But we had no time for vain regrets.  The battle raged.  Already there were two bad cases of black eye, and one of nosebleed, in the hospital.

It was glorious excitement, those pell-mell onslaughts and hand-to-hand struggles.  Twice we were within an ace of being driven from our stronghold, when General Harris and his staff leaped recklessly upon the ramparts and hurled the besiegers heels over head down hill.

At sunset, the garrison of Fort Slatter was still unconquered, and the South-Enders, in a solid phalanx, marched off whistling “Yankee Doodle,” while we cheered and jeered them until they were out of hearing.

General Ames remained behind to effect an exchange of prisoners.  We held thirteen of his men, and he eleven of ours.  General Ames proposed to call it an even thing, since many of his eleven prisoners were officers, while nearly all our thirteen captives were privates.  A dispute arising on this point, the two noble generals came to fisticuffs, and in the fracas our brave commander got his remaining well eye badly damaged.  This didn’t prevent him from writing a general order the next day, on a slate, in which he complimented the troops on their heroic behavior.

On the following Wednesday the siege was renewed.  I forget whether it was on that afternoon or the next that we lost Fort Slatter; but lose it we did, with much valuable ammunition and several men.  After a series of desperate assaults, we forced General Ames to capitulate; and he, in turn, made the place too hot to hold us.  So from day to day the tide of battle surged to and fro, sometimes favoring our arms, and sometimes those of the enemy.

General Ames handled his men with great skill; his deadliest foe could not deny that.  Once he outgeneralled our commander in the following manner:  He massed his gunners on our left and opened a brisk fire, under cover of which a single company (six men) advanced on that angle of the fort.  Our reserves on the right rushed over to defend the threatened point.  Meanwhile, four companies of the enemy’s scalers made a detour round the foot of the hill, and dashed into Fort Slatter without opposition.  At the same moment General Ames’s gunners closed in on our left, and there we were between two fires.  Of course we had to vacate the fort.  A cloud rested on General Harris’s military reputation until his superior tactics enabled him to dispossess the enemy.

As the winter wore on, the war-spirit waxed fiercer and fiercer.  At length the provision against using heavy substances in the snow-balls was disregarded.  A ball stuck full of sand-bird shot came tearing into Fort Slatter.  In retaliation, General Harris ordered a broadside of shells; i. e. snow-balls containing marbles.  After this, both sides never failed to freeze their ammunition.

It was no longer child’s play to march up to the walls of Fort Slatter, nor was the position of the besieged less perilous.  At every assault three or four boys on each side were disabled.  It was not an infrequent occurrence for the combatants to hold up a flag of truce while they removed some insensible comrade.