by John Marshall

“ Repelling a force of such magnitude with so small a body as we opposed to them, will, I trust, speak for itself; and although our loss has been severe, I hope the lustre acquired to our arms will compensate for it. ”

“ The previous and accompanying letters of Sir Peter Parker will, I presume, fully point out the respect the enemy on all occasions evince at the approach of our arms, retreating at every attack, though possessing a superiority of numbers of five to one: an intelligent black man gave us information of two hundred militia being encamped behind a wood, distant half a mile from the beach, and described their situation, so as to give us the strongest hopes of cutting off and securing the largest part as our prisoners, destroying the camp, field-pieces, &c. ”

“ Finding it impossible to close on the enemy from the rapidity of their retreat, having pursued them upwards of a mile, I deemed it prudent to retire towards the beach, which was effected in the best possible order, taking with us from the field twenty-five of our wounded, the whole we could find, the enemy not even attempting to regain the ground they had lost; from three prisoners (cavalry) taken by us, we learnt their force amounted to five hundred militia, a troop of horse, and five pieces of artillery ”