ats drawn up on the Sandusky river, and a howitzer on the
shore, opened fire, and cannonaded all day with the poor execution of
long range artillery. The northwestern angle of the fort was their
target. Croghan foresaw that the enemy's intention was to make a breach
and enter there. When night came again, his one six-pounder was moved
with much labor from that angle into the southwest blockhouse, as
noiselessly as possible. He masked the embrasure and had the piece
loaded with a double charge of slugs and grape shot and half a charge of
powder. Perhaps the British thought him unprovided with any heavy
artillery.

They were busy themselves, bringing three of the ineffectual
six-pounders and the howitzer, under darkness, within two hundred and
fifty yards of the fort; giving a background of woods to their battery.
About dawn we saw what they had been doing. They concentrated on the
northwest angle; and still Croghan replied only with muskets, waiting
for them to storm.

So it went on all day, the gun-proof blockhouse enduring its
bombardment, and smoke thickening until it filled the stockade as water
fills a well, and settled like fog between us and the enemy. An attack
was made on the southern angle where the cannon was masked.

"This is nothing but a feint," Croghan said to the younger officers.

While that corner replied with musketry, he kept a sharp lookout for the
safety of the northwest blockhouse.

One soldier was brought down the ladder and carried through the murky
pall to the surgeon, who could do nothing for him. Another turned from a
loophole with blood upon him, laughing at his mishap. For the
grotesqueness and inconvenience of a wound are sometimes more swiftly
felt than its pain. He came back presently with his shoulder bandaged
and resumed his place at the loophole.

The exhilaration of that powder atmosphere and its heat made soldiers
throw off their coats, as if the expanding human body was not to be
confined in wrappings.

In such twilight of war the twilight of Nature overtook us. Another
feint was made to draw attention from a heavy force of assailants
creeping within twenty paces, under cover of smoke, to surprise the
northwest blockhouse.

Musketry was directed against them: they hesitated. The commander led a
charge, and himself sprang first into the ditch. We saw the fine fellows
leaping to carry the blockhouse, every man determined to be first in
making a breach. They filled the ditch.