Kings Pinnacle

by Robert Gourley

“Nae, lad, we’ve nae heard anything from the auld sod,” said Hugh, shaking his head.

  “What have ye been doing in America since ye arrived on the Ocean Monarch?” asked Hugh.

  Alex gave them a short summary of his life and adventures since he had been in America, giving only a brief reference to Martha and his role in saving her life. He mentioned his run-in with Big Mike on the docks in Philadelphia when he first arrived in America, but he didn’t hold a grudge against Big Mike. Robert and Hugh then gave Alex a short summary of their life and adventures since leaving Scotland. Hugh, of course, did the most of the talking.

  “I want you and Robert and Big Mike to join my group, the First Continental Cavalry,” said Alex, when the brothers had finished bringing each other up to date.

  “Weel, Robber’s and my enlistment in the Second Mass is up at the end of the year. That’s just two days from now, since today is December 29, 1776. I think that we can join up with ye on January first, Alex,” said Hugh.

  “How much does it pay?” asked the grinning Hugh.

  Alex grinned back, looked at Robert, and smiled at Hugh’s joke.

  “I would feel much better with you and Robert with me. General Washington thinks that the British are going to counterattack us. He has received intelligence that a large British force is making its way south toward Princeton even now. We are going to deploy our army in a defensive position on the south bank of the Assunpink Creek and try to stop them there, just south of Trenton,” said Alex.

  They were interrupted by a soldier who stuck his head into the tent where the three brothers were talking to tell them that General Washington had called an assembly of the entire Continental Army at a field near the camp. The three brothers filed out of the tent and joined the streams of men who were walking to the parade ground to form up with their units.

  The entire army was standing in formation in the field when General Washington rode out in front of them on his white charger. He cut a very dashing figure in his blue uniform and the men looked at him, eager to hear what he had to say.

  “I know that most of your enlistments are up at the end of this year, two days from today, but we are faced with a grave threat from the British Army. We must keep what we have gained and not forfeit it because of the lack of men. If you will stay and fight with me for one more month, I will pay a bounty of ten pounds to each and every man who stays and fights. All men who will stay for one more month, cock your firelock and step forward to show me that you will fight,” said General Washington.

  Not a man stepped forward, so General Washington let the uncomfortable silence drag on for a while as he sat on his charger, facing the men and making eye contact with several of them. When the silence became insufferable, General Washington continued speaking from atop his horse.

  “My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than could be reasonably expected. But your country is at stake, your wives, your houses and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out and with fatigue and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay only one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty and to your country, which you probably never can do under any other circumstances," pleaded General Washington, who paused and waited for any men to step forward.

  Once again, no one stepped forward at first, but suddenly Robert, who was standing in the first row of the men in the Second Mass, glanced at Hugh, raised his rifle into both hands in front of him, cocked his flintlock, and stepped forward, with Hugh stepping forward almost at the same time. For a few seconds no one else stepped forward, then the Longhunter stepped forward, followed by Big Mike Finn and most of the men in the army. General Washington was greatly relieved and very thankful for the volunteers and the show of support.

  “The victory at Trenton a few days ago has given our entire country heart, and to our fighting spirit; it has provided a rallying cry to all the rebels in the colonies. Before that victory, it looked like we were about to collapse. Let not the cause of liberty go unheeded. Now we proceed to defeat the British again,” concluded General Washington with his sword held aloft.

  “Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!” shouted the men of the Continental Army.

  * * * *

  Samuel

  “I want you to get your cloak on and go to Princeton. Find the commander of the British forces there and give him this message from the Prophet. General Washington plans on defending Trenton just south of Assunpink Creek,” said Samuel to the young woman.

  “Oh, sir, it’s a long way to Princeton. I have never been there before, and it’s much too cold outside,” said Molly.

  “It’s only eleven miles from Trenton to Princeton, and Trenton is just across the river about two miles from here. You can cross the river on the Trenton Ferry and then walk north on the Old Princeton Road out of Trenton. After you pass Maidenhead, you will find Princeton just five miles further north on the road. The cold shouldn’t bother a young healthy girl like you with your cloak on; however, your sister could freeze to death out in the cold if she didn’t have the proper clothing on,” replied Samuel as he sneered at Molly.

  Molly ducked her head and looked at the ground. She knew that she was defeated. Samuel continued holding her sister Maggie as a hostage. He was using Molly’s love for her sister as leverage, and Molly couldn’t do anything about it.

  “Who is the commander of the British forces that I should deliver the message to?” asked Molly, who feared that Samuel would follow up on the veiled threat to her sister.

  “The British commander in Princeton was General James Grant, but I don’t know if he is still the commander there now. You’ll just have to get there and find out,” said Samuel.

  Molly put her cloak on and walked out of her tent to leave the camp, while Samuel walked back to his tent to plot his next move.

  As Molly crossed the outskirts of the camp, Alex was coming out of the tent that he, Robert, and Hugh now occupied. Alex saw her walking out of the camp and recognized her immediately as the young woman he had questioned at the Assunpink Bridge prior to the battle at Trenton. So he followed her as far as the Trenton Ferry.

