Kings Pinnacle

by Robert Gourley

  “Hmm, that does sound like him. So you actually spoke with him in person in Princeton, not just one of his aides?”

  “Yes, sir, I spoke with the general himself.”

  Samuel was puzzled by the patriot victories that he had surely sabotaged. He didn’t understand how the British could lose, and he wanted to blame the defeats on Molly. But it appeared that in spite of his advance warnings, the Americans were superior in these two battles.

  Without another word, he turned and walked out of Molly’s tent, deep in thought.

  * * * *

  Alex

  “It’s a good thing General Washington has been keeping his plans to himself and then springing them on us at the last minute,” said Alex, speaking with Robert and Hugh after the Battle of Princeton.

  “Why is that Alex, lad?” asked Hugh.

  “General Washington suspects a spy in our midst, and he has asked me to ferret out the traitor.”

  “What progress have you made?” asked Robert.

  “Not much, but I have some clues. I just haven’t been able to put it all together yet.”

  Alex then told Robert and Hugh about why he was interested in the young woman that he had described to them earlier. He also told them about his hopes that she would provide a clue to solving the mystery.

  “Alex, now that the British have retreated, and we are going to move to our winter quarters, I doubt that the spy will be very active. We may have to wait until the spring campaign later this year to make any progress on it,” said Robert.

  “My thoughts exactly,” replied Alex.

  Alex looked at Robert. It was probably the longest conversation that he had engaged in with Robert since they had been reunited. Alex knew how intelligent Robert was and that Robert, Hugh, and the Longhunter could probably help him find the spy. If Robert put his mind to a problem, he usually solved it.

  * * * *

  Captain Ferguson

  “General Howe, Captain Ferguson reporting for duty,” barked the captain, standing at attention in front of General Howe’s desk in his office in New York.

  “Welcome to the colonies, Captain Ferguson. I have heard a lot about you and have been eagerly expecting you, your troops, and your new rifle. I am sure that you will be of great assistance to me in putting down this damnable colonial rebellion,” replied the enthusiastic general, who stood up from his desk to shake hands with the smiling captain.

  “My men and I have just arrived in New York and are waiting aboard the Christopher, sir. We are ready and eager for a fight,” said the elegantly dressed captain in his green jacket and black trousers.

  “Excellent! You will be assigned to help me with the spring campaign in New Jersey. We have experienced losses to the rebels late last year in Trenton and already this year in Princeton. As soon as we get this winter behind us, we will need something or someone to provide a spark for our side. I think that you and your new rifle might be just the thing to provide that spark.”

  “I remain at your service, sir,” replied the captain, preening a bit and formally bowing at the waist.

  “How many men do you have, Captain?”

  “We are one hundred strong, sir, ready and chomping at the bit.”

  “Tell me more about this rifle of yours.”

  “This new rifle that I invented is a breech loader, sir, based on an improved version of Chaumette's breech loading design. It shoots sixty-five caliber balls and is accurate to a range of up to two hundred yards. That’s twice the range of the Brown Bess. It can be loaded and fired from a standing, kneeling, sitting, or lying position. And its rate of fire is twice that of the Bess, sir.”

  “That’s impressive. Let’s work out how you and your troops can best be used in my spring campaign to wipe out the Continental Army.”

  The two officers sat down at the desk to come up with a plan to use the new rifle company against the Continental Army during the coming spring campaign.

  * * * *

  Alex

  “We’re now settled into winter quarters here in Morristown. There won’t be any more battles fought until spring,” said Alex, who was talking with Robert, Hugh, and the Longhunter.

  Following the Battle of Princeton, General Washington had moved his troops to Morristown, New Jersey to spend the rest of the winter. After the victory at Princeton and the retreat of the British Army to New York, the Continental Army had marched due north to Morristown, arriving there on January 6, 1777. General Washington had known that the British were regrouping in New York, so the Continental Army regrouped just to the west in New Jersey. The troops knew that the battles would start again as soon as the weather improved in the spring.

  “Why do ye suppose that General Washington picked this spot for our winter camp?” asked Hugh.

  “Well, it’s far enough from New York to keep us from being surprised. And it’s got good access to Philadelphia, so I rate it a fairly strategic location,” answered Robert, before Alex could speak.

  Alex nodded agreement with Robert’s analysis. General Washington had established his headquarters at Jacob Arnold’s tavern located on the Morristown Green. The army was quartered just outside the small town in their tents. Morristown was also chosen because General Washington and his staff thought that the town could supply enough food for the army for the few months that they would be camped there.

  “I want you three to fan out in the camp and make as many friends among the troops in the other units as you can. Try to find out from the other soldiers about anything unusual that is going on or any stories about strange things that might have happened that defy logic. Also check out the camp followers. They seem to know a lot about what is going on in the army. There might be a clue out there somewhere that will help us find the traitor. I don’t want to leave any stone unturned this winter,” said Alex.

  “I would be more than happy to spend some time among the camp followers,” said Hugh with a grin.

