y have numbered not less than 1500
officers and men. The reserve was composed of the marines of the fleet
and a picked body of 400 seamen which were landed but not brought into
action.

The entire fleet continued to fire over the heads of the men in the
boats and effectually screened their advance until they reached the
shore and formed on the beach under shelter of the steep clay bank.
Captain Hindman of the United States Artillery, a very gallant young
officer who was in command of the detachment with the gun attached to
the advance guard, is mentioned as the first man to reach the shore. So
far they had not met with the slightest opposition, but when they began
to ascend the bank, the artillery fire from the ships slackened and they
were briskly attacked by three companies of the Glengarry Light
Infantry, two companies of Lincoln militia, and the Grenadiers of the
Royal Newfoundland Regiment who had been partially sheltered during the
cannonade in a ravine two or three hundred yards distant. The effect of
their musketry was sufficient to cause the American advance guard to
retire under cover of the bank once more and the fleet recommenced its
fire. Lieut.-Colonel Myers then succeeded in bringing forward the
remainder of his brigade, increasing the force assembled in the ravine
to forty men of the Newfoundland Regiment, ninety of the Glengarry Light
Infantry, twenty-seven of Captain Runchey's negro company, one hundred
Lincoln militia and 310 of the 8th or King's regiment. Several American
authorities agree in the statement that they twice attempted to ascend
the bank and were twice driven back by this determined handful of men.
After they had succeeded in forming upon the plain, General Boyd
declared that for "fifteen minutes the two lines exchanged a rapid and
destructive fire, at a distance of only six or ten yards." The official
returns of casualties establish the fact the whole of his brigade
consisting of the 6th, 15th and 16th United States Infantry was brought
forward to the support of Colonel Scott's advance-guard, making a force
of about 2,300 men opposed to 567. Whenever practicable the ships
continued to fire with destructive effect on the attenuated British
line. Colonel Myers fell desperately wounded in three plans when leading
the first charge. Every field officer and most of the company of
officers were soon killed or disabled, and at the end of twenty minutes
close fighting the survivors gave way, lea