“A ball passed through a chimney in the barracks,—­whither he had gone intending to write a letter,—­scattered the bricks, and one of them striking him on the head knocked him senseless.

“He was carried across the river to Red Bank, and Major Thayer of the Rhode Island line took command in his place.

“The first day a battery of two guns was destroyed, a block house and the laboratory were blown up, and the garrison were compelled to keep within the fort.  All that night the British threw shells and the scene was a terrible one indeed, especially for the poor fellows inside the fort.

“The next morning, about sunrise, they saw thirty armed boats coming against them, and that night the heavy floating battery was brought to bear upon the fort.  The next morning it opened with terrible effect, yet they endured it, and made the enemy suffer so much from their fire that they began to think seriously of giving up the contest, when one of the men in the fort deserted to them, and his tale of the weakness of the garrison inspiring the British with renewed hope of conquest they prepared for a more general and vigorous assault.

“At daylight on the 15th two men-of-war, the Iris and the Somerset, passed up the channel in front of the fort on Mud Island.  Two others—­the Vigilant and a hulk with three twenty-four pounders—­passed through the narrow channel on the west side and were placed in a position to act in concert with the batteries of Province Island in enfilading the American works.

“At ten o’clock all was silent, and doubtless our men were awaiting the coming onslaught with intense anxiety, when a signal bugle sounded and instantly all the ships and batteries poured a storm of shot and shell from the mouths of their many guns upon the devoted little garrison.”

“Oh, how dreadful!” sighed Grace.  “Could they stand it, papa?”

“They endured it with astonishing courage,” replied the captain, “while all day long, and far into the evening, it was kept up without cessation.  The yards of the British ships hung nearly over the American battery; and there were musketeers stationed in their tops who immediately shot down every man who showed himself on the platform of the fort.  Our men displayed, as I have said, wonderful bravery and endurance; there seems to have been no thought of surrender; but long before night palisades, block houses, parapet, embrasures—­all were ruined.

“Early in the evening Major Thayer sent all but forty of his men to Red Bank.  He and the remaining forty stayed on in the fort until midnight, then, setting fire to the remains of the barracks, they also escaped in safety to Red Bank.

“Lossing tells us that in the course of that last day more than a thousand discharges of cannon, from twelve to thirty-two pounders, were made against the works on Mud Island, and that it was one of the most gallant and obstinate defences of the war.