  “I’ll bet you would,” replied Alex with a glare. Turning to his other brother instead, he continued, “Robert, why don’t you spend some time with the camp followers and let Hugh make the rounds with the troops?”

  General Washington’s main job during the time that the army was idle was to replace the men whose enlistments had expired. Many had left the army to return to their homes, and the new recruits needed to be trained. The Second Continental Congress that met in Philadelphia was encouraged by the victories at Trenton and Princeton. They had given General Washington enough funds to replace all the men who had left the army.

  Alex did not lose any men from his unit that winter. They trained on horseback when the cold winter weather would allow it. When the weather was too bad to train, Alex, his two brothers, and the Longhunter continued their investigation into the traitor to see if they could gather any clues. But clues were not easy to come by. Molly stayed in her tent most of the time and was seldom out during the daylight hours. During one such venture out, she had seen Alex from a distance at the camp and had recognized him as the officer who had questioned her at the Assunpink Creek Bridge. After that, she took every precaution to avoid him. As a result, the investigation went nowhere during the winter. Robert, Hugh, and the Longhunter had no luck at all, even though they had moved freely among the troops in all the units of the army. They had asked a number of pointed questions that could lead to a clue about the identity of the traitor, but they got nowhere.

  When spring finally arrived, General Washington decided to begin his campaign again, so he called a war council of his officers. As each officer filed into his conference room, he shook hands with each one individually, thanking them for coming.

  “Gentlemen, our tactics against the British this coming summer are going to be hit and run. They will try to draw us into a major battle, but we are not strong enough to take them on right now. We currently have about eight thousand men, and almost three thousand of them are either sick or disabled. These men are unable to fight. The British have seventeen tho
usand fighting men at New Brunswick alone. We are outnumbered a little over three to one. We will fight skirmishes and try to whittle away at their numbers until we can get them down to our size before we will risk a general confrontation. I would like for everyone to give me a report on the condition of their units,” concluded General Washington.

  During the spring and summer of 1777, General Washington kept his word and did not engage the British Army in any major confrontations. He harassed them constantly and fought skirmishes, but there was no apparent victor in any of these confrontations.

  * * * *

  Captain Ferguson

  “Captain Ferguson, you and your men have performed admirably against the rebels this year. That rifle of yours is all that you said it would be. With a whole army equipped with your rifle, I could put an end to this rebellion in a few months,” stated General Sir William Howe in a conference with the captain at his New York headquarters. It was the middle of July 1777.

  “Thank you, sir,” replied the smiling Captain Ferguson.

  “Tell me about the incident with the ammunition,” commanded General Howe.

  “Ah, the ammunition, yes,” said Captain Ferguson. “It was our first engagement, sir, and the quartermaster issued my men seventy-five caliber ball shot, which is the size ball that the Brown Bess uses. My rifle is, of course, bored for sixty-five caliber balls. The difference in size and weight between the seventy-five and the sixty-five is very small. It’s relatively easy to mistake one ball for the other. The ammunition, of course, jammed in the breeches, and we had a few rifle barrels explode when the ball was fired into the barrel by the powder blast. We had a devil of a time clearing the jams until we borrowed some ramrods from the regular units to dislodge the oversized balls. It was a dicey bit for a while, but we were able to escape the skirmish and acquire the proper size ball,” continued the captain. “From there we have had no problems.”

  “Very good, captain. I have been trying to draw Washington out into battle all summer here in northern New Jersey, but can’t seem to get him into a major engagement. He seems to want to fight these damn small skirmishes where there is no clear winner or loser,” said General Howe.

  “Yes, sir, that is true, but we are losing more men than he is,” replied the concerned Captain Ferguson.

  “Yes, I know, and I want to end this rebellion this year. That is why I am going to attack and take Philadelphia. As you know, Philadelphia is the rebel capital and where their so called Second Continental Congress sits in session. If I capture Philadelphia, then the war will be over.”

  “Sir, on the European battlefield, the capture of the enemy’s capital traditionally ends the war. But I doubt that Washington will give up, even if we take Philadelphia,” replied Captain Ferguson.

  “He might not, but he might. I am going to take Philadelphia anyway. I don’t like fighting these damn skirmishes. By attacking Philadelphia, we might be able to draw Washington into a full scale battle and defeat him, even if he won’t surrender.”

  “Sir, it is a long march from New York to Philadelphia. We will have to cross the Delaware River at some point, where we will be vulnerable to attack. We would also have to build boats to cross the river because it is too wide to ford that far south. That will delay the crossing quite a bit and lengthen our vulnerability.”

  “You have hit the nail on the head, Captain. That’s exactly why I am going to take the British Army to Philadelphia by sea,” replied General Howe with a self-indulgent smile.

  This was indeed a surprise to Captain Ferguson, whose respect for General Howe increased greatly upon hearing his battle plan.

