his guns into action; this conduct
excited suspicions unfavourable to the character of Carter, and these
were strengthened by his being paroled on the ground, and his whole
company without insult or injury being made prisoners of war. Whether
he was called to account for his conduct, I have never learnt. These
excepted, the only survivors of this tragic scene were Capts. Stokes,
Lawson and Hoard, Lieuts. Pearson and Jamison, and Ensign Cruit.

* Not Capt. Benjamin Carter, of Camden.

To consign to oblivion the memory of these gallant suffering few would
be culpable injustice. When men have devoted their lives to the service
of their country, and whose fate has been so singularly disastrous;
there is an honest anxiety concerning them, springing from the best and
warmest feelings of our nature, which certainly should be gratified.
This is peculiarly the truth in regard to Capt. John Stokes, although
in his military character perhaps not otherwise distinguished from his
brother officers, than by the number of his wounds and the pre-eminence
of sufferings. He received twenty-three wounds, and as he never for a
moment lost his recollection, he often repeated to me the manner and
order in which they were inflicted.

Early in the sanguinary conflict he was attacked by a dragoon, who aimed
many deadly blows at his head, all of which by the dextrous use of the
small sword he easily parried; when another on the right, by one
stroke, cut off his right hand through the metacarpal bones. He was then
assailed by both, and instinctively attempted to defend his head with
his left arm until the forefinger was cut off, and the arm hacked in
eight or ten places from the wrist to the shoulder. His head was then
laid open almost the whole length of the crown to the eye brows. After
he fell he received several cuts on the face and shoulders. A soldier
passing on in the work of death, asked if he expected quarters? Stokes
answered I have not, nor do I mean to ask quarters, finish me as soon as
possible; he then transfixed him twice with his bayonet. Another asked
the same question and received the same answer, and he also thrust his
bayonet twice through his body. Stokes had his eye fixed on a wounded
British officer, sitting at some distance, when a serjeant came up, who
addressed him with apparent humanity, and offered him protection from
further injury at the risk of his life. All I ask, said Stokes, is to
be laid by that offic