transported to
the lines; and the lines were completely and effectively occupied. The
French extended from the river above the town, to a morass in the
centre, while the Americans continued the lines from the morass to the
river, below the town, the whole forming a semicircle, with the river
for a chord.

On the same day the Duc de Lauzun, with his legion of cavalry, and
General Weedon, with a body of Virginian militia, the whole under Sieur
de Choisy, invested Gloucester, in the course of which a party of the
Queen's Rangers, which had been sent out to observe the movements of the
allies, was driven in with considerable loss.

On the following day (October 1st) eight hundred marines were landed
from the fleet to strengthen the party which was investing Gloucester;
and from that time until the 6th both the allies and the enemy
vigorously prosecuted their several works of attack or defence, or
otherwise prepared for the great struggle which was then inevitable.

On the night of October 6th, under the command of General Lincoln, the
besiegers opened their trenches within six hundred yards of the enemy's
lines, yet with so much silence was it conducted that it appears to have
been undiscovered until daylight on the 7th, when the works were so far
completed that they afforded ample shelter for the men, and but one
officer and sixteen privates were injured. In this attack the enemy
appears to have bent his energies chiefly against the French, on the
left of the trenches; and the regiments of Bourbonnois, Soissonnois, and
Touraine, commanded by the Baron de Viomenil, were most conspicuous in
the defence of the lines.

The 7th, 8th, and 9th of October were employed in strengthening the
first parallel, and in constructing batteries somewhat in advance of it,
for the purpose of raking the enemy's works and of battering his
shipping. Communications were also made in the rear of the left of the
line, in order to secure the greater number of openings. On the night of
the 10th the trenches on the left were occupied by the regiments of
Agenois and Saintonge, under the Marquis de Chastellux; on that of the
8th by the regiments of Gatinois and Royal-Deux-Ponts, under the Marquis
de Saint-Simon.

At 5 P.M. of the 9th the American battery on the right of the line
opened its fire--General Washington in person firing the first gun--and
six eighteen and twenty-four pounders, two mortars, and two howitzers
were steadily engaged during