The command devolved on Colonel Brooke; and the army moving forward, found itself in a few moments in front of a strong position, near Nip Church in _Godly wood_, occupied by six thousand adversaries, with six pieces of artillery and a corps of cavalry. The light brigade immediately extended, and driving in the American skirmishers, menaced the whole front of their army; the forty-fourth, a party of seamen, and the marines of the fleet formed line behind the light infantry; the twenty-first, and the second battalion of marines formed column in reserve; and the soldiers rested themselves on the ground, while the KING'S OWN, led by Major Faunce, moved to the right along some hollow ways and woodlands, and gained, unperceived, a thicket on the enemy's left flank. Meanwhile the deep tones of the artillery echoed in the woods; and the instant the FOURTH gained the thicket, the charge was sounded and repeated by every bugle in the army; the soldiers started from the ground, and moving forward with a firm and resolute tread, in the face of a shower of grape and canister shot, approached their adversaries, who raised a loud shout, and afterwards opened a heavy fire of musketry. This was answered with a British huzza,--a volley of small arms, and a rush forward at double-quick time with the bayonet; and when the Americans saw the ranks of gleaming steel draw near, they faced about and fled in dismay into the thick woods, leaving two pieces of cannon behind them. Fifteen minutes had sufficed to decide the fortune of the day; several hundreds of killed and wounded adversaries lay scattered over the field, a number of fugitives was intercepted and made prisoners, and many of the American riflemen being discovered in the trees, which they had climbed, to be enabled to take sure aim and escape danger, the British soldiers called this _unfair_, and shot them on their perches. The KING'S OWN had twenty-one men killed and wounded in this action.
Halting on the field of battle, the bivouac fires were lighted, and the victorious army reposed a short time under the canopy of heaven. Two hours after midnight the soldiers were again under arms; as the first glimmering of dawn appeared, they resumed their march, and arrived in the evening at the foot of the range of hills in front of Baltimore, where the grand American army of upwards of fifteen thousand men appeared occupying a chain of pallisaded redoubts connected by a breast-work, and defended by a numerous train of artillery. Trusting to the innate valour and excellent discipline of his little army, which did not amount to one-third of the number of the opposing host, Colonel Brooke made arrangements for storming the hills after dark; but having received intimation from the commander of the naval forces that the entrance of the harbour was closed up by vessels sunk for that purpose, and that a naval co-operation against the town and camp was impracticable, the enterprise was abandoned. The troops retreated three miles on the 14th of September, and then halted to see if the Americans would venture to descend from the hills; but though so superior in numbers, they had no disposition to quit their entrenchments, and the British forces retired leisurely to their shipping and re-embarked.