October 14, 1781 - Sunset

Richard Ketchum, in victory at Yorktown states -

"On Sunday the 14th all the American batteries concentrated on the British strongholds in the sector opposite them - notably the Number 9 and Number 10 redoubts that lay behind a moat and a tangle of abatis, and bristled with the angled, sharp-pointed stakes known as a fraise work"

The method that the Americans were going to use totake the redoubts was to send their sappers and miners ahead to breach the abatis. This would be followed by direct assaults by French infantry on redoubt Number 9 by the French, and Number 10 by the Americans. As usual, Joseph Plumb Martin was in the thick of things. -

"We arrived at the trenches a little before sunset. I saw several officers fixing bayonets on long staves. I then concluded we were about to make a general assault upon the enemy's works, but before dark I was informed of the whole plan, which was to storm the redoubts, the one by the Americans and the other by the French. The sappers and Miners were furnished with axes and were to proceed in front a cut a passage for the troops through the abatis, which are composed of the tops of trees, the small branches cut off with a slanting stroke which renders them sharp as spikes. These trees are then laid at a small distance from the trench or ditch, pointing outwards, and the butts fastened to the ground in such a manner that they cannot be removed by those on the outside of them. It is almost impossible to get through them. Through these we were to cut a passage before we or the other assailants could enter."