The Chelsea Pensioners, Volume 2H. Colburn, 1829 |
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Common terms and phrases
advance aid-de-camp Albany Americans appeared arms army arrival ascer ascertained assailants attack batteaux Batten Kill became Beckwith began Bennington brave brigade British British army Burgoyne camp Captain Castletown Cecily Colonel Baume column command comrades corps daugh desert detached direction Dobson enemy enemy's escape exclaimed exertions farther feeling fell fire flank followed force Fort Edward fortune forward Fraser front gave ground guns halted hour Hudson's hundred immediately Indians instantly Lake Lake Champlain Lake George light look Macdirk main body Marksmen matter ment miles minutes Montreal Morgan movements muskets neral night numbers obeyed officers once ourselves outposts party passed persons pickets present pushed rear Rebels received regiment Reidesdel render replied retreat river Saratoga scarcely sentries side Skinner skirmish soldiers soon sound specting spoke stood tent thing Ticonderoga tion took tremely troops tumbril videttes whilst whole wood wounded
Popular passages
Page 56 - We have been tried and tempted by the Bostonians; but we have loved our father, and our hatchets have been sharpened upon our affections. "In proof of the sincerity of our professions, our whole villages able to go to war are come forth. The old and infirm, our infants and wives, alone remain at home. "With one common assent we promise a constant obedience to all you have ordered and all you shall order, and may the father of days give you many, and success!
Page 114 - Looking down from the summit of the rising ground, I beheld immediately beneath me a wide sweep of stately forest, interrupted at remote intervals by green meadows or yellow corn-fields ; whilst here and there a cottage, a shed, or some other primitive edifice...
Page 122 - O maintain. But even this spectacle, distressing as it doubtless was, failed in affecting our people with a feeling at all akin to despair. The vacancy which the retreat of the savages occasioned, was promptly filled up by one of our two field-pieces, whilst the other poured destruction among the enemy in front, as often as they showed themselves in the open country, or threatened to advance. In this state things continued upwards of three quarters of an hour. Though repeatedly assailed in front,...
Page 117 - ... our friends, he was somehow or other persuaded to believe, that the armed bands of whose approach he was warned, were loyalists on their way to make a tender of their services to the leader of the King's troops. Filled with this idea, he despatched positive orders to the outposts, that no molestation should be offered to the advancing columns ; but that the pickets retiring before them should join the main body, where every disposition was made to receive either friend or foe. Unfortunately for...
Page 123 - Col. Baume, shot through the body by a rifle ball, fell mortally wounded; and all order and discipline being lost, flight or submission was alone thought of. For my own part, whether the feeling arose from desperation or accident I cannot tell, but I resolved not to be taken. As yet I had escaped almost unhurt, a slight flesh wound in the left arm having alone fallen to my share; and gathering around me about thirty of my comrades, we made a rush where the enemy's ranks appeared weakest, and burst...
Page 117 - Filled with this idea, he dispatched positive orders to the outposts that no molestations should be offered to the advancing columns, but that the pickets retiring before them should join the main body, where every disposition was made to receive either friend or foe. Unfortunately for us, these orders were but too faithfully obeyed. About half past nine o'clock, I, who was not in the secret, beheld, to my utter amazement, our advanced parties withdraw without firing a shot from thickets which might...
Page 116 - ... that our leaders felt warmly disposed to resume the offensive without waiting the arrival of the additional corps for which they had applied; and orders were already issued for the men to eat their breakfasts, preparatory to more active operations. But the arms were scarcely piled and the haversacks unslung when symptoms of a state of affairs different from that which had been anticipated began to show themselves, and our people were recalled to their ranks in all haste, almost as soon as they...
Page 123 - For a few seconds the scene which ensued, defies all power of language to describe. The bayonet, the butt of the rifle, the sabre, the pike, were in full play ; and men fell, as they rarely fall in modern war, under the direct blows of their enemies. But such a struggle could not in the nature of things be of long continuance. Outnumbered, broken, and somewhat disheartened by late events, our people wavered, and fell back, or fought singly and unconnectedly, till they were either cut down at their...
Page 96 - In doing this the enemy showed no decency either to friend or foe. All the fields of standing corn were laid waste, the cattle were driven away, and every particle of grain, as well as morsel of grass, carefully removed; so that we could depend for subsistence, both for men and horses, only upon the magazines which...