midnight
The yards of the British ships hung nearly over the American battery ; and there were musketeers stationed in their tops who immediately shot down every man who showed himself on the platform of the fort . Our men displayed , as I have said , wonderful bravery and endurance ; there seems to have been no thought of surrender ; but long before night palisades , block houses , parapet , embrasures -- all were ruined . `` Early in the evening Major Thayer sent all but forty of his men to Red Bank . He and the remaining forty stayed on in the fort until midnight , then , setting fire to the remains of the barracks , they also escaped in safety to Red Bank . `` Lossing tells us that in the course of that last day more than a thousand discharges of cannon , from twelve to thirty-two pounders , were made against the works on Mud Island , and that it was one of the most gallant and obstinate defences of the war . `` Major Thayer received great credit for his share in it , and was presented with a sword by the Rhode Island Assembly as a token of their appreciation of his services there . '' `` Did not Captain -- afterward Commodore -- Talbot do himself great credit there ? ''