  Molly thought she was being followed as soon as she left the camp. She glanced behind her several times during her walk to the Trenton Ferry, but she was not able to see anyone behind her.

  Alex couldn’t ride the ferry with her because he was sure she would recognize him and clam up when he questioned her or perhaps abort her mission. He decided to follow her instead and see what she was about. He was forced to wait until the ferry returned after depositing the passengers on the other side of the river. After he crossed the Delaware River on the ferry, he searched all of Trenton and could not find her anywhere in or around the town. By the time Alex had finished searching the town, Molly was already walking north past Maidenhead on her way to Princeton.

  Alex finally gave up the search and returned to the camp. Now that he had seen her in daylight, he had a better description of her. He described her to Robert, Hugh, Big Mike and the Longhunter and told them to be on the lookout for her and to let him know if she showed up in the camp again.

  * * * *

  Alex

  “I think General Washington has a plan for the upcoming battle that he hasn’t told anyone about,” said Alex.

  “What would that plan be?” asked Hugh.

  “I don’t know. He hasn’t told me either.”

  “Then how do ye know he has a plan?”

  “I’m not sure. I sense it more than anything else. General Washington has ordered the troops to build a fortification parallel to the south bank of Assunpink Creek, but that leaves the flanks, especially the right flank unprotected. It’s not like General Washington to forget about any details of a pending battle. So that’s why I think he must have another plan,” replied Alex with a worried look.

  “Weel lad, all I know is that I am ten pounds richer than I was yesterday and that General Washington is a man of his word,�
�� said Hugh smiling at Alex.

  Alex and his men, including Robert, Hugh, Big Mike, and the Longhunter, mounted their horses to ride across on the Trenton Ferry and then north from Trenton along the Old Princeton Road. Their job was to delay the British Army’s advance all along the stretch of road from Maidenhead to Trenton, as much as they possibly could with such a small force of men. At Five Mile Run, just south of Maidenhead, Alex set up the first ambush. He placed some of his riflemen in the trees and others at concealed locations along the creek, where the British could not see them from the road.

  General Cornwallis had arrived at Princeton with almost eight thousand British regulars and Hessian troops. He left part of his forces in Princeton with General Charles Mawhood and, taking the balance of his army, set off for Trenton. His marching orders included a small detachment of Hessian jagers and British light cavalry that were leading the way. While General Cornwallis had been in Princeton preparing for departure, a young woman was shown into his office by one of his lieutenants.

  “How may I be of assistance to you, madam?” the general had asked once the young woman was seated.

  “Sir, are you the commander of the British forces in Princeton?” asked Molly.

  “Yes I am, madam. How may I help you?” asked the affable general.

  “I’m here to give you a message from the Prophet.”

  “Ah yes, the Prophet that I have heard so much about.”

  “The Prophet said to tell you that General Washington plans to defend Trenton just south of Assunpink Creek.”

  “Thank you very much. I suspected it to be the case. Is there anything else?”

  “No that was the entire message.”

  The general stood, indicating that the meeting was over, and pointed toward the door with an open hand, indicating that Molly should show herself out of the office. Molly left the general’s headquarters in Princeton, satisfied that she had delivered the message. But she still had the uneasy feeling that she was being followed. She had felt it very strongly earlier in her journey before she left the camp and boarded the Trenton Ferry but she didn’t feel it as strongly now and that concerned her. So to elude any potential tail, Molly decided to take a different route back to the camp. She walked west out of Princeton on a trail toward the Delaware River. Following that trail all the way to the River Road, she had turned south and walked along the River Road all the way back to Trenton. It was a bit out of the way, but Molly thought it was worth the extra time and distance to throw off any follower. Molly took the Trenton Ferry back across the river and returned to her tent. She did not see anyone following her the entire time, so she had chalked up her unease to nerves.

  For the British commanders, the information from their spy in the midst of the rebels, who called himself the Prophet, had not shed much light on the military situation. General Cornwallis didn’t modify his plan based on the information. When General Cornwallis reached Maidenhead, he detached Colonel Alexander Leslie with fifteen hundred men as a reserve force and ordered them to remain there until the following morning. Cornwallis, with the remaining fifty-five hundred men, set out from Maidenhead for the final six miles to Trenton.

  As soon as the Hessian jagers and British light cavalry leading General Cornwallis’s army came within range of the first ambush, Alex and his men opened fire. The ambush caught the Hessians and British off guard, throwing them into a state of confusion. British regular troops were called up from the main unit to form a battle line, but by the time they arrived, Alex and his troops had vanished. Alex and his men had retreated after the first volley to take up a concealed position in a heavily wooded area on the south bank of the Shabakunk Creek. The British and Hessians finally realized that the snipers had retreated. Their leaders got the army moving south along the road again. They had wasted too much time getting reorganized after the ambush, and as a result they were behind schedule in their advance on Trenton.

  When the leading elements of the British troops crossed the bridge over the Shabakunk Creek, Alex and his riflemen opened fire again at very short range. There was no possibility they could miss, so several of the enemy soldiers were killed outright. The British searched the woods for an hour and could find no one. They finally gave up and once again resumed their perilous march toward Trenton.

