The force under Forsyth was soon supported by Major King's[M-22] battalion of the 15th Infantry, consisting of three companies—Captain John Scott's, Captain White Youngs', and that of Captain John Lambert Hoppock, who had been mortally wounded in the boats. When General Pike had landed with the whole body of his troops, the attacking force was represented by the 6th, 15th, 16th, and 21st Infantry, Colonel Maclure's 3d regiment of New York Militia, and several pieces of artillery.
At the first sharp collision, as we have seen, the British were defeated, not without much loss on both sides. On their retreat, the bugles sounded the advance, and the troops pressed forward along the lake shore toward Fort York, which was meanwhile bombarded from the fleet. One of General Pike's staff says: "Our march was by the lake road in sections, but the route was so much intersected by streams and rivulets, the bridges over which had been destroyed by the enemy as they retreated, that we were considerably retarded in our progress. We collected logs, and by severe efforts at length contrived to pass over one field piece and a howitzer, which were placed at the head of our column, in charge of Captain Fanning[M-23] of the 3d Artillery; and thus we proceeded through a spacious wood, as we emerged from which we were saluted by a battery of 24-pounders. The general then ordered one of his aids (Fraser) and a sergeant to proceed to the right of the battery, in order to discover how many men were in the works. We did so, and reported to him the number, and that they were spiking their own guns. The general immediately ordered Captain Walworth of the 16th [sic] with his company of grenadiers to make the assault. Walworth gallantly ordered his men to trail arms and advance at the accelerated pace; but at the moment when they were ordered to recover and charge the enemy, the enemy broke in the utmost confusion, leaving several men wounded on the ground which they abandoned."
This first serious obstacle to Pike's advance was the Western battery already described, [p. lxxvii], where the explosion occurred before Captain Walworth[M-24] could carry out the order to charge this work. This accident caused some loss of life to the defenders, but none to the assaulters. Lossing has, concerning it:
The wooden magazine of the battery, that had been carelessly left open, blew up, killing some of the men, and seriously damaging the defences. The dismayed enemy spiked their cannon and fled to the next, or Half Moon battery. Walworth pressed forward, when that, too, was abandoned, and he found nothing within but spiked cannon. Sheaffe and his little army, deserted by the Indians, fled to the garrison near the governor's house, and there opened fire upon the Americans. Pike ordered his troops to halt, and lie flat upon the grass, while Major Eustis,[M-25] with his artillery battery, moved to the front, and soon silenced the great guns of the enemy.
Finan is more circumstantial in describing the casualty which did so much to decide the fate of the day:
While this part of our force was contending with the enemy in the woods, an unfortunate accident occurred in the battery opposed to the fleet which proved a death blow to the little hope that might have been entertained of a successful issue to the proceedings of the day. A gun was aimed at one of the vessels, and the officers, desirous of seeing if the ball would take effect, ascended the bastion: In the meantime the artilleryman, waiting for the word of command to fire, held the match behind him, as is usual under such circumstances; and the traveling magazine, a large wooden chest, containing cartridges for the great guns, being open just at his back, he unfortunately put the match into it and the consequence, as may be supposed, was dreadful indeed! Every man in the battery was blown into the air, and the dissection of the greater part of their bodies was inconceivably shocking! The officers were thrown from the bastion by the shock, but escaped with a few bruises; the cannons were dismounted, and consequently the battery was rendered completely useless.
I was standing at the gate of the garrison when the poor soldiers who escaped the explosion with a little life remaining, were brought in to the hospital, and a more afflicting sight could scarcely be witnessed. Their faces were completely black, resembling those of the blackest Africans; their hair frizzled like theirs, and their clothes scorched and emitting an effluvia so strong as to be perceived long before they reached one. One man in particular presented an awful spectacle: he was brought in a wheelbarrow, and from his appearance I should be inclined to suppose that almost every bone in his body was broken; he was lying in a powerless heap, shaking about with every motion of the barrow, from which his legs hung dangling down, as if only connected with his body by the skin, while his cries and groans were of the most heart-rending description.
Although Spartan valour was evinced by our little party, it proved unavailing against the numbers that pressed them upon all sides; and in consequence of the loss of the battery, and the reduction that had been made in the number of our troops, their ground was no longer tenable; but after nobly and desperately withstanding their enemies for several hours, a retreat towards the garrison became inevitable, although every inch of the ground was obstinately disputed.
It is remarkable that Whiting's relation of the attack has nothing about this marked affair; it is in fact impossible to follow the course of events in his narrative, between the conclusion of the opening engagement and the final explosion of the main magazine. Lossing, having brought our troops to a halt, when they were lying upon the grass, continues with the result of Major Eustis' operations:
The firing from the garrison ceased and the Americans expected every moment to see a white flag displayed from the blockhouse in token of surrender. Lieut. Riddle[M-26] was sent forward to reconnoitre. General Pike, who had just assisted, with his own hands, in removing a wounded soldier to a comfortable place, was sitting upon a stump conversing with a huge British sergeant[M-27] who had been taken prisoner, his staff standing around him. At that moment was felt a sudden tremor of the ground, followed by a tremendous explosion near the British garrison. The enemy, despairing of holding the place, had blown up their powder magazine, situated upon the edge of the water at the mouth of a ravine, near where the buildings of the Great Western Railway stand. The effect was terrible. Fragments of timber, and huge stones of which the magazine walls were built, were scattered in every direction over a space of several hundred yards. When the smoke floated away, the scene was appalling. Fifty-two Americans lay dead, and 180 were wounded. So badly had the affair been managed that 40 of the British also lost their lives by the explosion.[M-28]