238 THE BATTLE OF [NKERMAN. CHAP. VI. '2d Period. Weakness of the de- fenders at the flanks of the Battery : the enemy's advance against its right slioulder. Captain Bumaby. His first attempt to make the men charge : But those Bearskins seen on the right? We must see whence they came. At each shoulder of the work men not only had to confront successive bodies of assailants, with- out either taking or yielding ground, but to do this with no better shelter than the flank of a parapet which became less and less in height as it approached its extremity. So disposed, they had neither the advantage of fortified ground, nor that of a fight in the open ; and at the right shoulder of the work more particularly, the diffi- culty of making them stand fast had already been felt for some time, when an enemy's column was seen coming up, with a mind to attack this weak point. Our men there had few cartridges left. Captain Burnaby was the officer in command of the right flank company of the Grenadiers * — the company here lining the work. He did not believe that a strong, determined body of infantry could well be beaten off by the mere trivial fire of his few men with nearly empty pouches, then distrustfully manning the parapet at a part where it dwarfed down to nothing, and that the column, if suffered to keep its prerogative as the attacking force, must ahiiost surely roll on over the feeble obstacles in its way with resistless weiglit. He therefore judged that, to defend the flank of the work, he must charge his assailants. So, jump-
- The 3il Company, the 1st and 2d Companies being else-
where on picket duty For the authority on which I rely lor the account of the fighting on the Ledgeway here about to bfl given, see note post, p. 279.
