M'Arthur.Sept. 27 Several were killed on each occasion, but the general operations were not affected.
On the morning of the fourth of October, the batteries being all completed and manned, a terrible cannonade and bombardment was opened upon the British works and the town. The French frigate Truite also opened a cannonade from the water. Houses were shattered, some women and children were killed or maimed, and terror reigned supreme. Families took refuge in the cellars, and in many a frame the seeds of mortal disease were planted while in those damp abodes during the siege. There was no safety in the streets, for a moment. Day and night an incessant cannonade was kept up from the fourth until the ninth; but, while many houses were injured, not much impression was made upon the British works. Slowly but surely the sappers and miners approached the batteries and redoubts. The beleaguered began to be alarmed, for their guns made very little impression upon the works or camp of the combined armies, and the hope that Admiral Byron would follow and attack D'Estaing's vessels, lying off Tybee, faded away.
Another promised victory was now before the besiegers, and almost within their grasp, when D'Estaing became impatient. He feared the autumn storms, and the British fleet which rumor said was approaching. A council was held, and when his engineers informed him that it would require ten days more to reach the British lines by trenches, he informed Lincoln that forthwith, or an attempt be made to carry the place by storm. The latter alternative was chosen, and the work began on the morning of the following day.Oct. 9 To facilitate it, the abatis were set that afternoon by the brave Major L'Enfant and five men, while exposed to heavy volleys of musketry from the garrison, but the dampness of the air checked the flames, and prevented the green wood from burning.
Just before dawn on the morning of the ninth, about four thousand five hundred men of the combined armies moved to the assault in the midst of a dense fog, and under cover of a heavy fire from all the batteries. ** They advanced in three columns, the principal one
* These remains are in the southeastern suburbs of the city, about half way between the Negro Cemetery and the residence of Major William Bowen, seen toward the right of the picture. The banks have an average height, from the bottom of the ditch, of about five feet, and are dotted with pines and chineapins or dwarf chestnuts, the former draped with moss. The ground is an open common, and although it was mid-winter when I was there, it was covered with green grass, bespangled with myriads of little flowers of stellar form. This view is from the direction of the town looking southeast.
* Three thousand five hundred were French, a little more than six hundred were American regulars (chiefly North Carolinians), and about three hundred were militia from Charleston.
Storming of the Spring Hill Redoubt.—D'Estaing Wounded.—Death of Pulaski and Jasper.