Page:The Hessians and the other German auxiliaries of Great Britain in the revolutionary war.djvu/128

 and forgotten to look behind him, until, coming within a hundred yards of the redoubt, he found himself exposed to a sharp fire, which wounded some of his volunteers. He then looked round and found that his whole force consisted of one lieutenant and seven men. With these he threw himself upon the bridge, hardly forty yards from the redoubt, and dodged behind the stone parapet. He hoped that more of his party would come to the rescue, but it turned out that General Matthews had commanded the column to halt, as he did not wish to sacrifice lives unnecessarily. Ewald's seven chasseurs kept firing at the embrasures of the redoubt, and their fire was hotly answered, but no one on their side was hit. In less than a quarter of an hour they had the pleasure of hearing brisk firing beyond the redoubt, which had been taken in its rear by Cornwallis. The garrison abandoned the work, and Ewald, with his lieutenant and seven men, proceeded to take possession, and captured twelve prisoners into the bargain. “But,” says Ewald, “it was through my error that Lord Cornwallis took only one hundred and fifty prisoners and two cannon, instead of a thousand men. For the enemy were awakened by the firing of the redoubt, and got time to escape, together with General Lincoln.”

Here is another of Ewald's anecdotes, concerning this campaign: “When we were posted at New