British
commander soon made it so. Instead of considering, he consumed the
twenty-four hours in working. The arrival of Lieutenant-Colonel Cruger,
with a small command, from Sunbury, and the force of Lieutenant-Colonel
Maitland, from Beaufort, soon put the fortress in such a condition of
defence as to enable its commander to return his defiance to the renewed
summons of the combined armies. There seems to have been but one opinion
among the Americans as to the mistake of D'Estaign, in granting the
required indulgence. Weems, speaking for General Horry, says, "I never
beheld Marion in so great a passion. I was actually afraid he would have
broken out on General Lincoln. 'My God!' he exclaimed, 'who ever heard
of anything like this before? First allow an enemy to entrench, and
then fight him! See the destruction brought upon the British at
Bunker's Hill--yet our troops there were only militia; raw, half-armed
clodhoppers, and not a mortar, or carronade, not even a swivel--only
their ducking-guns! What, then, are we to expect from regulars,
completely armed, with a choice train of artillery, and covered by a
breastwork.'"

* Major-General T. Pinckney's account of the siege of
Savannah, quoted by Garden.--

The anticipations of Marion were fully realized. When the junction of
the French and American armies was effected, it was determined to reduce
the place by siege. Batteries were to be erected, and cannon brought
from the ships, a distance of several miles. Meanwhile, the works of
the besieged were undergoing daily improvements, under an able engineer.
Several hundred negroes were busy, day and night, upon the defences,
stimulated, when necessary, to exertion, by the lash. On the 4th of
October the besiegers opened with nine mortars and thirty-seven pieces
of cannon from the land side, and sixteen from the water. They continued
to play for several days, with little effect, and the anxiety of the
French admiral to leave the coast, at a season of the year when it is
particularly perilous to shipping to remain, determined the besiegers
to risk everything upon an assault. The morning of the 9th October was
fixed upon for the attack. The American army was paraded at one o'clock
that morning, but it was near four before the head of the French column
reached the front. "The whole army then marched towards the skirt of the
wood in one long column, and as they approached the open space, was to
break off into the differ