rd should reconnoitre. The result proved that no opposition
was intended in that quarter, and that the whole of the enemy's
army had been withdrawn to the opposite side of the stream,
whereupon the column was again put in motion, and in a short time
arrived in the streets of Bladensburg, and within range of the
American artillery. Immediately on our reaching this point,
several of their guns opened upon us, and kept up a quick and
well-directed cannonade, from which, as we were again commanded
to halt, the men were directed to shelter themselves as much as
possible behind the houses. The object of this halt, it was
conjectured, was to give the General an opportunity of examining
the American line, and of trying the depth of the river; because
at present there appeared to be but one practicable mode of
attack, by crossing the bridge, and taking the enemy directly in
front. To do so, however, exposed as the bridge was, must be
attended with bloody consequences, nor could the delay of a few
minutes produce any mischief which the discovery of a ford would
not amply compensate.

But in this conjecture we were altogether mistaken; for without
allowing time to the column to close its ranks, or to be joined
by such of the many stragglers as were now hurrying, as fast as
weariness would permit, to regain their places, the order to halt
was countermanded, and the word given to attack; and we
immediately pushed on at double quick time, towards the head of
the bridge. While we were moving along the street, a continued
fire was kept up, with some execution, from those guns which
stood to the left of the road; but it was not till the bridge was
covered with our people that the two-gun battery upon the road
itself began to play.--Then, indeed, it also opened, and with
tremendous effect; for at the first discharge almost an entire
company was swept down; but whether it was that the guns had been
previously laid with measured exactness, or that the nerves of
the gunners became afterwards unsteady, the succeeding discharges
were much less fatal. The riflemen likewise began to gall us
from the wooded bank with a running fire of musketry; and it was
not without trampling upon many of their dead and dying comrades
that the light brigade established itself on the opposite side of
the stream.

When once there, however, everything else appeared easy.
Wheeling off to the right and left of the road, they dashed into
the thicket, and q