244 Naval War of 1812 



At last the sun rose, and as its beams struggled 

 through the morning mist they glinted on the sharp 

 steel bayonets of the English, where their scarlet 

 ranks were drawn up in battle array, but four hun- 

 dred yards from the American breastworks. There 

 stood the matchless infantry of the island king, in 

 the pride of their strength and the splendor of their 

 martial glory; and as the haze cleared away they 

 moved forward, in stern silence, broken only by 

 the angry, snarling notes of the brazen bugles. At 

 once the American artillery leaped into furious life ; 

 and, ready and quick, the more numerous cannon of 

 the invaders responded from their hot, feverish lips. 

 Unshaken amid the tumult of that iron storm, the 

 heavy red column moved steadily on toward the left 

 of the American line, where the Tennesseeans were 

 standing in motionless, grim expectancy. Three 

 fourths of the open space was crossed, and the eager 

 soldiers broke into a run. Then a fire of hell smote 

 the British column. From the breastwork in front 

 of them the white smoke curled thick into the air, 

 as rank after rank the wild marksmen of the back- 



to the Americans of 1812, as "a people who (notwithstand- 

 ing the curse of black slavery which clings to them, adding 

 the most horrible ferocity to the peculiar baseness of their 

 mercantile spirit, and rendering their republican vanity 

 ridiculous) do, in their general government, uphold civil 

 institutions which have startled the crazy despotisms of 

 Europe." 



