but short fight followed in the intense darkness, which
was lit only by the flashes from the British muskets. The Americans did
not fire, trusting solely to the bayonet. The two columns had kept
almost equal pace, and they swept into the fort from opposite sides at
the same moment. The three men who first got over the walls were all
wounded, but one of them struck the British flag. The Americans had the
advantage which always comes from delivering an attack that is thrust
home. Their muskets were unloaded, and they could not hesitate; so,
running boldly into close quarters, they fought hand to hand with their
foes and speedily overthrew them. For a moment the bayonets flashed and
played: then the British lines broke as their assailants thronged
against them, and the struggle was over. The Americans had lost a
hundred in killed and wounded. Of the British sixty-three had been slain
and very many wounded, every one of the dead or disabled having suffered
from the bayonet; for Wayne's troops did not fire at all. A curious
coincidence was that the number of the dead happened to equal exactly
the number of Wayne's men who had been killed in the night attack by the
English General Grey.

There was great rejoicing among the Americans over the successful issue
of the attack. Wayne speedily recovered from his wound, and in the joy
of his victory it weighed but slightly. He had performed a most notable
feat. No night attack of the kind was ever delivered with greater
boldness, skill, and success. When the Revolutionary War broke out the
American armies were composed merely of armed yeomen, stalwart men of
good courage, and fairly proficient in the use of their weapons, but
entirely without the training which alone could enable them to withstand
the attack of the British regulars in the open, or to deliver an attack
themselves. Washington's victory at Trenton was the first encounter
which showed that the Americans were to be feared when they took the
offensive. With the exception of the battle of Trenton, and perhaps of
Greene's fight at Eutaw Springs, Wayne's feat was the most successful
illustration of daring and victorious attack by an American army that
occurred during the war; and, unlike Greene, who was only able to fight
a drawn battle, Wayne's triumph was complete. At Monmouth he had shown,
as he afterwards showed against Cornwallis, that his troops could meet
the renowned British regulars on even terms in the open. At Ston