meant as a feint, yet should a favorable opportunity offer,
he will improve it and push into the town.

"In case of a repulse after taking Springhill redoubt, the
troops will retreat and rally in the rear of redoubt; if it
cannot be effected that way, it must be attempted by the
same route at which they entered.

"The second place of rallying (or the first if the redoubt
should not be carried) will be at the Jews' burying-ground,
where the reserve will be placed; if these two halts should
not be effected, they will retire towards camp.

"The troops will carry in their hats a piece of white paper
by which they will be distinguished."

General Huger with his five hundred militia, covered by the river
swamp, crept quite close to the enemy's lines and delivered his attack
as directed. Its purpose was to draw attention to that quarter and if
possible cause a weakening of the strength in the left centre of the
line. What its real effect was, there is now no means of knowing.

Count Dillon, who during the siege had been on D'Estaing's right, and
who appears to have been second in command in the French army, in this
assault was placed in command of a second attacking column. His
purpose was to move to the right of General Huger, and keeping in the
edge of the swamps along the river, steal past the enemy's batteries
on the left, and attack him in the rear. Bancroft describes the
results of his efforts as follows: "The column under Count Dillon,
which was to have attacked the rear of the British lines, became
entangled in a swamp of which it should only have skirted the edge was
helplessly exposed to the British batteries and could not even be
formed." Here were the two strong sand-filled redoubts, mounted with
heavy cannon, and these may have been the batteries that stopped
Dillon's column.

Count Pulaski with his two hundred brave cavalrymen, undertook his
part in the deadly drama with ardor, and began that perilous ride
which had for its object: "to penetrate the enemy's lines, between the
battery on the left of the Springhill redoubt, and the next towards
the river." Balch describes it as an attempt to "penetrate into the
city by galloping between the redoubts." It was the anticipation of
the Crimean "Charge of the Light Brigade;" only in this case, no one
blundered; it was simply a desperate chance. Cannon were to the right,
left, and front, and the heroic charge