Pepperell would then get his council together in his turn, and, smarting
under the sense of injustice, would submit the lecture that Warren had
read him, with its thinly veiled irony, and unconcealed hauteur, to
which the imputation of ignorance was not lacking. The situation would
then be again discussed in all its bearings, from the army’s standpoint,
which might be stated as follows: The fortress cannot be stormed until
we have made a practicable breach in the walls. We must finish our
batteries before this can be done. Or let the commodore bring in his
ships and assist in silencing the enemy’s fire. The army is losing
strength every day by sickness, while the fleet is gaining by the
arrival of fresh ships. We cannot, if we would, pull the commodore’s
chestnuts out of the fire and our own too.
[18]Major Seth Pomeroy of Northampton, Mass., was lieutenant-colonel of
Williams’s regiment in the battle of Lake George, 1755, succeeding
to the command after Williams’s death. At the beginning of the
Revolution he fought as a volunteer at Bunker Hill.
[19]Reference should be made to the plan at page 91. It will greatly
simplify the siege operations to the reader if he will keep in mind
the fact that the land attack was wholly confined within the points
designated by A and B on this plan, or between the Dauphin and
King’s bastions. For our purpose, it is only necessary to add that
the harbor front was defended by a strong wall of masonry, joining
the Water Battery, G, with the Dauphin Bastion, A. In this wall were
five gates, leading to the water-side. It was the point at which the
city would be exposed to assault from shipping or their boats.
[20]The Island Battery could not materially hinder the progress of the
siege, and must have fallen with the city. The Circular Battery
could not fire upon the besiegers at all, as it bore upon the
harbor, but Warren insisted that he could not go in until these two
works were silenced. If the time spent in doing this had been wholly
employed in battering down the West Gate and its approaches, the
city might have been taken without the fleet, leaving out of view,
of course, the supposition of a repulse to the storming party. It is
a strong assertion to say that the city could not have been taken
without the fleet, because no trial was made.
[21]The Attack upon Annapolis having failed, these troops tried to get
back to Louisburg, but were unable to do so. With their assistance
Duchambon thinks he could have held out.
IX
THE SIEGE CONTINUED
Camp Routine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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