We were about 100 yards behind his Forlorn Hope party when he sent a messenger back telling us to “close up” on his position. We did so and found them stopped by heavy fire coming from the bluff above their position near the water. Col. Arnold was struck in the leg by a musket ball and though he tried moving to press the attack, his leg wound soon had him unable to walk. Reverend Spring and a Riflemen, one under each arm, assisted their commander all the way back to Dr. Senter’s hospital.

When Colonel Arnold was wounded, Lt. Col. Green, Majors Bigelow and Meigs were about 200 yards behind us. The lead element of our column had already made a “right turn” on Rue du Sault-au-Matelot.1 Captain Morgan, not wanting to lose momentum in the attack by waiting for the New Englanders to “close up,” used his thunderous battlefield voice to rally the Americans around him and led us forward.

We immediately encountered a tall and strong barricade blocking our entrance into the city. Captain Morgan’s Riflemen and Lamb’s detachment were the only members of Arnold’s force in the Lower Town to have brought scaling ladders with them. He wasted no time attacking the barrier by firing through its gun loopholes and throwing up the scaling ladders to get our men over the wall.

When a soldier hesitated in mounting a scaling ladder, Morgan pushed him aside, quickly ascended, and leaped over the wall and fell on a cannon, landing on his back—causing terrible pain. In fact, the fall atop the cannon may well have saved his life for he was able to use the gun and its carriage to avoid thrusting bayonets until the rest of us got over the wall.

It would have helped to have had Captain Lamb’s cannon to breach the wall, but the sled to which it was attached became hopelessly stuck in the ice near the water and they could not retrieve it in the open under fire.

After getting our company over the rampart, we found the defenders less than enthusiastic about any further contest with us. They surrendered and were removed from the site by a few of Captain Lamb’s men.

As the prisoners were being moved north down the narrow Rue du Sault-au-Matelot, Lieutenant Colonel Greene’s New England battalion arrived. We quickly moved ahead, only to run into a second large barricade, this one even taller and thicker than the last.

Using the same tactics as before, we placed scaling ladders against the wall, but our initial assault was repelled by British regulars positioned about 100 feet behind the barricade with bayonets affixed. As soon as a Patriot head emerged above the wall, it was hit with a volley of musket fire.