“I apologize that the weather is so dreadful, but I intend to go on with the test and trial anyway with your kind permission,” said the captain.
The king nodded his approval to start the test. The weather was in fact very foul. It was raining and the wind was gusting to speeds of up to twenty-five miles per hour. A group of down range targets had been set up at a distance of two hundred yards from the firing stations in front of the reviewing stand.
The captain began at the left-most firing position on the rifle range, where he stood and fired a single shot into the center of the target. He then reloaded from a standing position and fired a second shot from the standing position at the same target, striking it again. The captain then moved to the second firing position, knelt down on one knee and rotated the trigger guard breech screw to open the breech. He loaded a musket ball and powder into the breech from his powder horn. Then he closed the breech by rotating the trigger guard breech screw in the opposite direction. Firing from this kneeling position, he struck the second target, and then he repeated this procedure, striking the second target again. The captain then moved to the third firing position on the range and assumed a prone or lying-face-down firing position, where he loaded and fired two more shots, striking the third target twice.
After this demonstration, the captain stood and reloaded. Then he started walking toward the last target. He paused to take aim and hit the fourth target. Then he resumed walking and reloaded the rifle while walking. As soon as he had reloaded it, he paused, took aim and hit the fourth target again. In spite of the heavy rain and strong wind, the rifle had operated flawlessly, and Captain Ferguson had proved to be an outstanding marksman.
Carrying his rifle slung over his shoulder, the captain walked back toward the covered reviewing pavilion, where King George and the military men were discussing the demonstration. It was obvious that the rifle could be fired, reloaded, and fired again without breaking cover. This was a huge advantage that could change the way battles were fought all over the world. Rather than standing in a formation and firing in ranks, riflemen could find concealed positions and fire at targets of their own selection and at their own pace. This rifle could also potentially eliminate the bayonet fighting that usually followed the initial rifle volleys and cost so many lives.
Captain Ferguson stopped in front of King George and bowed and then straightened up to address the king and the other officials.
“Your Royal Highness and gentlemen, this concludes my demonstration today of my new rifle. I hope that you agree with me that it was successful and may prove to be valuable to the British Army,” said the captain, with another formal bow to the dignitaries.
“Captain Ferguson, we are very impressed with your rifle and the test that you conducted for us today. We would like to extend this test of your rifle into a field trial of it. And as such, we hereby commission the manufacture of one hundred of your rifles for this field trial. We command you to train one hundred regular army British riflemen in it use. This rifle company under your command as Captain Commandant will be transported to the American colonies after the completion of your training to assist in putting down this damned rebellion. That should prove to be an adequate field trial of your rifle,” replied King George.
“Thank you, Sire, I am humbled to follow your orders,” said the smiling and gracious captain.
* * * *
Samuel
“I have been promoted to the rank of major in the Pennsylvania militia,” said Samuel to General Gage’s quartermaster, Colonel Barton.
“Excellent news,” replied the quartermaster.
“General Gage wants to speak with you personally before you leave today. But before I show you into his office, I want to say what a wonderful job you have done supplying food and other materials to the British garrison in Philadelphia.”
“Thank you very much Sir. It is my humble duty as an Englishman to be of service to the crown.”
What Samuel did not say was that he had also become personally wealthy by purchasing from the colonists at rock bottom prices, by using his leverage as one of them, and reselling those goods to the British Army. He in turn billed the British at greatly marked up prices because, even at those inflated prices, the food and supplies were less expensive than importing them from England or other countries. It was a dangerous game that he was playing. The colonists had no knowledge that he was supplying the British Army, and he took every precaution to prevent them from learning about it. He knew that his very life depended on it. Samuel went so far as to load most of the goods he purchased from the colonists onto boats. He then shipped them to his warehouses in New York or Boston and later reshipped them back to the Philadelphia British Army depot. That way the British Army could receive them at the dock as if they had arrived from England or another foreign country. Samuel had also joined the Pennsylvania militia to further his ties with the colonists who were selling him the goods. He was in Boston checking on his warehouse operations and had scheduled a meeting with Colonel Barton, the quartermaster, while he was there.
General Gage had recently arrived back in Boston from England and had just been appointed to the position of military Royal Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Massachusetts by King George. General Gage was now becoming very concerned about his army and navy’s position in Boston. After the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the colonists had surrounded Boston and were making preparations to drive the British out. If they were successful, General Gage had plans to retreat to New York and reorganize his army.
When Samuel Ruskin was shown into General Gage’s office by his friend the quartermaster, he was asked to take a seat. General Gage offered him no hand but immediately looked up from his work.
“I understand from my staff that you have been very helpful to the crown’s cause here in the colonies,” opened General Gage.
“I have tried to do some small service to the crown,” replied Samuel with the appearance of utmost modesty.
“Your effort at supplying our troops has been most commendable,” said the general.
“Thank you for those kind words.”
“I think that you may become even more valuable to us in the future.”
