Billy Bacon and the Soldier Slaves (Colonial Warrior Series, Book 1)

by Andrew Wareham

  “If there ain’t one, there ought to be the other, Freeman. It ain’t right.”

  “They all lock the doors and pull the window blinds, sir. In town, they see ships with our flag. On the farms, they hear our muskets. So, what do the clever man do? Nothing at all. He stay hidden away.”

  “Wise words, Freeman. What happens next?”

  “The redcoats land and the Frogs fight; or they don’t fight; or they sink the ships first. We hear big guns, if they fire them. So, they ain’t sunk the Brigadier. Should be, by now, we hear muskets. No fight, I thinks.”

  “Agreed. We might see some of the Frogs who have friends on the plantations running, soon. Rich men might not want to stay where the redcoats are.”

  Freeman agreed, it sounded sensible to him.

  “Pass the word that the men are to load at the halt. We might have to talk to people, tell them to go back to town. Kill a couple and the rest will learn we mean what we say.”

  Billy eased the order of march from the formal column of route to an extended order, the men six abreast across the whole of the track, blocking passage for any traveller in the opposite direction.

  The first and probably the richest townsman, with best pair of horses in the shafts of his carriage turned a bend in the track a little later. His coachman hauled the horses to a stop, ignoring his master’s shouts to drive on. Six levelled muskets meant that the driver no longer took orders from his master.

  “Out!”

  A family including young daughters reluctantly stepped down. Billy felt sympathy for the father – he would want to get his womenfolk out of any town taken, however peacefully, by foreign soldiers.

  “You speak English?”

  If he was a merchant he probably would have a working acquaintance with the language; the islands traded much with each other in times of peace, ignoring the orders from London and Paris both that all business must be conducted only with the home country.

  “Yes.”

  “Where are you going.”

  “To my brother’s house. It will be safer.”

  “It will not. We have beaten the battalion of your army that was sent out after us. There is no protection if the slaves rise.”

  “Jesus! We go back to town, sir.”

  “Go. But first, do you know what has happened there?”

  “There were no soldiers – they had gone to destroy your invasion. The fort surrendered, having too few men even to man its guns. There was one small ship of the navy. That also pulled down its flag. The Governor was talking to the General of your army when I chose to leave. There will have been agreement by now.”

  “Good. Return to town. Tell every man you meet on the road that he must turn around as well, unless he is returning to his plantation or farm inland.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  They marched, the road clear before them, reached the outskirts of the little town and met a first party of the Fencibles, setting up a guard post and roadblock.

  “Lieutenant Bacon – a pleasure to see you, sir. We were told that there is a battalion of infantry out to destroy your little invasion.”

  “Met them, Captain Higgins. Major Palmer is holding the fishing port and the little fort there with a company and the guns. Mr McKay and myself marched with our large companies, sir, and met the French about five miles back. They were holding a ford and had sent half of their battalion roundabout to come behind us. They had some horse, sir, must have been able to scout us. Anyway, sir, that was a mistake because we were able to defeat the half they had left and then hold the ford against the rest. They have made a truce, sir, to collect their wounded and will not fight until tomorrow morning.”

  “I will inform the Brigadier of your actions, Lieutenant Bacon. You have, I think, done very well. You have left Mr McKay to hold the ford, I presume?”

  “No, sir. He fell in the fight. I have just two sergeants remaining; they have the command, but the men are very reliable, have shown well. I have no fears, sir.”

  “I will take that news to the Brigadier myself, Mr Bacon. He will probably want an officer at the position. You should stay here, if you please, and add your men to this post for the while.”

  Billy obeyed, ordering the men to light their fires and put the tea kettles on. He stood back and inspected what he could see of the town.

  It was disappointingly similar to English Harbour on Antigua. The weather was the same here and lent itself to the same style of architecture – clapboard; big windows; airy rooms; white paint, mostly peeling.

  The town was no more than half a mile across and he could see as far as the harbour and its larger warehouses. There were some brick or stone buildings there, he thought, but not many. The fort was easily visible for having a building of three storeys in the centre of its low walls; he imagined that the Governor lived there.

  There was little sign of wealth on the island; copra paid very little, from all he had been told. Money meant sugar and rum and he could spot no cane fields. He commented to Freeman that there were few fortunes on St Pierre.

  “Over on the east side, maybe, sir. The wind come off the big sea, should be wet. More rain, more sugar.”

  “Did you learn that on Antigua or back in Africa, Freeman?”

  “Never been to Africa. Born on Antigua, sir. Listen and watch and hear things like how sugar grown and where.”

  It had not occurred to Billy that men would be born into slavery; it was obvious, now that he had been told of it.

