Garrison

“ Night and day the slender garrison, often weak from scant fare and exhausted by sleeplessness, would need to watch every moment lest an arrow, winged with flaming tow, should fire their combustible defences, or they should expose head or limb to foes armed now with the white man's weapons as well as their own, and skilled already in some of the arts and guile of their enemies. ”

“ About midnight the little garrison, forced back on every side by overwhelming numbers, had to retire within an inner circle, formed, like the outer one, by mealie-sacks; and here the same scenes were, hour after hour, renewed in endless succession—of black warriors pouring in to the attack, and being driven back by volleys of musketry and charges with the bayonet. ”

“ Gentlemen, it may appear somewhat strange that a garrison, possessing the natural strength of a powerful position—supplied with abundant ammunition and every muniment of war—should despatch a flag of truce on the eve of an attack, in preference to waiting for the moment, when a sharp and well-prepared reception might best attest its vigilance and discipline. ”

“ The garrison in some high hill-fortress looks down upon the open where the enemy's ranks are crawling like insects across the grass, and scarcely hears the noise of the tumult, and no arrow can reach the lofty hold. ”

“ But, the garrison, full of courage and vigour, spreading cloths loose everywhere over the battlements to weaken the attacks of our weapons, and protected by shields strongly woven of osier, made a brave resistance, looking like figures of iron, since they had plates of iron closely fitting over every limb, which covered their whole person with a safe defence. ”

“ True, the garrison was small, but it was intrenched behind strong walls, a well-filled moat and a line of breastworks carefully designed, and improved bastions.
Allen called all his men together and addressed them.
"It is for your country that you will risk your lives," he said, "and while you take care not to run into needless danger, remember that only the daring will succeed. If we enter the fort, as we shall undoubtedly do, set up a shout which shall make the garrison think we have eight hundred instead of eighty men. Be brave, and the victory will be ours." ”

“ Men were running through the streets trailing their guns, and officers were galloping about pulling at their gloves, and bodies of troops were swinging along at a double-quick, which always makes them look as though they were walking in tight boots, and bugles were calling, and groups of men, black and clearly cut against the sky, were excitedly switching the air with flags from every jutting rock and every rampart of the garrison. ”

“ The regular troops that fled from Tudela, being joined by two small divisions, which retreated, at the same time, from Sanguessa and Caparosa, formed a garrison of thirty thousand men, and, together with the inhabitants and peasantry, presented a mass of fifty thousand combatants, who, with passions excited almost to phrensy, awaited an assault amidst those mighty entrenchments, where each man’s home was a fortress and his family a garrison. To besiege, with only thirty-five thousand men, a city so prepared was truly a gigantic undertaking! ”

“ When the garrison, bravely struggling against multiplied difficulties, had become exhausted; its numbers decreased by deaths, wounds, and sickness to about a thousand men, and a practical breach was ready for the enemy to attack the place by storm, the combined English and Dutch fleets approached with reinforcements; the French naval force hurried from before the town, and the garrison was relieved. ”

“ The Garrison.—The garrison should consist of artillery and infantry, and, in an intrenched camp, of enough mounted troops for escort, messenger, and a limited vedette service.
The strength of the infantry is generally regulated so as to give a suitable garrison to each detached work, and about 11⁄2 to 2 men for each yard of the front of attack. The artillery is allowed about 12 men for each gun. The number of engineers is determined for each place by the probable amount of engineer work that will be required. These troops make up about one-third of the entire force. ”

“ In ten minutes the troops in the little garrison were all under arms, for the men came rushing, cross-belted, to their colours, while the log huts echoed again and again to the long roll of the alarm drum—that peculiar roll, which, when heard in camp or garrison, makes the blood of all quicken, as it is the well-known warning "to arms;" ”

“ On receiving this joyful news, the [96] garrison immediately marched into the enemy's quarters, where they found four pieces of artillery, four mortars, and a large quantity of ammunition, which they brought in triumph into the fort. During the time that the garrison were shut up in the fort, forty-five Europeans and thirty sepoys were killed, and a greater number of both wounded; most of whom suffered by the enemy's musketry from the houses. ”

“ The whole garrison, or garrisons, to be surrendered to the arms of the United States of America, as prisoners of war, the 29th instant at 10 o'clock a.m., the garrisons to be permitted to march out with all the honors of war, and to lay down their arms to such officers as may be appointed by the general-in-chief of the United States army, and at a point to be agreed on by the commissioners. ”

“ Column, I appoint you Commandant of Fort Bodo. I leave with you a garrison, inclusive of sick, numbering nearly sixty rifles. The men mainly are not of the calibre requisite for a garrison in a dangerous country. Still they can all shoot off their rifles, are in good condition, and you have abundance of ammunition. My principal reliance is on the Commandant himself. If the chief is active and wary, our fort is safe, and no combination of natives can oust the garrison from its shelter. ”

“ To oppose them there was placed on the heights a garrison equally slow to fight and ill adapted to run away, a useless and panic-struck company, who slumbered away days and nights on their unprofitable watch. Meanwhile the hooked weapons of their enemies were not idle, and our wretched countrymen were dragged from the wall and dashed against the ground. ”

“ The British got over the fausse-braye, climbed up the rampart with great difficulty,—pulled up the palisades from the parapet, ascended the rampart, and captured the fort sword in hand, making thirty officers and one hundred and seventy soldiers prisoners; the remainder of the garrison, which consisted of six hundred men, were either killed in the attack, or drowned in attempting to escape across the river, excepting twelve men, who passed the stream in small boats. ”

