Redoubt No. 10

Sappers, armed with axes, led the attack. They tossed down bundles of sticks (called fascines) in the ditch and then began hacking at the abatis—sharpened stakes—to create a breach. The light infantry followed, but rather than wait for a breach simply surged over and around the abatis. Fighting was hand-to-hand. “I parried as well as I could but they broke off the blade of [my espontoon],” recalled Capt. Stephen Olney, 1st Rhode Island, “and their bayonets slid down the handle . . . and scaled my fingers; one bayonet pierced my thigh; another stabbed me in the abdomen, just above the hipbone. One fellow fired at me, and I thought the ball took effect in my arm.” Within ten minutes, Redoubt 10 was in American hands, with the loss of nine killed and thirty-one wounded for the Americans.