A second division of boats, 15 in number, containing a detachment of 500 men, from the 102d regiment, Canadian chasseurs, and battalion-marines, and about 200 seamen, the whole under the command of captain Pechell, of the St. Domingo, arrived, at about 11 o'clock in the forenoon, off the north-west side of the island, directly in front of the battery manned by the Constellation's men. Great difference of opinion prevailed among the officers engaged in the expedition, about the propriety of making the attack at that time of tide, it being then the ebb. Captains Hanchett, Maude, and Romilly of the engineers, were decidedly against it; captain Pechell was for it; and he, being the senior officer, of course carried his point. Captain Hanchett then volunteered to lead the boats to the attack; which he was permitted to do.

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Captain Hanchett's boat was the Diadem's launch, carrying a 24-pound carronade, the only boat so armed in the division. He had taken his station about 60 yards a-head of the other boats; and was pulling, under a very heavy and long-continued fire from the batteries, directly in front of them, when his boat unfortunately took the ground, at the distance of about 100 yards from the muzzles of the enemy's guns. Captain Hanchett, who had been previously standing up in his boat, animating his men to hasten forward, now wrapped round his

body a union jack, and prepared to wade on shore to storm the American battery. At that instant one of the seamen, having plunged his boathook over the side, found three or four feet of slimy mud at the bottom. A check thus effectually given to a daring enterprise, in which all were so ready to join, captain Hanchett waved his hat for the boats a-stern to keep a-float. In the hurry of pulling and ardor of the men, this warning was disregarded; and one or two of the boats grounded. Two others, owing to their having received some shot that had passed through the sails of the Diadem's launch, sank.

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In the meanwhile, the Americans at the battery, well aware of the shoal, had anticipated what happened; and, feeling their own security, poured in their grape and canister with destructive effect. A 6-pound shot, which had passed through a launch on the starboard side of captain Hanchett's boat, and killed and wounded several men, struck that officer on the hip, and he instantly fell; but was quickly on his legs again. While he was assisting to save the men that were struggling in the water, în consequence of their boat having been sunk, a langridge shot entered his left thigh. This gal. lant officer stood as long as he could, and then fainted. A little water, however, restored him; and, after seeing the boats withdrawn from the fire, captain Hanchett went to the rear and reported himself to captain Pechell: that

done, the wounded captain ordered himself to be shifted into a lighter boat, which conveyed him to his own ship, the Diadem, then lying at anchor twelve miles off.

While the men from the sunken boats, and who consisted chiefly of the Canadian chasseurs, or Independent Foreigners, were struggling for their lives in the water and mud, the Constellation's marines, and the American infantry, waded a short distance into the water, and deliberately fired at them. When informed of the circumstance, the American authorities, very naturally, declared it untrue: as had been frequently done before, too, an investigation was ordered;" and which, of course, “resulted in a complete refutation of the allegations."* But, the fact having passed in full view, not only of the officers and men in the other boats, but of sir T. Sidney Beckwith and his party, from their position on the main-land, any attempts at denial could only add to the enormity of the offence.

Huddled together, as the boats were, when they struck the ground; and that within canisterrange of a battery, which kept upon them an incessant fire of more than two hours' duration, it required no very expert artillerists to sink three of the boats, and to kill three men and wound sixteen; especially when aided by the muskets of those humane individuals who waded

History of the United States, Vol. III. p. 285.

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into the water to fire at the drowning crews. Including 10 seamen, 62 are reported as missing. Of these, it appears, 40 gained the shore, and deserted" to the Americans. As more than that number of missing appear to have belonged to the two foreign companies, this creates no surprise; especially as the only alternative left to the men was to become prisoners of war. Admitting the American statement to be correct, 22 must have perished in the water; the majority of whom, owing to the proximity of the sinking boats to the Diadem's launch, and the strenuous exertions of captain Hanchett and his men to save the drowning crews, must have dropped beneath the merciless bullets of the American troops. The whole loss on our side, which, as we have seen, amounted to 81, has been magnified by the American editors, to 200; and they add, with a degree of exultation, rendered ridiculous by the powerless condition to which accident had reduced the invading party, that" on the side of the invaded, not a man was either killed or

wounded."

One American editor makes the British force that arrived in front of the island-battery “ about 4000 men," many of whom were French,† and those that landed on the main "upwards of 800 soldiers;" yet, in the very

* App. No. 13.

+ Sketches of the War, p. 215.

next page, he declares that "3000 British soldiers, sailors, and marines, were opposed to 480 Virginia militia, and 150 sailors and marines."* The batteries were nothing in the account, although Mr. Thomson had just done telling us what destruction they had caused. Another editor, Mr. O'Connor, declares that "1500 men attempted to land in front of the island;† and that the force that landed on the main was “reported, by deserters and others, to exceed 3000 men." The postcript to commodore Cassin's letter states, that the number of the enemy engaged in the attack was nearly 3000;" implying, of course, that those not engaged were excluded from the estimate. Another writer, whose zeal it would be criminal to question, says: "An attempt was made against Craney Island, by a force exceeding 1200 men; who were repulsed with disgrace by 700 raw troops, sailors and marines, without the loss of a man."|| We have, in addition to Mr. Thomson's, general Wilkinson's high authority for stating, that a part of the invading force consisted of " a corps designated' chasseurs Britanniques,' composed of foreign renegadoes under British officers."||

It is surprising with what facility the American App. No. 12.

* Sketches of the War, p. 216.

+ Hist. of the War, p. 171.