Lieutenant William Horndon, Royal Artillery
" I was the Officer of artillery on the 15th of July who,
in case of Alarm, was to take charge of the Guns in the works
along the Outward Abbatis. I visited them at the in the evening .
. . after which I retired to my tent. As soon as the first shot
was fired, . . I immediately repaired to the work on the left of
the outward line of defense. Soon after I arrived, I heard a
great firing of musketry from right to left, and consequently
began firing the 12 pounder to a particular object, to which we
were ordered to point this gun, in case of an alarm.
By the light occasioned by the flash of the gun, I could perceive
a body of them [the American south column] coming through the
water upon the left. I attempted to bring the gun to bear upon
them, but could effect it, the embrazure being too confined. The
number of men in the battery where I was, having by stragglers
coming in, increased to twenty-seven, exclusive of my own four of
artillery, two of which I had sent for a supply of ammunition,
and with them I commened a musketry fire. Soon after, we heard a
Huzza in the Upper Works, from which I conceived that the enemy
were in possession of those works, and I was the more convinced
of it from the men I had sent for ammunition not returning."
Horndon and his men surrendered to Lt. Col. Francois
de Fleury, a French volunteer serving in the Continental Army.