  At each ambush point, Alex and his men had evaporated into the woods like ghosts after the initial volleys were fired. By the middle of the afternoon the British had advanced to a ravine called Stockton Hollow, just a half mile north of Trenton, where Alex and his men had set up yet another ambush. By this time, the British had caught on to the delaying tactic and attacked Alex’s men in force as soon as the first volleys rang out. Alex and his men kept up the fight rather than retreating and fell back slowly as they fought.

  “Fall back into Trenton, men. Use the houses for cover. We will fight them all the way through Trenton back to the Assunpink Bridge!” yelled Alex as he and his men slowly retreated.

  The British kept coming at a slower pace as Alex and his men continued to fall back to the Assunpink Creek Bridge. At the end of the running battle, Alex got all his troops across the bridge without losing a man or suffering any serious wounds. By this time it was late afternoon, and the British troops were weary from the march and from fighting Alex’s men.

  The British force attacked the American position on the south bank of Assunpink Creek three times before nightfall, but were repulsed each time. The bridge over the Assunpink Creek was red with blood and the red cloaks of the fallen British troops. When General Cornwallis finally arrived in Trenton, it was fully dark. When he learned that the initial attacks by the leading edges of the British forces had failed to dislodge the Americans, he called a council of war, including all his commanders, to decide a course of action.

  Based on the recommendations of his officers and his own opinion, General Cornwallis decided to pull his troops back for the night to a position on a hill just north of Trenton in order to rest his troops and feed them. He decided he would attack General Washington and the Americans at first light the next day and finish them off.

  “We’ve got the old fox cornered now. We’ll go over the bridge and bag him in the morning,” said General Cornwallis to his officers as he dismissed the council of war meeting.

  Early the next morning, General Cornwallis’s toilet routine was interrupted by one of his lieutenants who entered his tent in a rush and out of breath.

  “Sir, we have a disaster on our hands,” cried the disheveled aide.

  “What seems to be the problem, Lieutenant?”

  “Sir, when we attacked the American positions across the Assunpink Creek Bridge this morning, we found that the rebels have vanished!”

  “The old fox has slipped out of the bag,” muttered General Cornwallis to himself as he turned aside from his aide to consider the situation.

  The Continental Army and General Washington had not exactly vanished. While General Cornwallis’s aide was explaining the situation to him in his tent, General Washington and the Americans were already attacking the British positions in Princeton. At two o’clock that morning, General Washington had assembled his staff officers and commanders just south of the Assunpink Creek.

  “Gentlemen, we are going to evacuate our position here on the south bank of the Assunpink Creek immediately. We will follow the creek bank eastward and then northeast, circling around General Cornwallis’s army. We will ford the creek about two miles from here where it is shallow, and march north to Princeton to attack the British garrison there. Let us march in absolute silence. Have your men wrap rags around their guns to minimize noise, and absolutely no talking will be permitted while we march,” said General Washington.

  “Lieutenant Mackenzie and Captain McCoy, I would have a word with you,” said General Washington.

  As soon as all the officers had left, General Washington turned to Alex and Ellison.

  “Captain McCoy and Lieutenant Mackenzie, I am going to leave you and five h
undred men and one cannon behind. I want you to make noise with shovels and picks and keep the fires burning to create the illusion that we are digging in here. Fire the cannon into the British encampment at irregular intervals to further the illusion that we are staying put. Just before dawn, I want you to evacuate the men and cannon and abandon this position. Quick march the men and the cannon to join the main force for the attack on Princeton,” said the general.

  “Yes, Sir,” replied Captain McCoy and Lieutenant Mackenzie in unison.

  By the time the sun broke through the low morning clouds just above the horizon, Alex, Ellison, and the five hundred men that General Washington had left behind had already evacuated their positions to join the main army. So when the British attacked that morning, they found the Continental Army was gone.

  In Princeton on January 3, 1777, after a brief battle against the British garrison, the Continental Army decisively defeated the British and captured most of the troops under the command of General Mawhood. It was the second British loss in ten days. General Howe was mortified by the defeats and ordered the British Army to withdraw from southern New Jersey, moving most of the British and Hessian troops all the way back to New York.

  * * * *

  Samuel

  “Why are my messages not getting through?” asked Samuel, speaking to Molly, who was sitting on her cot inside her tent.

  “What do you mean, sir?” asked Molly.

  “If the British Army knew in advance where the Continental Army was located and what their intentions were, then why did the British lose the last two battles at Trenton and at Princeton?”

  “I’m sure that I have no idea, sir.”

  “Are you positive that you delivered my message to General Cornwallis?”

  “Yes, Sir, I did.”

  “Describe General Cornwallis to me.”

  “Sir, he is a heavy set, very courteous, rotund gentlemen with a ruddy complexion. He has a very sharp, long nose and bushy eyebrows. His hair is blond and curled at the ends, and he has a cleft in his chin. He was wearing a red coat with black lapels, and the buttons on it were gold. There was a gold braid attached to the top of the shoulders of his jacket. His white vest also sported gold buttons.”