My Friend Steele Lost
Three Of His Fingers, As He Was Presenting His Gun To Fire;
Captain Hubbard And Lieutenant
Fisdle, were all among the wounded.
When we reflect upon the whole of the dangers of this barricade,
and the
Formidable force that came to annoy us, it is a matter of
surprise that so many should escape death and wounding as did. All
hope of success having vanished, a retreat was contemplated, but
hesitation, uncertainty, and a lassitude of mind, which generally
takes place in the affairs of men, when we fail in a project, upon
which we have attached much expectation, now followed. The moment
was foolishly lost, when such a movement might have been made with
tolerable success. Captain Laws, at the head of two hundred men,
issuing from Palace Gate, most fairly and handsomely cooped us up.
Many of the men, aware of the consequences, and all our Indians
and Canadians (except Natanis [57] and another,) escaped across
the ice, which covered the Bay of St. Charles, before the arrival
of Captain Laws. This was a dangerous and desperate adventure, but
worth while the undertaking, in avoidance of our subsequent
sufferings. Its desperateness consisted in running two miles
across shoal ice, thrown up by the high tides of this latitude -
and its danger, in the meeting with air holes, deceptively covered
by the bed of snow. Speaking circumspectly, yet it must be
admitted conjecturally, it seems to me, that in the whole of the
attack, of commissioned officers, we had six killed, five wounded,
and of non-commissioned and privates, at least one hundred and
fifty killed, and fifty or sixty wounded. Of the enemy, many were
killed and many more wounded, comparatively, than on our side,
taking into view the disadvantages we laboured under; and that but
two occasions happened when we could return their fire, that is,
at the first and second barriers. Neither the American account of
this affair, as published by Congress, nor that of Sir Guy
Carleton, admit the loss of either side to be so great as it
really was, in my estimation * * * * * as to the British, on the
platform they were fair objects to us. They were soon driven
thence by the acuteness of our shooting. * * * *
Perhaps there never was a body of men associated, who better
understood the use and manner of employing a rifle, than our
corps; while by this time of the attack, they had their guns in
good order. When we took possession of the houses, we had a great
range. Our opportunities to kill, were enlarged. Within one
hundred yards, every man must die. The British however were at
home - they could easily drag their dead out of sight, and bear
their wounded to the Hospital. It was the reverse with us. Captain
Prentis, who commanded the provost guards, would tell me of seven
or eight killed, and fifteen or twenty wounded; opposed to this
the sentries, (who were generally Irishmen, that guarded us with
much simplicity, if not honesty,) frequently admitted of forty or
fifty killed, and many more wounded.
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