During the night a battery was constructed, and opening a fire of red-hot shot, it destroyed the American schooner; but when the troops proceeded towards the town, they encountered so many local difficulties, were opposed by such immense bodies of Americans, with extensive fortified lines and batteries, and armed vessels on the river, that the advance was checked and considerable loss sustained. Attempts were made to overcome these difficulties; the canal from Bayo de Catiline was cleared out, widened, and opened to the river, to admit the boats from the lake; and while the soldiers were labouring at this work Major-General Lambert joined with two additional regiments. Arrangements were made for attacking the enemy's fortified lines at day-break on the morning of the 8th of January, 1815. The boats were to be brought along the canal in the night, part of the army was to embark, and proceeding up the river with muffled oars, to gain the flank and rear of the works unperceived; and simultaneous attacks were to be made on different parts of the enemy's fortified position. This plan was, however, partly disconcerted by the tardy arrival of the boats; and at the moment of attack the scaling ladders and fascines had to be sent for. Day-light arriving, the troops were visible to the enemy, who opened a tremendous fire, with dreadful execution. Under these disadvantages, the British rushed forward to storm the position in front. A detachment of the KING'S OWN, twenty-first, and ninety-fifth, captured a three-gun battery, and advanced to attack a body of Americans who were forming for its recovery; but having to pass a deep ditch by a single plank, they were repulsed; and the enemy forcing his way into the battery, re-captured it with immense slaughter. Meanwhile the remainder of the KING'S OWN were exposed to a dreadful fire, and the regiment was nearly annihilated by the tempest of bullets by which it was assailed. Major-General Pakenham having galloped to the front to encourage the men, was shot on the top of the glacis. Major-Generals Gibbs and Keane were borne from the field dangerously wounded; and success being found impracticable, the troops withdrew from the unequal contest. The KING'S OWN had upwards of four hundred men killed and wounded in this desperate service: also, Lieutenant Edward Field, and Ensign William Crowe, killed; and Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Brooke, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonels Alured D. Faunce, and Timothy Jones, Brevet Major John Williamson, Captains John Wynne Fletcher, Robert Erskine, and David S. Craig, Lieutenants J. P. Hopkins, Jeffrey Salvin, W. H. Brooke, Benjamin Martin, George Richardson, Peter Bowlby, George H. Hearne, William Squires, C. H. Farrington, James Marshall, Henry Andrews, and Adjutant William Richardson, with Ensigns Arthur Gerard, Thomas Benwell, J. L. Fernandez, and Edward Newton, wounded.