If the latter had secured their booty they retreated with all possible speed, and were soon lost in the crowd.
If not, they would offer battle, and signal for assistance from the other bands.

Severe engagements of this kind were of continual occurrence, in which men were so badly beaten as to die from the effects.

The weapons used were fists, clubs, axes, tent-poles, etc.

The Raiders were plentifully provided with the usual weapons of their class--slung-shots and brass-knuckles.

Several of them had succeeded in smuggling bowie-knives into prison.
They had the great advantage in these rows of being well acquainted with each other, while, except the Plymouth Pilgrims, the rest of the prisoners were made up of small squads of men from each regiment in the service, and total strangers to all outside of their own little band.
The Raiders could concentrate, if necessary, four hundred or five hundred men upon any point of attack, and each member of the gangs had become so familiarized with all the rest by long association in New York, and elsewhere, that he never dealt a blow amiss, while their opponents were nearly as likely to attack friends as enemies.
By the middle of June the continual success of the Raiders emboldened them so that they no longer confined their depredations to the night, but made their forays in broad daylight, and there was hardly an hour in the twenty-four that the cry of "Raiders! Raiders!" did, not go up from some part of the pen, and on looking in the direction of the cry, one would see a surging commotion, men struggling, and clubs being plied vigorously.