Battle at Stono Ferry

About forty-five hundred men of the combined armies moved to the attack just before the dawn, completely shrouded in a dense fog, and covered by a heavy fire from the French batteries. They advanced in three columns, the main one commanded by D'Estaing in person, assisted by Lincoln; another led by Count Dillon, and a third by General Isaac Huger, of Charleston. The latter was to make a feigned attack to divert attention from the movements of the other two. The right of the British, where the principal assault was to begin, was commanded by the gallant Maitland, who was then suffering from the fever that finally destroyed him. His chief defence was a strong work on the Augusta road, known as the Spring-Hill redoubt. This D'Estaing was to attack, while Count Dillon was to make his way along the edge of a swamp to the weakest point of the British lines on the east, and assail them there.

Dillon became entangled in the swamp, and failed. At dawn D'Estaing and Lincoln attacked the redoubt. A fierce battle ensued, and lasted almost an hour. D'Estaing was wounded and carried to his camp. Whole ranks of the assailants were mowed down by bullets and grape-shot; yet the gallant allies pressed forward, leaped the ditch, and placed the French and American flags on the parapet of the redoubt. Fresh forces within pressed them back into the ditch, and tore down the ensigns. The American flags were two that were embroidered and presented to the Second South Carolina regiment by Mrs. Susannah Elliot of Charleston, and were planted on the parapet by Lieutenants Hume and Bush. These officers were both killed. Lieutenant Gray seized the standards and kept them erect. He, too, was slain, when Sergeant Jasper, the hero of Fort Sullivan, rushed to the rescue of the flags, and fell into the ditch mortally wounded. "Tell Mrs. Elliot," said the dying hero, "that I lost my life supporting the colors she presented to our regiment." The flags were of silk; a blue field bearing a white crescent.

While this fearful struggle was going on at the redoubt, Huger and Pulaski were trying to force their way into the enemy's works on different sides of the town. The latter, at the head of his legion and with his banner in his hand, was fighting his way not far from the Spring-Hill redoubt, when he was mortally wounded by a grape-shot. His troops were driven back. Already the French had withdrawn from the assault, and the Continentals under Lincoln were falling back. After five hours hard fighting, the allies showed a white flag, and asked for a truce to bury their dead. It was granted. D'Estaing and Lincoln held a consultation about the future. The former had lost many of his men, and wished to abandon the siege; the latter, confident that a victory might be speedily won, wished to continue it. The former refused to remain any longer; and on the evening of the 18th, the allies withdrew--the French to their ships and the Americans to Zubley's Ferry. Lincoln made his way to Charleston with the remains of his army, and at the beginning of November, the French fleet sailed for France. The allied armies had lost over a thousand men in the siege and assault; the British only one hundred and twenty. The South Carolinians were disheartened by the result, and looked to the future with gloomy forebodings.