George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 8

[407] and leaping through an embrasure, and braving the

Chap. LXVI.} 1776. June. 28.

thickest fire from the ship, he took up the flag, returned with it safely and planted it, as he had promised, on the summit of the merlon.

The calm sea gleamed with light; the almost vertical sun of midsummer glared from a cloudless sky; and the intense heat was increased by the blaze from the cannon on the platform. All of the garrison threw off their coats during the action, and some were nearly naked; Moultrie and several of the officers smoked their pipes as they gave their orders. The defence was conducted within sight of those whose watchfulness was to them the most animating: they knew that their movements were observed from the house tops of Charleston; by the veteran Armstrong, and the little army at Haddrell's Point; by Gadsden at Fort Johnson, who was almost near enough to take part in the engagement, and was chafing with discontent at not being himself in the centre of danger. Exposed to an incessant cannonade, which seemed sufficient to daunt the bravest veterans, they stuck to their guns with the greatest constancy.

Hit by a ball which entered through an embrasure, Macdaniel cried out to his brother soldiers: ‘I am dying, but don't let the cause of liberty expire with me this day.’

Jasper removed the mangled corpse from the sight of his comrades, and cried aloud: ‘Let us revenge that brave man's death.’

The slow, intermitted fire which was skilfully directed against the commodore and the brave seamen on board the ‘Bristol,’ shattered that ship, and carried wounds and death. Never had a British squadron