“ The fortifications in front and on each side of the town appeared to me to be in a very bad state, and particularly ill situated, being commanded by several points, and especially by the Lion’s Rump, which is itself easily accessible. I was not at all surprised that the garrison should have yielded to every attack of forces so little superior to its own. The most effectual plan until this defect be remedied, would be to land at a distance from the garrison, to the north, on an open part of the beach, entirely defenceless, and thence to march and attack the town by land. ”

“ The peasants, unused to war and lacking all military training, streamed in and out at pleasure, leaving the gates wide open, and taking no precautions against the enemy. Suddenly, to their surprise and alarm, they saw a strong [Pg 97] body of armed men entering the open gates and marching boldly into the court-yard of the stronghold, the heedless garrison gazing with gaping eyes at them from the windows and the inner courts. It was a body of English men-at-arms, two hundred strong, who had taken the unguarded fortress by surprise. ”

“ The measures of defence resorted to by the garrison will, of course, be subordinate, in some degree, to those of attack. As soon as any danger of an investment is apprehended, the commanding general should collect into the place all the necessary provisions, forage, military munitions, &c., to be found in the surrounding country; all useless persons should be expelled from the garrison; a supply of timber for the works of the engineers and artillery, fascines, gabions, palisades, &c., prepared; all ground within cannon range around the work levelled ”

“ The fuses were fired, and "all eyes were turned to the confederate fort opposite," which was discernible but three hundred feet distant. The garrison was sleeping in fancied security; the sentinels slowly paced their rounds, without a suspicion of the crust which lay between them and the awful chasm below. ”

“ When, on account of the destruction of certain parts of the Fort, the garrison comes gradually nearer together, the moral tension, the lack of sleep, the irregularity of the alimentation transform the garrison into a passive troop under an avalanche of blows. The men are still capable of reaction and of desperate efforts, but the efforts are silent and, as it were, mechanical. Those who have never lived through such hours can never know the intensity of the suffering endured by the defenders of the Fort. ”

“ The garrison, thus warned, were under arms when Girty and his army approached. The enemy, aware that preparation was made for their reception, left a considerable body in ambush near the spring which, at some little distance, supplied the station with water, and only a small portion appeared before the place, hoping to entice the garrison outside their defences, while the remainder were so posted, in case this scheme succeeded, as to storm one of the gates and cut off their return. ”

“ The little garrison in the castle made a stout resistance, slew many of the assailants, who swarmed upon all sides, and compelled the more daring among them to seek shelter at the foot of the walls. Then the Germans [p 89] with great labour brought up in succession four batteries, by whose fire alone they could hope to master the obstinate defenders who had manned even the tiled roof with riflemen. Surrounded, threatened with the weight of twenty-four guns, and seeing their comrades outside in full retreat, the garrison which had done its uttermost, surrendered as prisoners of war. ”

“ With a garrison of 500 or a less number, it is impregnable against all the savages in America, but if a strong body of troops with artillery should move this way, I believe no engineer who has ever seen these works will say it can hold out any considerable time. ”

“ The troops who first gain the crest establish themselves there and hold the breach until those coming after them pass and engage the garrison, while some detachments strive to capture and open one gate or more to admit the reserves. The assaulting force should be equal at least to once and a half or twice the garrison, and simultaneous attacks should be made upon other breaches or accessible parts of the work to divide the attention of the defence. ”

“ The garrison of the fort is some 650 men, and fully that number were in and about the work, their tents being pitched inside the redan, or on the terreplein of the parapets. The walls are exceedingly solid, and well built of gray brick, strong as iron, and upward of six feet in thickness, the casemates and bomb-proofs being lofty, airy, and capacious as any I have ever seen, though there is not quite depth enough between the walls at the salient and the gun-carriages. The work is intended for 128 guns, of which about one fourth are mounted on the casemates. ”

“ It is true that for many years the garrison has fully protected us, and I have not needed to use the arms in my house. But thousands of husbands and fathers need them hourly, to procure food for their children and wives, and to protect them from the savages. ”

“ Thus was this strong fortress, and important island, gained by a force of only 2400 men, while the garrison consisted of more than one thousand Soldiers, with upwards of 100 pieces of cannon mounted, and having every thing requisite for sustaining a long siege. ”

“ Although the garrison excelled in endurance and in the arts of war, without any other aid than that of their walls, still our soldiers, being attacked as they were from a more numerous force, became impatient of the long delay, and moved round and round the suburbs, seeking diligently to discover by what force or what engines they could make their way out of the city. ”

“ Very few cases permit a strong sally from the garrison at the opening of a siege; the present was in some measure justified by the supposition that the enemy's troops were intoxicated and in confusion: but, notwithstanding the ardour of the onset, it left no advantageous impression of the Armness of the garrison with the French officers ”

“ The garrison will march out at three o'clock in the afternoon; the cavalry with their swords drawn, trumpets sounding, and the infantry in the manner prescribed for the garrison of York. They are likewise to return to their encampments until they can be finally marched off.
Article IV. Officers are to retain their side-arms. Both officers and soldiers to keep their private property of every kind; and no part of their baggage or papers to be at any time subject to search or inspection. The baggage and papers of officers and soldiers taken during the siege to be likewise preserved for them. ”

“ To drive such a man from such a position would be no light feat. The garrison was amply provided with cannon and small arms, and were full of determined courage.
The French were as well equipped as the English with everything necessary for the attack: arrows and crossbolts, and all small arms, “pavoises,” or strong wide screen shields, and movable wooden shelters to protect the advance of small advancing companies of assailants, cannon, ladders, beams for the ditches, and all the munitions of war. ”