At dawn of the seventh, while Abercromby, fortunately
for his enemy, was drawing his troops back to the landing-place, the
whole French army fell to their task.
[Footnote 620: _N.Y. Col. Docs._, X. 708.]
The regimental colors were planted along the line, and the officers,
stripped to the shirt, took axe in hand and labored with their men. The
trees that covered the ground were hewn down by thousands, the tops
lopped off, and the trunks piled one upon another to form a massive
breastwork. The line followed the top of the ridge, along which it
zig-zagged in such a manner that the whole front could be swept by
flank-fires of musketry and grape. Abercromby describes the wall of logs
as between eight and nine feet high;[621] in which case there must have
been a rude _banquette_, or platform to fire from, on the inner side. It
was certainly so high that nothing could be seen over it but the crowns
of the soldiers' hats. The upper tier was formed of single logs, in
which notches were cut to serve as loopholes; and in some places sods
and bags of sand were piled along the top, with narrow spaces to fire
through.[622] From the central part of the line the ground sloped away
like a natural glacis; while at the sides, and especially on the left,
it was undulating and broken. Over this whole space, to the distance of
a musket-shot from the works, the forest was cut down, and the trees
left lying where they fell among the stumps, with tops turned outwards,
forming one vast abattis, which, as a Massachusetts officer says, looked
like a forest laid flat by a hurricane.
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