as possible; though this
is only 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 the 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 proved in vain; the