Count d’Estaing Describes the Assault

"The action did not last longer than an hour; it was very violent. The enemy, almost as numerous as we, as we learned later, had gathered the greater part of their force around the Spring Hill redoubt; and it appears certain that two American deserters alerted them about the point of attack the day before. That no attention at all was paid to the two feint attacks from the trenches is even more reason for thinking so. The diversion that 500 Americans were to attempt on the enemy's left did not take place. They got lost. The two American galleys caused the attack from the river to fail. The first one, towed by longboats, dropped anchor. The second one was filled full of water, and M. le chevalier Durumain, ship's lieutenant who commanded this operation, could never get upriver as far as the city."