3-016-840 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Night attack of the Kent Artillery Volunteers in Ore Creek, near Faversham, 1864. View of '...the rehearsal of a night attack and defence, with the assistance of three ships' launches armed with 6-pounders lent by the naval authorities at Sheerness...The defending party...took up their position in the fields near the village of Ore, close to the water of Ore creek, where they had a battery of 24-pounders behind some earthworks which they had thrown up in an intrenched and palisaded space...On the other side Captain Harper, in the three launches from Sheerness, which represented gun-boats on this occasion, brought the 13th Kent Artillery Corps to force a landing; Lieutenant Darling, R.N., being in command of the boats. On arriving in Ore creek they began to exchange shots with the battery, and presently the assailants landed, as shown in our Engraving. They are just passing over a substantial turf embankment which divides the fields or marshes from the creek...It lasted about two hours; commenced punctually, and was finished at the time promised. There was no hitch at any stage of the proceedings, and the programme resolved on by the leaders, though neither printed nor distributed, was rigidly carried out".' From "Illustrated London News", 1864.