The British, though not half so numerous as their adversaries, advanced boldly to the attack; on entering the village the enemy's artillery opened a tremendous fire, and as the light brigade traversed the bridge across the eastern branch of the Potomac river, from whence a strait road ran through the enemy's position to the capital, numbers fell before a heavy fire of musketry and artillery. The survivors having gained the opposite side of the stream, carried a fortified house which commanded the bridge, then dashed into the thickets on the right and left of the road, and drove back the American riflemen, who fled with such precipitation that they threw their first line into disorder, and it fell back in confusion, leaving two guns on the road. The British light infantry, throwing off their knapsacks, pushed forward in extended order to attack the enemy's second line; but a heavy fire of musketry and artillery checked the assailants, and the Americans advancing in force to recover the lost ground, drove the first brigade back to the thickets on the brink of the river, where an obstinate fight was maintained. Meanwhile the second brigade passed the river; the forty-fourth moving to the right, turned the enemy's left flank; and the FOURTH, emulating their gallant companions, advanced in firm array, preceded by a flight of rockets, to charge the enemy's right, which was broken and driven from the field: many of the American sailors who acted as gunners were bayoneted, and eight guns were captured. The American infantry fled in dismay, and diving into the recesses of the forests, were quickly beyond the reach of their pursuers; and their cavalry turned their horses' heads and galloped off: thus in one hour the battle was won, and the third brigade, which had formed the reserve, pushed forward at a rapid rate for _Washington_. The three British regiments which had thus defeated about nine thousand adversaries (three times their own number) halted a short time on the field of battle to reform their ranks. The loss of the KING'S OWN was Lieutenant Thomas Woodward, killed; Lieutenants E. P. Hopkins, J. K. Mackenzie, John Staveley, Peter Bowlby, and Frederick Field, with Ensigns J. A. Buchanan, and William Reddock, wounded; also seventy-nine serjeants and rank and file killed and wounded. After a short halt, the KING'S OWN, with the remainder of the first and second brigades, moved towards Washington, where the third brigade had already arrived and had commenced destroying the arsenal, docks, magazines, and other public property. The sun had set, and as the two brigades approached the American capital, the conflagration of buildings, ships, and stores illuminated the sky, while the exploding of magazines shook the city, and threw down houses in their vicinity, and the scene exhibited the awful reality of the horrors of war, from which Great Britain has happily been preserved by the enterprise and gallantry of her army and navy.