Fernando had been promoted to sergeant in the company
and was quite popular with both officers and men.
For two hours, a cannonade between the _Royal George_ and the big guns
on shore was kept up, with very little effect, when a 32 pound ball from
the former came over the bluff and ploughed a furrow near where the
riflemen were standing. Fernando ran and caught up the ball and, running
with it to Captain Vaughn, said:
"Captain Vaughn, I've been playing ball with the redcoats, and I have
caught them out."
"That will just fit our gun," said the captain. "Hand it to the gunner."
Fernando did so. The gunner said:
"Captain, it fits better than our own balls. The shot we have been
firing were all too small."
"Send it back to them," said Captain Vaughn.
The gun was trained and fired. The heavy boom rang out over the bluffs
and water. The ball went through the _Royal George_ from stern to stem,
sending splinters as high as her mizzen topsail yard, killing fourteen
men and wounding eighteen.
This ended the bombardment. The squadron, alarmed, sailed out of the
harbor.
Eight merchant schooners were at Ogdensburg, being converted into
American war vessels, and, immediately after being repulsed at Sackett's
Harbor, two of the British armed vessels started to Ogdensburg to
destroy them. The American schooner _Julia_ was armed and, with sixty
volunteers from the _Oneida_ and Fernando's company of riflemen in a
boat, set out to overtake the British.
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