Allen advised forcing an entrance into the town, but Montgomery knew that the enemy would have every advantage, and that success was very doubtful.
He preferred to wait, and by strengthening his position compel the garrison to surrender.
The afternoon saw the white flag floating over both fort and earthworks. The emblem of peace meant that both sides wished to care for the wounded and bury the dead.
It is a strange feature of civil war, and the war between the English and the Americans might be so called, that when the flag of truce is hoisted the men of both sides are ready to fraternize.
It was so in this instance before St. Johns.
Men who had been aiming at each other an hour previously now drank from the same canteen and helped to bury each other's dead.
Among the wounded was young Eben Pike.
He was not a soldier; that is, he had never been enrolled among the men, but, as it was afterward known, he had borrowed the uniform of a sick soldier and had answered the name when it was called.
Remember Baker was in command of the burying party, and when he saw Eben he could not help the tears falling on the white face of the boy.
"My poor fellow, are you badly hurt?" he asked, in a tremulous voice.