  “There is one other item I want to discuss with you, Captain. We have successfully placed a spy in Washington’s camp. This spy, whose name is by the way Major Samuel Ruskin, provides us with advance knowledge of Washington’s movements and deployments if he can. He has been fairly reliable in the past, with a few exceptions. I want you to be my liaison with this spy during the Philadelphia campaign. We have set up a way to send information to this Ruskin fellow from time to time, but it is not entirely reliable. I have sent Ruskin a message already that you will serve as my proxy,” said General Howe.

  “I would be honored to help any way I can, General. How will I get in contact with this Ruskin fellow?”

  “You won’t, Captain, unless it is of the utmost importance or I command you to. He will contact you, usually through a third party. He has been using a young woman to carry these messages to us. I don’t want to use her to send our messages back to Ruskin. We can use someone else for that. I think that would be much too risky, since we know nothing about this young woman. She could even be a double agent.”

  “How will I recognize this young woman?”

  “She will say that the message is from the Prophet. That is his pseudonym or nom de guerre as it were. We want to keep his identity a secret. You and I and two others are the only ones in the entire British Army who know of his existence and identity. I want to keep it that way,” replied General Howe. “Don’t breathe of word of this to anyone else. I don’t want to compromise him.”

  “As you wish, sir,” replied the captain.

  The British Army departed New York from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, courtesy of the British navy a few days later, in late July 1777, and, after encountering a number of delays, finally arrived at Head of Elk, Maryland in late August 1777.

  * * * *

  Samuel

  “Take this message from the Prophet to a British Captain Ferguson who commands an infantry rifle company of the British forces that now occupy Kennett Square, Pennsylvania,” said Samuel to Molly after he had finished with her. “Find this captain, who will be camped somewhere near the main force. Tell him that Washington intends to block the oncoming British Army at Chadds Ford and make his stand there on the road between Baltimore and Philadelphia.”

  The British Army had sailed from New York south along the New Jersey coast with the intention of entering the Delaware Bay and traveling up the Delaware River to Philadelphia. But intelligence reports indicated that the Continental Army had set obstructions in the river, making it impassable. These reports later proved to be false, but in reliance on them, the British fleet had sailed further south and entered the Chesapeake Bay. They sailed up the bay all the way to Head of Elk, Maryland and unloaded the troops near the mouth of the Elk River. From there, they marched north to find the Baltimore to Philadelphia road so that they could follow it into Philadelphia. General Washington had learned of their intentions and had moved his army south from his winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey, to take up the high ground in the best defensible position he could find near Chadds Ford, on the Brandywine River.

  Unlike many of the other rivers that crossed the road from Baltimore to Philadelphia, the Brandywine River was a shallow but fast-flowing river that was fordable at only a few places. It was the best place he could find to try to stop the advance of the British Army. General Washington had issued general orders for deploying his army and ordered his commanders to determine where to position his forces.

  “It is only seven miles from Chadds Ford to Kennett Square,” continued Samuel. “You can be there before nightfall if you leave right now.”

  “Yes, sir,” replied Molly.

  Molly rose, dressed and immediately left the tent, walking west out of the camp, to find the road toward Baltimore. She waded across the Brandywine River at Chadds Ford, since it was less than waist deep at that point, and dried off on the west bank. Then she walked along the road again toward Kennett Square.

  When she had walked a little more than four miles from Chadds Ford, she came upon some British troops who had set up a check point in the road. A British soldier stopped her when she arrived at the check point.

  “What is your business here?” asked the soldier.

  “I have a message for Captain Ferguson,” replied Molly.

  “Ah, then you are in luck. Captain Ferguson has his headquarters tent set up jus
t off the road, in the trees south of here,” said the soldier pointing to a game trail path that led south from the road.

  “Thank you, sir,” said Molly as she started walking down the path toward the tent.

  It was only a short walk to the tent that was set up in a clearing near the trail. There were two British soldiers on guard outside the tent near the front tent flaps. Molly walked up to the two soldiers and stopped in front of them.

  “I have a message for Captain Ferguson,” repeated Molly.

  “One moment, Miss, I’ll check to see if the captain will see you,” replied one of the soldiers, who went inside the tent and reappeared shortly.

  “Captain Ferguson is very busy right now, but if you will wait inside the tent, he will see you as soon as he can free himself,” said the soldier as held the tent flap open for the young woman to enter the tent.

  Molly walked into the tent and stepped up to the British officer who was sitting behind a field desk writing on a piece of paper. The officer seated at the desk ignored the young woman and continued writing.

  “Captain Ferguson, I have a message for you,” said the obviously impatient Molly.

  The British officer continued to write, completely ignoring the girl. Molly waited a few minutes and attempted to interrupt the officer again.

  “Captain Ferguson, I have a very important message for you,” repeated Molly.

  The officer glanced at Molly, held up his hand for her to stop, and then continued to write, again ignoring the young woman. Molly saw that he had glanced at her, so she held her peace for several minutes. Then when she could wait no longer, she attempted to interrupt the captain again.

  “Sir, it’s very important and from the Prophet.”

  The officer stopped writing and looked up at the young woman.

  “What is the message from the Prophet?”

  “The Prophet says that General Washington intends to block the advance of the British forces at Chadds Ford.”