ute Boy to show the white
feather?"

"In what way am I doing that?"

"By croaking about 'last minutes,' instead of allowing your mind to go
on to that time when we can eat and drink our fill, the lobster backs
having been driven into the swamp. Thus far the Minute Boys of Boston
have shown themselves, if you leave out Seth Jepson, to have all the
pluck that is needed, and now being come thus far through the battle
with full share of credit, it ill beseems you to make dismal predictions
regarding the future."

Before Hiram ceased speaking his tone had grown harsh, and I feared
there might be angry words between the two even while we stood much the
same as face to face with death.

Before I could break in upon them, however, the enemy had begun to show
signs of moving, and on the instant we understood that this third
assault was to be different from the first two.

At some time during the battle they must have gotten their artillery
into favorable position, for now, suddenly, the whole interior of our
breastworks was swept with ball and grape-shot, more blood being shed
within five minutes than had been spilled on our side in all the
terrible work thus far.

It was no longer possible for any man to remain within the breastwork
and live, therefore all were ordered to come into the redoubt, where we
were better sheltered, and where the enemy had not as yet found the
range.

Forgetting the danger, in my eagerness to know what might follow this
new method of attack, I leaned far over the fortification until it was
possible for me to see, in the distance, the Britishers coming once more
upon us, and that scene was not calculated to give me courage, for I
soon understood that the king's soldiers were making better preparations
than they had in the past attempts. Instead of climbing the hill laden
with heavy knapsacks and sweltering in thick, tightly-fitting uniforms,
they had cast aside all that might impede or distress them, and even
like the rag-tag, they counted on fighting in their shirt-sleeves as
should have been done on such a hot day when they first set the pace.

I cannot set down in military terms the tactics which General Howe now
displayed; but certain it is that instead of marching straight up the
hill, thus giving us every chance at them, after using their artillery
to drive us back into the redoubt, they counted on assaulting us at the
weakest point, which was the space between the outworks and the rail