they reformed into two units. Eyre led one force against the southwest bastion, where American fire repulsed the assault, seriously wounding Eyre and several of his officers. (New London historian Frances Manwaring Caulkins asserted that Eyre was mortally wounded, while Benedict Arnold reported that Eyre survived.) Major William Montgomery led the second party to an abandoned redoubt just east of the fort. From there, they moved across the ditch and assaulted the ramparts. This unit gained the bastion against fierce resistance, but Montgomery was killed by the thrust of a 10-foot pike from Jordan Freeman, a black man who had previously been a slave in service to Colonel Ledyard. Montgomery's men were finally able to open a gate from inside, and the British force poured into the fort. Seeing that the fort was penetrated, Colonel Ledyard ordered a cease fire and prepared to surrender it to the British. What happened next is a subject of controversy. The most detailed accounts of the event are from American sources and are fairly consistent in what they describe. According to these accounts, the British continued to fire on the Americans despite Ledyard's signs of surrender, and much of the garrison was consequently either killed or seriously wounded. Rufus Avery wrote in his account, "I believe there was not less than five or six hundred men of the enemy on the parade in the fort. They killed and wounded nearly every man in the fort as quick as they could." Jonathan Rathbun described a British officer cold-bloodedly killing Colonel Ledyard with Ledyard's own sword: The wretch who murdered him [Ledyard] exclaimed, as he came near, "Who commands this fort?" Ledyard handsomely replied, "I did, but you do now," at the same moment handing him his sword, which the unfeeling villain buried in his breast! Oh, the hellish spite and madness of a man that will murder a reasonable and noble-hearted officer, in the act of submitting and surrendering! Some accounts say that Captain George Beckwith killed Ledyard, while others say it was Captain Stephen Bromfield, who assumed command after Major Montgomery was killed. A black soldier named Lambert Latham is credited with killing the British officer who killed Colonel Ledyard. Stephen Hempstead recalled the bloody scene in the aftermath: "Never was a scene of more brutal wanton carnage witnessed than now took place. The enemy were still firing upon us... [until] they discovered they