I have often wondered since, if we had had at our hand as many stones as could have been used, what would have been the result? But even that poor method of warfare was denied us, for the supply we had gathered was speedily expended, and, what was worse, the fact that we had ceased to shoot bullets showed the Britishers plainly the plight into which we had fallen.
The first officer who appeared above the parapet was that same Major Pitcairn who had led the troops at Lexington when our people were slaughtered there, and although I was no longer assailed by the fever of battle, and could not well look upon the death of a human as being a reason for rejoicing, yet I shouted aloud in glee when a negro soldier among us shot that dastard through the head.
My cry of triumph was speedily swallowed up by the shouts of the lobster backs as they leaped into the redoubt from all sides, coming at us fearlessly with their bayonets, knowing full well we could not make reply save with the butts of our muskets, and these we used, so desperate had our people become, until a score of the king's men had fallen before such crude weapons.
Again and again as we thus fought hand to hand, we Americans retreating backwards step by step, striving to keep the red-coated enemy from spitting us like larks on a toasting fork, I saw the muskets of our people shattered, the butt breaking from the barrel with the force of a blow upon the head of an enemy.
"Are we ordered to retreat?" I shouted wildly in Hiram's ear as we fought side by side, Archie and Silas just behind us.
"Some one has said that Colonel Prescott gave the order; but whether he did or not there is no longer any chance to make resistance," Hiram replied as he crushed the head of a Britisher much the same as you would shatter an egg. "We'll not turn tail and run as the lobster backs did; but go out of here like men, if so be we may."
It was no longer a battle. There were no armies contending; but it had become a fight of the rabble, where each man was striving to defend himself or deal death as best he might, and at such close quarters that those of the Britishers nearest us had no opportunity to reload their weapons. Therefore, save for the fact of having bayonets, they were in little better condition than were we.
We who called ourselves part of the American army were much like a handful of rats surrounded by a pack of dogs, save that there was in our hearts the satisfaction of knowing we had twice bested these same soldiers who were fighting for money alone, and would have beaten them back the third time but for the misfortune of not having the wherewithal to deal out death as we had done before.
How we succeeded in getting out of the redoubt I cannot well say. In a street brawl where forty or fifty men are engaged, those in the thickest of the fight have no idea of what may be going on around them, and so it was with me. We Minute Boys remained in a solid body so far as was possible, aiding each other whenever the opportunity came to ward off a blow from a comrade's head, or striking down with musket or stone a Britisher who was about to thrust his bayonet into a companion's heart.
I only know distinctly that when what was left of our company succeeded in fighting their way backward out of the redoubt, Colonel Prescott and Doctor Warren were yet facing the Britishers as if it was their purpose to be the last to leave this poor fortification, and immediately we were come into the open where the lobster backs could use their bayonets to greater advantage, it was a case of depending upon our legs entirely, for the red-coats strove mercilessly to cut us to pieces.