"Another deceit the
enemy put upon us," says a military letter-writer: "they raised their
hats above the breastwork, which our people fired at; they, having
loopholes to fire through, and being covered by the sods, we did them
little damage, except shooting their hats to pieces."[631] In one of the
last assaults a soldier of the Rhode Island regiment, William Smith,
managed to get through all obstructions and ensconce himself close under
the breastwork, where in the confusion he remained for a time unnoticed,
improving his advantages meanwhile by shooting several Frenchmen. Being
at length observed, a soldier fired vertically down upon him and wounded
him severely, but not enough to prevent his springing up, striking at
one of his enemies over the top of the wall, and braining him with his
hatchet. A British officer who saw the feat, and was struck by the
reckless daring of the man, ordered two regulars to bring him off;
which, covered by a brisk fire of musketry, they succeeded in doing. A
letter from the camp two or three weeks later reports him as in a fair
way to recover, being, says the writer, much braced and invigorated by
his anger against the French, on whom he was swearing to have his
revenge.[632]
[Footnote 631: _Letter from Saratoga, 12 July, 1758_, in _New Hampshire
Gazette_. Compare _Pennsylvania Archives_, III. 474.]
[Footnote 632: _Letter from Lake George, 26 July, 1758_, in _Boston
Gazette_.
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