Existing comment:
Direct Hits
2:00pm September 13, 1814
Two men died on this ground. During the afternoon of the bombardment the men on this bastion felt helpless. The mortars on the British bomb ships could fire their 200-pound shells two miles (half way to the modern bridge) while the fort's cannons could only reach a mile and a half. By 2:00pm, the defenders had endured heavy rain showers and the British bombardment for eight hours.
Soaring through the overcast sky, a shell exploded on this spot -- killing Lieutenant Levi Claggett, wounding four others and dismounting a cannon. Private Isaac Munroe who stood here wrote what happened seconds later:
"Sergeant Clemm, a young man... was killed by my side; a bomb bursting over our heads a piece the size of a dollar, two inches thick, passed through his body in a diagonal direction from his navel, and went into the ground upwards of two feet."
Total casualties for the battle: 4 killed, 25 wounded. |