Reinforcements, which increased their number to thrice that of the Americans, having arrived from the fleet, the invaders remained in or near their bivouac until the morning of December thirtieth, 1814, but never for a moment were they permitted to be at peace; for by day their hiding places were sought out by the guns of the gunboat _Carolina_, at anchor in the river, and as soon as night enfolded them the backwoodsmen took up the bloody work. Sentries were shot down as they walked their posts, and to enjoy the warmth or light of the camp fire was but to court almost certain death from the unerring rifles. Knife and tomahawk also played their parts, until the harassed British were not only panic-stricken at the swift death which overtook so many of them, but bitterly complained of the uncivilized methods of their adversaries. The situation became so serious that Sir Edward himself came up from the ships to take over the command from General Keane, and plans were at once perfected to relieve matters by attacking the troublesome enemy. The commander in chief could not be made to believe that there was anything to be feared from backwoodsmen and untried militia when they were confronted by the pride of the British army in battle formation. The Americans had been very busy with their works in the meantime, and had also mounted thereon five small field pieces, so that when, on the morning of the fourth day after Sir Edward’s arrival, a force of about two thousand men advanced to storm their position they were ready and met the adversaries with such a storm of well directed lead and iron that they were repulsed, and being unable to withdraw from the field sought shelter in the ditches and drains until, under cover of darkness, they were able to retreat, leaving over one hundred dead upon the field. Sir Edward had become convinced that these men behind the mud walls were something different from the militia he had been accustomed to denounce, and therefore called a council of war and erected a battery composed of sugar hogsheads, mounting thirty-five guns within a third of a mile from General Jackson’s works. The attack was then renewed, but it was a repetition of the first one, so far as results were concerned, for the infantry were repulsed and the battery with its thirty-five guns completely dismantled. The British loss in this attack was eighty-odd killed and wounded, beside the thirty-five guns. Reinforcements again arriving from the fleet. Sir Edward, furious and chagrined, determined, for his honor as well as for his safety, to renew the assault with such a force as would overwhelm the militia by mere weight of numbers, if nothing else, and therefore remained inactive for eight days in order to allow his men to get over the ill-effects of the two former failures, and to bring up every available man for the final effort.