104 THE SERVICES OF LIEUT.-COLONEL FRANCIS DOWNMAN, R.A. 
troops did not begin the attack for a considerable time. In the 
prodigious confusion this place is now in, all I can tell you is that the 
troops behaved with the most unexampled bravery, and that after an 
engagement of nearly five hours, we forced the rebels from their posts, 
redoubts and entrenchments one by one. The victory has cost us very 
dear, as we have lost some of the best officers in the service, and a great 
number of private men, nor do I see we enjoy one solid benefit in 
return, or are likely to reap from it any one advantage whatever. We 
have indeed learnt one melancholy truth, which is, that the Americans, 
if they are equally well commanded, are full as good soldiers as ours, 
and, as it is, are very little inferior to us even in discipline and steadiness 
of countenance, 
Yours etc. 
LETTER II. 
Ejrom Lieut.-Colonel Thomas James, R.A. 
June 23rd, 1775. 
Dear Down max,— 
We are in thickness of war, we have had two 
battles 1 already, in the last we carried our point, took the lines and a 
strong redoubt, with 2,500 men against 7,000. We have upwards of 
80 officers killed and wounded, and the flower of the grenadiers and 
light infantry ; some regiments have but five grenadiers left. We had 
at one gun the officer and volunteer wounded, and but one man without 
a wound. Lemoine 2 is wounded, so are Huddlestone 3 and Shuttleworth. 4 
We are well. My volunteer hands have been full. To-morrow I go on 
another attack, covering the left in my gondolas, which I have made, 
viz., three with a heavy 12-pr. in each prow. Adieu. 
Thomas James. 
Affairs at Lexington, 18th April, and Bunker’s Hill, 17th June, 1775. 
2 Kane’s List, No. 289. 
3 Kane’s List, No. 277. 
4 Kane’s List, No. 481. 
