possession of Bunker hill, and throw up works in its defence. When they reached the ground, it was perceived that Breed's hill, which is a few rods south of Bunker's hill, was the most suitable station. The troops under the direction of Colonel Gridley, an able engineer, were busily engaged in throwing up a small redoubt and breast-work, which latter was formed by placing two rail fences near together, and filling the interval with the new mown hay lying on the ground. There was something in the rustic materials of these defences, hastily made, in a short summer's night, within gunshot of a powerful enemy, that was particularly apposite to to a body of armed husbandmen, who had rushed to the field at the first sound of alarm.

As soon as these frail works were discovered the next morning, the British commander made preparations to get possession of them. General Howe, with various detachments, amounting to near 5000 men, was ordered to dislodge the rebels." The force which Colonel Prescott could command for the defence of the redoubt and breast-work, was about 1200 men. Very few of these had ever seen an action. They had been labouring all night in creating these defences; and the redoubt, if it could be so called, was open on two sides. Instead of being relieved by fresh troops, as they had expected, they were left without supplies of ammunition or refreshment; and thus fatigued and destitute, they had to bear the repeated assaults of a numerous, well appointed, veteran army. They destroyed nearly as many of their assailants, as the whole of their own number engaged; and they did not retreat till their ammunition was exhausted, and the enemy supplied with fresh troops and cannon, completely overpowered them.

Colonel Prescott lost nearly one quarter of his own regiment in the action. When General Warren came upon the hill, Colonel Prescott asked him if he had any orders to give : he answered, "No, colonel, I am only a volunteer; the command is yours." When he was at length forced to tell his men to retreat as well as they could, he was one of the last who left the intrenchment. He was so satisfied with the bravery of his companions, and convinced that the enemy were disheartened by the severe and unexpected loss which they had sustained, that he requested the commander in chief to give him two regiments, and he would retake the position the same night.

He continued in the service till the beginning of 1777, when he resigned and returned to his home but in the autumn of that year he went as a volunteer to the northern army under General Gates, and assisted in the capture of General Bur

goyne. This was his last military service. He was subsequently, for several years, a member of the legislature, and died in 1795, in the seventieth year of his age.

Colonel Prescott was a genuine specimen of an energetic, brave, and patriotic citizen, who was ready in the hour of danger, to place himself in the van, and partake in all the perils of his country; feeling anxious for its prosperity, without caring to share in its emoluments; and maintaining beneath a plain exterior and simple habits, a dignified pride in his native land, and a high-minded love of freedom.

The immediate results of this engagement were great and various. Though the Americans were obliged to yield the ground for want of ammunition, yet their defeat was substantially a triumph. The actual loss of the British army was severe, and was deeply felt by themselves and their friends. The charm of their invincibility was broken. The hopes of the whole continent were raised. It was demonstrated that although they might burn towns, or overwhelm raw troops by superior discipline and numbers, yet the conquest at least would not be an easy one. Those patriots, who, under the most arduous responsibility, at the peril of every thing which men of sense and virtue can value, hazarded in the support of public principles, present ruin and future disgrace, though they felt this onset to be only the beginning of a civil war, yet were invigorated by its results, which cleared away some painful uncertainties; while the bravery and firmness that had been displayed by their countrymen, inspired a more positive expectation of being ultimately triumphant.

In the life of James Otis, by William Tudor, of Boston. from which work the foregoing is taken, the following note is made relative to the battle. The anxiety and various emotions of the people of Boston, on this occasion, had a highly dramatic kind of interest. Those who sided with the British troops began to see even in the duration of this battle, the possibility that they had taken the wrong side, and that they might become exiles from their country. While those whose whole soul was with their countrymen, were in dreadful apprehension for their friends, in a contest, the severity of which was shewn by the destruction of so many of their enemies.

"After the battle had continued for some time, a young person living in Boston, possessed of very keen and generous feelings, bordering a little perhaps on the romantic, as was natural to her age, sex, and lively imagination, finding that many of the wounded troops brought over from the field of action were carried by her residence, mixed a quantity of refreshing beverage, and with a female domestic by her side, stood at the

door and offered it to the sufferers as they were borne along, burning with fever and parched with thirst. Several of them, grateful for the kindness, gave her, as they thought, consolation, by assuring her of the destruction of her countrymen. One young officer said, "never mind it my young lady, we have peppered 'em well, depend upon it." Her dearest feelings, deeply interested in the opposite camp, were thus unintentionally lacerated, while she was pouring oil and wine into their wounds.”

General Henry Lee, in his memoirs of the war in the Southern Department, makes the following remark, in relation to Prescott and his gallant band:

"When future generations shall enquire, where are the men who gained the brightest prize of glory in the arduous contest which ushered in our nation's birth? upon Prescott and his companions in arms will the eye of history beam. The military annals of the world rarely furnish an achievement which equals the firmness and courage displayed on that proud day by the gallant band of Americans; and it certainly stands first in the brilliant events of the war."

