eastwork, in the
rear of Carroll's command. The day had dawned, and the fog slowly
lifted. There was no longer doubt of the point of main assault, as the
enemy's heaviest columns moved forward in Carroll's front. The lines of
the Kentucky troops were at once moved up in order of close column to
the Tennesseans, deepening the ranks to five or six men for several
hundred yards. Batteries 6, 7, and 8 opened upon the enemy when within
four or five hundred yards, killing and wounding many, but causing no
disorder in his ranks nor check to his advance. As he approached in
range, the terrible fire of rifles and musketry opened upon him from the
Tennessee and Kentucky infantry, each line firing and falling back to
reload, giving place to the next line to advance and fire.

The British attack was supported by a heavy artillery fire, while a
cloud of rockets continued to fall in showers throughout the contest.
The assaulting columns did little execution with small arms, as they
came up relying more on the use of the bayonet in case of effecting a
breach in our line. Some of them carried fascines and ladders in
expectation of crossing the ditch and scaling the parapet. But all in
vain. The musketry and rifles of the Tennessee and Kentucky militia,
joining with the fire of the artillery, mowed down whole files of men,
and so decimated their ranks as to throw them into a panic of disorder
and force a retreat. This first disastrous repulse was within
twenty-five minutes after the opening of the battle. Writers present who
have undertaken to describe the scene at the time say that the constant
rolling fire of cannon and musketry resembled the rattling peals of
thunder following the lightning flashes in a furious electric storm. An
English officer present mentions the phenomenon, that though the flashes
of the guns were plainly visible in front, the firing seemed to be from
the wood and swamp a mile or two away on the left. They did not hear the
sound from the front, but only the echoes from the direction named, as
though the battle raged out there.

The defeated column, forced to fall back broken and disordered, was
finally rallied by the heroic efforts of the officers, reinforced with
fresh troops, and led to a second attempt at assault; but the carnage
and destruction were as great as in the first attempt, while almost no
impression was made upon the defensive line of the Americans. The
British were again compelled to retreat in di