sorder, leaving great
numbers of their comrades dead or wounded on the ground, or prisoners to
the Americans. The hope of victory had now become a forlorn one to the
British. They were broken in numbers, broken in order and discipline,
and broken in prestige. Yet the brave officers, led by their
commanders-in-chief, determined not to give up the contest without a
last desperate effort. A part of the troops had dispersed and retreated
to shelter among the bushes on their right; the rest retired to the
ditch where they were first perceived in the morning, about five hundred
yards in our front. In vain did the officers call upon the men to rally
and form again for another advance, striking some with the flat of their
swords, and appealing to them by every incentive. They felt that it was
almost certain destruction to venture again into the storm of fire that
awaited them, and were insensible to everything but escape from
impending death. They would not move from the ditch, and here sheltered
the rest of the day. The ground over which they had twice advanced and
twice retreated was strewn thickly with their dead and wounded. Such
slaughter of their own men, with no apparent loss on our side, was
enough to appal the bravest of mankind.

Nearly one hundred of the enemy reached the ditch in front of the
American breastwork, half of whom were killed and the other half
captured. A detachment of British troops had penetrated into the wood
toward our extreme left, to divert attention by a feint attack. The
troops under General Coffee opened on these with their rifles, and soon
forced them to retire.

After the main attack on the American left and center had begun, another
column of over twenty-five hundred men, under the command of General
Keene, advanced along the road near the levee, and between the levee and
the river, to attack the American line on the extreme right. They were
partly sheltered by the levee from the fire of the artillery, except
that of Battery 1 and the guns across the river. Our outposts were
driven in, and the head of the column pushing forward occupied the
unfinished redoubt in front of our entrenched line before more than two
or three discharges of artillery could be made. Overpowering the small
force here, they compelled it to fall back, after killing and wounding a
few men. Bravely led by Colonel Rence and other officers of rank, the
British gained a momentary advantage, and threatened to storm the
ent