PRIOLEAU, SAMUEL, was a native of Charleston, South Carolina. In the contest for our independence, he took an early and an active part, from which he never shrunk during the whole course of that memorable struggle; encountering with his countrymen a full share of its dangers; and sustaining its vicissitudes throughout those scenes that tried men's souls." After the fall of Charleston, he was numbered by the British with that band of patriots, whose constancy they attempted to subdue by the torture of exile, persecution and imprisonment. At St. Augustine he patiently and manfully sustained, with his compatriots, all the sufferings and indignities heaped upon them by the enemy; while his wife and family of young children, stripped of all their means, were banished from their home, and transported to Philadelphia. Firm, amidst these storms of adversity, he disdained to purchase from the enemy the smallest immunity or mitigation for himself or family, by abating a single sentiment in favor of his country, or by ceasing to be a bold and exemplary advocate for her independence. After the revolution, he repaired, by a course of unabating industry, the ravages it had made on his fortune; and maintained to the end of life the character of an honest upright man. In his private relations he was justly endeared for his affection, tenderness, indulgence, and beneficence; the impressions of which will long remain, after the lenient hand of time shall have assuaged the poignancy of grief for the loss of such a husband, father and friend.

He died in Charleston, on the 23d March, 1813, in the scventy-first year of his age.

PULASKI, (count.) This gallant soldier was a native of Poland, whose disastrous history is well known. Vainly struggling to restore the lost independence of his country, he was forced to seek personal safety by its abandonment. Pulaski, with a few men, in the year 1771, carried off king Stanislaus from the middle of his capitol, though surrounded by a numerous body of guards, and a Russian army. The king soon escaped and declared Pulaski an outlaw. Hearing of the glorious struggle in which we were engaged, he hastened to the wilds of America, and associated himself with our perils and our fortunes. Congress honoured him with the commission of brigadier general, with a view, as was rumoured, of placing him at the head of the American calvary, the line of service in which he had been bred. But his ignorance of our language, and the distaste of our officers to foreign superiority, stifled this project. He was then authorised to raise a legionary corps, appointing his own officers.

Indefatigable and persevering, the count collected about two hundred infantry and two hundred horse, made up of all sorts, chiefly of German deserters. His officers were generally foreign, with some Americans. With this assemblage, the count took the field; and after serving some time in the northern army, he was sent to the south, and fell at the battle of Savannah. There slumbers the gallant Pole, the immortal Pulaski, who threw himself into the arms of America, and professed himself the champion of her rights; and in the unfortunate affair of Savannah, sealed with his blood, the rising liberties of his adopted country.

He was sober, diligent and intrepid, gentlemanly in his manners, and amiable in heart. He was very reserved, and, when alone, betrayed strong evidence of deep melancholy. Those who knew him intimately, spoke highly of the sublimity of his virtue, and the constancy of his friendship. Commanding this heterogeneous corps badly equipped and worse mounted, this brave Pole encountered difficulties and sought danger. Nor is there a doubt if he had been conversant in our language, and better acquainted with our customs and country, he would have become one of our most conspicuous and useful officers.

General Lee, to whom we are indebted for this sketch, gives the following account in his memoirs, of the attack on Savannah, where it will be found the intrepid Pulaski made a gallant effort to retrieve the fortune of the day.

"On the 9th of October, 1779, the allied troops under the count d'Estaing and general Lincoln, moved to the assault. The serious stroke having been committed to two columns, one was led by d'Estaing and Lincoln united, the other by

count Dillon; the third column moved upon the enemy's centre and left, first to attract attention, and lastly to press any advantage which might be derived from the assault by our left.

"The troops acted well their parts and the issue hung for some time suspended. Dillon's column, mistaking its route in the darkness of the morning, failed in co-operation, and very much reduced the force of the attack; while d'Estaing and Lincoln, concealed by the same darkness, drew with advantage near the enemy's lines undiscovered. Notwithstanding this loss of concert in assault by the two columns destined to carry the enemy, noble and determined was the advance. The front of the first was greatly thinned by the foe, sheltered in his strong and safe defences, and aided by batteries operating not only in front but in flank.

"Regardless of the fatal fire from their covered enemy, this unappalled column, led by Lincoln and d'Estaing, forced the abbatis and planted their standards on the parapet. All was gone, could this lodgment have been sustained. Maitland's comprehensive eye saw the menacing blow; and his vigorous mind seized the means of warding it off. He drew from the disposable force, the grenadiers and marines, nearest to the point gained. This united corps under lieutenant colonel Glazier assumed with joy the arduous task to recover the lost ground. With unimpaired strength it fell upon the worried head of the victorious column; who, though piercing the enemy in one point, had not spread along the parapet; and the besieged bringing up superior force, victory was suppressed in its birth. The triumphant standards were torn down; and the gallant soldiers, who had gone so far towards the goal of conquest, were tumbled into the ditch and driven through the abbatis. About this time that Maitland was preparing this critical movement, count Pulaski, at the head of two hundred horse, threw himself upon the works to force his way into the enemy's rear. Receiving a mortal wound, this brave officer fell; and his fate arrested the gallant effort which might have changed the issue of the day. Repulsed in every point of attack, the allied generals drew off their troops. The retreat was effected in good order; no attempt to convert it into rout being made by the British general. Count d'Estaing, who, with general Lincoln, had courted danger to give effect to the assault, was wounded. Captain Tawes, of the provincial troops, signalized himself by his intrepidity in defending the redoubts committed to his charge, the leading points of our assault. He fell dead at the gate, with his sword plunged into the body of the third enemy, whom he had slain."