There is in the Royal Artillery Record Office a journal kept during the siege by Captain F. M. Dixon, R.A., from which the following details are taken, many of which would lose their force if given except in the writer's own words. The siege commenced on the 20th August, when there was nothing but confusion and disorder within St. Philip's, to which the troops had retired; but the enemy did not commence firing on the Castle until the 15th September. The English had not been so quiet; they commenced firing at a great range on the 27th August, and with great success. At the request of the Duke de Crillon, all the English families had been sent out, in humane anticipation of the intended bombardment. Desertion from the enemy was frequent at first; and as the siege progressed it was occasional from the British troops. When a deserter was captured, he received no mercy. The most deadly enemy of the garrison was scurvy. Hence an order on the 7th November, 1781, for an officer and six men per company to be told off daily to gather pot-herbs on the glacis. Anything of a vegetable nature brought a fabulous price; tea was sold at thirty shillings a pound; the number of sick increased every day, the men concealing their illness to the last rather than go to hospital, and very frequently dying on duty from sheer exhaustion:—"Our people," says the diary, "do more than can be expected, considering their strength; the scurvy is inveterate.... 108 men fell sick in two days with the scurvy.... I am sorry our men are so very sickly; our people fall down surprisingly, we have not a relief.... The Hanoverians die very fast: there is no fighting against God.... Our troops increase vastly in their sickness;" and so on. Among those who fell a victim during the siege was Captain Lambert, of the Artillery. So heavy were the duties that even the General's orderly sergeants were given up to diminish the burden; and when the capitulation was resolved upon, it was found that while the necessary guards required 415 men, there were only 660 able to carry arms, leaving, as the Governor said, no men for piquet, and a deficiency of 170 men to relieve the guard. Against this small force, entrenched in what was now a mere heap of rubbish, there was an enemy, whose lowest number was estimated at 15,000, and was more likely 20,000. Some of the enemy's batteries were armed with 13-inch mortars. When the British ammunition ran short, the shells of the enemy which had not burst were returned to them, and in default of these, stone projectiles were used with much effect. On the 12th December, 1781, the following batteries had been opened against the Castle:— Hangman's Battery, containing 8 guns and 4 mortars. Beneside Battery, containing 15 guns. Dragoon Battery, containing 15 guns. Burgos's Battery, containing 28 guns. Swiss Battery, containing 14 to 16 guns.