It was headed by Colonel Laurens, with the Light Infantry, followed by the Second South Carolina Regiment, of which Marion was second in command, and the first battalion of Charleston militia.

This column pressed forward, in the face of a heavy fire, upon the Spring Hill redoubt, succeeded in getting into the ditch, and the colors of the second regiment were planted upon the berm.

But the parapet was too high to be scaled under such a fire as proceeded from the walls, and, struggling bravely but vainly, the assailants were, after suffering severe slaughter, driven out of the ditch.

This slaughter was increased in the effort to retain and carry off in safety the colors of the regiment.
* Major-General Thomas Pinckney, in a letter quoted by Garden.
** Major-General Thomas Pinckney.

See Garden .-- These colors, as we have seen, were the gift of a lady.