the entire night. At an early hour on the
morning of the 10th the French battery on the left, with four
twelve-pounders and six mortars and howitzers, also opened fire; and on
the same day this fire was increased by the fire from two other French
and two American batteries--the former mounting ten eighteen and
twenty-four pounders, and six mortars and howitzers, and four
eighteen-pounders respectively; the latter mounting four
eighteen-pounders and two mortars. "The fire now became so excessively
heavy that the enemy withdrew their cannon from their embrasures, placed
them behind the merlins, and scarcely fired a shot during the whole
day." In the evening of the 10th the Charon, a frigate of forty-four
guns, and three transports were set on fire by the shells of hot shot
and entirely consumed; and the enemy's shipping was warped over the
river, as far as possible, to protect it from similar disaster.

On the night of the 11th the second parallel was opened within three
hundred yards of the enemy's lines; and, as in the former instance, it
was so far advanced before morning that the men employed in them were in
a great measure protected from injury when the enemy opened fire. The
three following days were spent in completing this parallel and the
redoubts and batteries belonging to it, during which time the enemy's
fire was well sustained and more than usually destructive. Two advanced
batteries, three hundred yards in front of the enemy's left, were
particularly annoying, inasmuch as they flanked the second parallel of
the besiegers; and as the engineers reported that they had been severely
injured by the fire of the allies it was resolved to attempt to carry
them by assault.

Accordingly, in the evening of the 14th, these redoubts were
assaulted--that on the extreme right by a detachment embracing the light
infantry of the American army, under General Lafayette; the latter by a
detachment of grenadiers and chasseurs from the French army, commanded
by Baron Viomenil. The attacks were made at 8 P.M., and in that of the
Americans the advance was led by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Hamilton,
with his own battalion and that of Colonel Gimat, the latter in the
van; while Lieutenant-Colonel John Laurens, at the head of eighty men,
took the garrison in reverse and cut off its retreat. Not a single
musket was loaded; and the troops rushed forward with the greatest
impetuosity--passing over the abatis and palisades--and carryi