“What do you mean, Sir?”
“General Howe is on his way to Boston and will arrive any day now with reinforcements. He will also take command of his majesty’s army in Boston. I want you to work with Howe and from time to time provide him with any information that you may have gathered about the colonist’s activities and plans in Philadelphia and the surrounding area where you are active. You may be more valuable to the crown as a source of information than as a factor. Is there any possibility that you can enlist in the colonial militia?”
“I have just been promoted to the rank of major in the Pennsylvania militia and would be most honored to provide what information that I can,” replied Samuel.
“Excellent, please work out any details with the quartermaster and if you require any additional funds to carry out this service, please let him know.”
“Thank you, General.”
“That will be all,” replied General Gage as he went back to work, leaving Samuel Ruskin to find his own way out of the general’s office.
Samuel saw this as a golden opportunity, and now was the time to grab the golden goose that laid the golden eggs. Of course, he would need additional funds to help the British Army, lots of additional funds. He thought that now he would move from being wealthy to being very wealthy at the British Army’s expense. Samuel immediately began a mental checklist of all the things that he would have to accomplish to be of even greater service to the British Army.
The trip back to Philadelphia by ship had favorable winds and was not too tedious. As soon as he landed and walked into his office in the back of his largest warehouse, he called for his straw boss that helped him oversee his operations in Philadelphia.
“What’s happened while I have been gone?” asked Samuel.
“Nothing
of any major import,” replied the henchman.
“I’m going to be leaving soon and traveling with the Continental Army full time. So I am going to leave you in charge of my warehouse operations while I am gone. You know the drill, and I know that you can handle it. Keep everything running as smoothly as it has been running in the past.”
“I will be happy to do it.”
“Any new rumors around the dock?” asked Samuel.
“Nothing new to speak of, but we did catch a couple of young women trying to pilfer one of our warehouses.”
“Where are they now?”
“We’re holding them in one of the warehouse storage rooms. We were waiting until you got back to see what you wanted to do with them.”
“Bring them to me. I want to talk with them,” commanded Samuel.
The two young women were brought into Samuel’s office, and he leered at them as they walked in.
“What are your names?” asked Samuel.
“I’m Molly and this is my sister Maggie,” said one of the girls.
“Molly and Maggie, it is then. We three are going to have a good time together,” said Samuel as he ogled the pretty young women.
* * * *
Robert and Hugh
“Weel, I love that dirty water,” said the bored Hugh as he gazed into the Charles River. The river did in fact look dirty because it was flowing with a great deal of silt and soil due to the heavy rains that had recently fallen in its watershed.
“Why’s that?” replied the usually taciturn Robert.
Hugh turned his head to look directly at Robert in shock. It was one of the few times Robert had actually responded to one of his comments. Hugh normally tendered these questions, unsuccessfully, just to try to start a conversation with him. Hugh thought that Robert would never take the bait, and he was totally shocked that he had.
“Weel now, since ye asked, Robber, the dirty water turns the wee water wheel that powers the gunpowder mill where we used to work. Without that dirty water, we would have starved to death or frozen to death when we first arrived in Boston. Furthermore, it helps us keep the British Army bottled up inside Boston. I suspect that someone will someday write a song about that dirty water,” said Hugh.
“Doubtful, but maybe,” replied Robert with a thoughtful look. Hugh was doubly shocked that Robert had responded again. Hugh was, for once, speechless and immediately dropped the conversation. Robert didn’t try to keep it going either.
Robert and Hugh had taken leave from their jobs at the Charles River gunpowder mill to join the Massachusetts militia under a full time one year enlistment contract. They didn’t know if they would get paid or not, but they weren’t getting paid very much for working in the gunpowder mill anyway. So not much would be lost if they didn’t get paid for their Massachusetts militia service.
After their skirmish with the colonists at Lexington Green, the British Army marched on to Concord in search of weapons and gunpowder. At Concord, they were confronted to a standoff at the Old North Bridge and driven back all the way to Boston by the American militiamen. After the word spread about the battles at Lexington and Concord, thousands of militiamen from all over Massachusetts, and eventually from all over New England, gathered around Boston to form a siege line surrounding Boston on three sides. They blocked the Charlestown Neck and the Boston Neck, leaving only the harbor and the sea access under British control. As the colonial state militias began to arrive, the British moved their troops out of Charlestown, across the bay into the city of Boston proper. This effectively prevented the British Army from operating outside of the city of Boston. The military action by the Colonial army became a siege of Boston.
General George Washington had not yet arrived to take charge of the Continental Army, as it was now being called. The colonial troops surrounding Boston numbered about fifteen thousand men under the command of Artemas Ward. Robert and Hugh had signed their oath and enlistment papers under Colonel William Prescott. They had been assigned as riflemen to a unit that was operating in the Charlestown Neck region of the siege. The area north of Charlestown was essentially a “no man’s land” between the two armies.
