le presented to him. As he was approaching
me a shell fell in the space between us, sending its fragments in every
direction. I felt that I was wounded, and, staggering back, I fell to
the ground. My brother-officer ran to lift me up. I found that I had
been struck on the right leg and received a severe contusion on the
head, but in a few minutes I was able to stand. The midshipman also was
wounded in the arm by the same shell, and he and I were the only two
people able to walk out of the battery. Of the others several died
before they were removed. I left it at a quarter-past six, and on my
way past the redoubt, where he had been the greater part of the time, I
received the thanks of my Lord Cornwallis for what he was pleased to
call my gallantry and determination.

13th.--Too clearly does it appear that a struggle in which we can
scarcely hope to be the victors is approaching. The besiegers have
greatly augmented the number of their guns and mortars in the works of
their second parallel, while our lines, it is evident, are becoming
every hour more and more defenceless. Even the most sanguine begin to
despair of the arrival of relief in time to save the garrison from a
surrender, although the commander-in-chief at New York sends us
assurance that he will come to our aid; but he has not started, and any
hour may seal our fate.

At five this evening, in spite of my wound, I again quitted my battery
on the right, having volunteered to command two eighteen-pounders on the
left. I kept up a constant fire with them all night on the enemy's
works. By the morning the battery was masked, and I and my people
returned to our own works.

14th.--Our works were now in every direction reduced almost to heaps of
ruins, and incapable of withstanding the tremendous fire poured into
them by the enemy's artillery, which, from want of ammunition, we had no
power of silencing. Considerable breaches were made in our strongest
batteries and redoubts; indeed, it was too evident that they were no
longer tenable. Early this morning the enemy sunk another fire-ship and
two transports; at seven in the evening they attempted to storm the
flanking redoubts to the right, but were repulsed with considerable
loss. We were all kept on the _qui vive_, for it was evident that they
had not done with us yet. This was proved at nine o'clock, when we were
warned that they were advancing against us with a force believed to be
not less than 17