Being in the trenches every other night and day, I have a fine opportunity of witnessing the sublime and stupendous scene which is continually exhibiting. The bomb shells from the besiegers and the besieged are incessantly crossing each others’ path in the air. They are clearly visible in the form of a black ball in the day, but in the night, they appear like fiery meteors with blazing tails, most beautifully brilliant, ascending majestically from the mortar to a certain altitude, and gradually descending to the spot where they are destined to execute their work of destruction. It is astonishing with what accuracy an experienced gunner will make his calculations, that a shell shall fall within a few feet of a given point, and burst at the precise time, though at a great distance. When a shell falls, it whirls round, burrows, and excavates the earth to a considerable extent, and bursting, makes dreadful havoc around. I have more than once witnessed fragments of the mangled bodies and limbs of the British soldiers thrown into the air by the bursting of our shells, and by one from the enemy, Captain White, of the seventh Massachusetts regiment, and one soldier were killed, and another wounded near where I was standing. About twelve or fourteen men have been killed or wounded within twenty-four hours; I attended at the hospital, amputated a man’s arm, and assisted in dressing a number of wounds.
James Thacher,
A Military Journal during the American Revolutionary War.
8. Storming the Redoubts
Under cover of the fire of their heavy guns, the allies moved forward on the night of October 11 to a second parallel, halfway to the main British line. At the right, nearest the river, the completion of this entrenchment was delayed by the fire of two advanced redoubts held by the British. It was determined to storm them. Early on the evening of October 14 French troops prepared to attack one of the redoubts, while picked American units from Lafayette’s Light Infantry assaulted the other. Count William de Deux-Ponts led the French attack, while Lt. Col. Alexander Hamilton was at the head of the American column.
THE STORMING OF REDOUBT NUMBER TEN
This is a reproduction of the painting made about 1840 by Louis Eugene Lami, the original of which is in the old Senate Chamber of the Capitol in Richmond, Va. It shows the detachment of Lafayette’s Light Infantry swarming into the British redoubt. Bitter hand-to-hand fighting is going on, the Americans using only the bayonet.
THE FRENCH ATTACK
The six shells were fired at last; and I advanced in the greatest silence; at a hundred and twenty or thirty paces, we were discovered; and the Hessian soldier who was stationed as a sentinel on the parapet, cried out “Werda?” (Who comes there?) to which we did not reply, but hastened our steps. The enemy opened fire the instant after the “Werda.” We lost not a moment in reaching the abatis, which being strong and well preserved, at about twenty-five paces from the redoubt, cost us many men, and stopped us for some minutes, but was cleared away with brave determination; we threw ourselves into the ditch at once, and each one sought to break through the fraises, and to mount the parapet.