The Continental Army leaders had learned from a patriot who had visited Boston and overheard a conversation that the British were planning to come across Boston Harbor. They would land at Charlestown in force and occupy the high ground of Bunker Hill and Breeds Hill. The British Army wanted to deny the colonial troops access to that high ground. They feared that the Continental Army cannons could be accurately fired into Boston proper from the tops of those two hills.
Robert and Hugh were part of the group of militiamen who had crossed the Charlestown Neck and were manning a redoubt that they had helped build on Breeds Hill. From there, they could fire down on the British Army from behind the earthen and wood walls of the redoubt. Hugh was standing next to Robert on the wooden platform on the south side of the redoubt with his rifle loaded and his pan primed.
“Do ye think the redcoats will come this way, Robber?” asked Hugh.
Robert just shrugged his shoulders. He knew about as much as any of the other soldiers did, which wasn’t very much. They knew that the British had landed at Moulton’s Point in the early morning hours that day and were being deployed somewhere to do something, but they had no idea what it was.
As the afternoon wore on, a line of British soldiers marching shoulder-to-shoulder gradually began to take shape in the distance as they approached Breeds Hill in an assault line along the narrow beach located on the left flank. Robert and Hugh, redeployed along with the other men to the east side of the redoubt, began to fire at the redcoats as they came within range. The British troops were trying to envelope the redoubt around its left side in a flanking maneuver.
“I wish we had Alex with us. He and that rifle of his could pick off these redcoats from a much greater range than we can,” said Hugh.
“So do I,” said Robert with a grimace.
The British attack soon faltered, and the redcoats fell back in disarray to regroup, leaving many dead and dying on the battlefield. The second attack came toward the redoubt directly from the front as well as from the left flank. Robert and Hugh moved back over to the south side platform so that they could fire directly into the main body of charging British regulars. This attack also soon faltered, and the British again retreated from the battlefield.
“How much powder do ye have left, Robber?” asked Hugh.
“I am about out,” answered Robert.
“So am I. Weel, I guess we’ll be fighting them hand-to-hand before it’s over,” said Hugh.
The third assault by the British troops came directly up Breeds Hill in a force that included all of the British troops. Robert ran out of powder first and borrowed a load from Hugh to reload his musket. As Robert turned to resume his firing position, a musket ball streaked across the side of his head, leaving an angry red crease in his scalp. The impact of the ball with the side of his skull knocked him unconscious, and he collapsed to the wooden platform. Hugh went down on all fours to examine him and determined that he was out cold, but still alive. He thought that the musket ball had probably not done any permanent damage other than to knock Robert out.
Colonel Prescott, who was directing the Colonial army from the redoubt, soon determined that the British assault could not be stopped. Given the shortage of gunpowder and ball, they could not continue to resist the British attack.
“Men, pull back to the Charlestown Neck!” he shouted in the heat of the third attack from the British Army.
Hugh handed his and Robert’s rifles to a comrade in arms and bent down to pick up the unconscious Robert by his right leg and right arm. He then hoisted Robert up on his shoulders in a dead man’s carry position. He walked with Robert on his back out of the north side of the redoubt and then began to run carrying him toward the Charlestown Neck. By this time, all the militiamen who had taken firing positions in and around the redoubt were running toward the Neck. Hugh was overt
aking them with the hundred and seventy pound load of Robert on his shoulders. The militiamen, who watched as Hugh passed them, were amazed at Hugh’s strength and stamina as he outran them. Hugh was by far the strongest man that any of them had ever seen.
When Hugh was past the Neck, he stopped and laid Robert down beside a barn. He drew some water from the nearby well and splashed it on Robert’s face to bring him around. Robert’s eyes blinked open, and he looked confused about where he was and what had happened to him. He reached up and felt the crease along his skull and realized that he had been shot by the British.
“Weel, Robber, ye can stop pretending now. I know ye just wanted me to carry ye all the way back past the Neck,” said Hugh.
“I guess it worked, didn’t it?” Robert replied groggily, but with a smile, as he touched the crease in his scalp again.
* * * *
Captain Ferguson
“Attention!” shouted Captain Ferguson loud enough so that all of his troops could hear him.
The green-clad rifle company of one hundred men came to attention in front of the captain. The riflemen in Captain Ferguson’s company looked like elite soldiers. The regular British infantrymen wore red uniform overcoats and because of the color of their uniforms, they were often called redcoats or lobster backs by the colonists. Captain Ferguson’s elite riflemen wore green coats with gold buttons. The regular riflemen wore white pants, but these soldiers wore black pants and black helmets that were normally worn only by grenadiers. Captain Ferguson had designed these new uniforms himself, and he obviously had a flair for the dramatic in uniform design. He wanted these riflemen to really stand out in the garrison and on the battlefield. The uniforms had a British Army uniform cut, but they also gave the appearance that the men who wore them were special.
Kings Pinnacle Page 14