Note 318 — PART THIRD. HISTORY OF THE HIGHLAND REGIMENTS. (continued 2)

“The great waste of ammunition,” says General Stewart, “and the comparatively little execution of musketry, unless directed by a steady hand, was exemplified on this occasion. Although the sea was as smooth as glass, with nothing to interrupt the aim of those who fired,—although the line of musketry was so numerous, that the soldiers compared the fall of the bullets on the water to boys throwing handfuls of pebbles into a mill-pond,—and although the spray raised by the cannon-shot and shells, when they struck the water, wet the soldiers in the boats,—yet, of the whole landing force, very few were hurt; and of the 42d one man only was killed, and Colonel James Stewart and a few soldiers wounded. The noise and foam raised by the shells and large and small shot, compared with the little effect thereby produced, afford evidence of the saving of lives by the invention of gunpowder; while the fire, noise, and force, with which the bullets flew, gave a greater sense of danger than in reality had any existence. That eight hundred and fifty men (one company of the Highlanders did not land in the first boats) should force a passage through such a shower of balls and bomb-shells, and only one man killed and five wounded, is certainly a striking fact.” Four-fifths of the loss of the Highlanders was sustained before they reached the top of the hill. General Stewart, who then commanded a company in the 42d, says that eleven of his men fell by the volley they received when mounting the ascent.