consisted of New Englanders, Pennsylvanians,
and Virginians. Each attacking column was divided into three parts, a
forlorn hope of twenty men leading, which was followed by an advance
guard of one hundred and twenty, and then by the main body. At the time
commanding officers still carried spontoons, and other old-time weapons,
and Wayne, who himself led the right column, directed its movements
spear in hand. It was nearly midnight when the Americans began to press
along the causeways toward the fort. Before they were near the walls
they were discovered, and the British opened a heavy fire of great guns
and musketry, to which the Carolinians, who were advancing between the
two columns, responded in their turn, according to orders; but the men
in the columns were forbidden to fire. Wayne had warned them that their
work must be done with the bayonet, and their muskets were not even
loaded. Moreover, so strict was the discipline that no one was allowed
to leave the ranks, and when one of the men did so an officer promptly
ran him through the body.

No sooner had the British opened fire than the charging columns broke
into a run, and in a moment the forlorn hopes plunged into the abattis
of fallen timber which the British had constructed just without the
walls. On the left, the forlorn hope was very roughly handled, no less
than seventeen of the twenty men being either killed or wounded, but as
the columns came up both burst through the down timber and swarmed up
the long, sloping embankments of the fort. The British fought well,
cheering loudly as their volley's rang, but the Americans would not be
denied, and pushed silently on to end the contest with the bayonet. A
bullet struck Wayne in the head. He fell, but struggled to his feet and
forward, two of his officers supporting him. A rumor went among the
men that he was dead, but it only impelled them to charge home, more
fiercely than ever.

With a rush the troops swept to the top of the wall. A fierce but
short fight followed in the intense darkness, which was lit only by the
flashes from the British muskets. The Americans did not fire, trusting
solely to the bayonet. The two columns had kept almost equal pace, and
they swept into the fort from opposite sides at the same moment. The
three men who first got over the walls were all wounded, but one of
them hauled down the British flag. The Americans had the advantage
which always comes from delivering an attack that is th