such aids of militia as would enable him to execute that intention
with any prospect of success. The only remaining hope was to press the
siege so vigorously as to compel a surrender before Lord Rawdon could
arrive.

{June 17.}

In the execution of this plan, the garrison was reduced to
extremities, when the near approach of his lordship was communicated
to Cruger, by a loyalist who passed through the American lines, and
extinguished every hope of carrying the place otherwise than by storm.
Unwilling to relinquish a prize he was on the point of obtaining,
Greene resolved to essay every thing which could promise success; but
the works were so strong that it would be madness to assault them,
unless a partial attempt to make a lodgement on one of the curtains of
the star redoubt, and at the same time to carry the fort on the left,
should the first succeed.

{June 18.}

[Sidenote: Is repulsed and retires from before that place.]

The proper dispositions for this partial assault being made,
Lieutenant Colonel Lee, at the head of the legion infantry and
Kirkwood's company, was ordered to assault the works on the left of
the town; while Lieutenant Colonel Campbell was to lead the first
regiment of Maryland, and the first of Virginia, against the star
redoubt. The lines of the third parallel were manned, and all the
artillery opened on the besieged. About noon the detachments on this
service marched cheerfully to the assault. Lee's attack on the left