or of war, that it
is interesting to know the impressions it made upon the minds of the
enemy. With this view, we quote a vivid description from the history of
an English officer who was in the campaigns against Napoleon, with Ross
and Pakenham in America, and who was a participant in this battle,
Captain Robert Gleig. He says:

About half-past seven at night our attention was drawn to a large
vessel which seemed to be stealing up the river, opposite our camp,
when her anchor was dropped and her sails quietly furled. She was
repeatedly hailed, but gave no answer. An alarm spread through our
bivouac, and all thought of sleep was abandoned. Several musket shots
were fired at her, when we heard a commanding voice cry out: "Give
them this for the honor of America!" The words were instantly
followed by the flashes of her guns, and a deadly shower of grape
swept down numbers in our camp.

Against this dreadful fire we had nothing as yet to oppose. We sought
shelter under the levee, and listened in painful silence to the
pattering of shot which fell among our troops, and to the shrieks and
groans of the wounded who lay near by. The night was dark as pitch.
Except the flashes of the enemy's guns, and the glare of our own
deserted fires, not an object could be distinguished. In this state
we lay helpless for nearly an hour, when a straggling fire of
musketry, driving in our pickets, warned us to prepare for a closer
and more desperate strife. This fire was presently succeeded by a
fearful yell, while the heavens became illuminated on all sides by a
semi-circular blaze of musketry.

Rushing from under the bank, the Eighty-fifth and Ninety-fifth
Regiments flew to support the pickets; while the Fourth, stealing to
the rear, formed close column as a reserve. But to describe this
action is out of the question, for it was such a battle as the annals
of warfare can hardly parallel. Each officer, as he was able to
collect twenty or thirty men around him, advanced into the midst of
the enemy, where they fought hand to hand, bayonet to bayonet, and
sword to sword, with the tumult and ferocity of Homer's combats
before the walls of Troy. Attacked unexpectedly in the dark, and
surrounded by enemies before we could arrange to oppose them, no
order or discipline of war could be preserved. We were mingled with
the Americans before we could tell w