  “Tea, sir.”

  Billy took his mug, thankfully. He had could accept Army tea, while it was not too full of sugar, and knew in any case that he must drink all through the day, at least a mugful of fluid every hour, more if possible. The Tropics punished any man who did not keep up his intake of liquids. He thought that was why so many of the British he had seen on Antigua were drunks – it was often easier to take alcohol than go to the bother of boiling up the kettle, and no man lived long who risked unboiled water.

  They waited, talking quietly, the town silent, dead, apprehensive.

  A carriage appeared, coming from the direction of the fort. The driver waved as he came in easy sight, made a curling motion, rising, over his head.

  “What that, sir?”

  “Don’t know… Feathers! On parade! General officer!”

  The three platoons formed up in double lines.

  Next to them Captain Higgins’ company formed its own block, separate and refusing to acknowledge the West India Regiment. None of the officers had come across to greet Billy or to ask what had happened inland.

  The carriage, small and rather ancient when it came close, swung to a halt and Captain Higgins jumped out and ran round to hand the Brigadier down.

  “Lieutenant Bacon! Well met, sir! Are these your men? Smart turn-out for men who have been in the field, and won a victory, I am told. Give me the round tale now.”

  Billy recounted the whole since he had left the ships.

  “Took the village and a fort and then brought a bit more than two hundred men to meet me here, as ordered. Major Palmer chose to remain with a fat garrison and the guns, you say? He should have left two platoons with a sergeant. Poor behaviour, and so he will be told! The Frogs chose to split their battalion and paid the price for it; always been told that. ‘Don’t never split hup your force’, that’s what they ‘ave told me, more than once.”

  “Yes, sir. It meant that we could defeat one part of the battalion and then be set up ready to face the rest. They fought hard, sir. The French lost two to our one, about two hundred and forty dead and wounded they took, sir.”

  “So you lost more nor a hundred, Lieutenant Bacon. But you still brought your men, all you could, across to carry out your orders. Lost Lieutenant McKay and his sergeant.”

  “Yes, sir. With Major Palmer’s permission, I shall make one of my corporals up as sergeant, sir.”

  “You won’t get his permission, Mr Bacon, because he’s going back to England. He should have been at the
front, where, I have no doubt, you were to be found. I shall need the agreement of the Governor in Antigua, but we shall see about officers one way or another. For the while, you will remain in the barracks here. I shall send the rest of your people in as well. Don’t make any promotions yet – not even acting. I shall get heverything horganised, myself.”

  Captain Higgins resumed command of his roadblock and Billy took his platoons down to the barracks that had previously housed the French.

  The French battalion had been a long time in those barracks and had made them comfortable. They had added curtains or sunscreens to the windows; there were cotton sheets to the bunks, of which there was one apiece; they had carpentered backs for the benches in the canteen and had improved the kitchens by building ovens in addition to the boiling pots. The three platoons settled in and prepared to relax. Billy called them together for a brief parade.

  “We may be here as the permanent garrison. Then we will live here, so keep it comfortable and clean. Treat the people of the town well. If we stay here as garrison we don’t want to have to watch our backs,”

  Freeman translated where necessary.

  “Cooks to me now. The remainder, dismiss. Remain here, muskets close to hand. Don’t go into the town today.”

  Three cooks stood waiting for him as the rest of the men fell out.

  “In the morning, go into the market – it must open up again, the people will need food. If possible, buy fish for the men. If there is fruit, buy some. Vegetables the same – there may be okra and beans at least. Corporal Freeman will give you the money in a few minutes.”

  Billy found the officers’ quarters and grabbed the best room for himself; the bulk of his kit was still at the fishing village. It would probably catch up with him.

  “How many silver shillings will the cooks need, Freeman?”

  “Five, not more, sir. Could be less.”

  Billy dipped into the pocket inside the waistband of his breeches, pulled out silver coins, acceptable by weight rather than face anywhere in the islands. He was carrying ten pounds, the remainder, a great weight of silver shillings, in two knapsacks with his kit; he hoped it would not have walked.

  “Do not say the money is from me, Freeman. I will get it back from Major Palmer.”

  “You be lucky man so you do, sir. No man get many pennies off Major Palmer, sir.”

  “You’re probably right. I’ll make sure Brigadier Searson gets to hear of it; he’ll pay me back. His family is rich!”

  The rest of West India Regiment left the river and marched into St Pierre on the following day, escorting the French as prisoners of war. They had agreed to surrender and were to be sent off to Martinique as soon as ships could be made available; hopefully they would be exchanged there, but it was none of Billy’s affair – that was a matter for the Brigadier.

  The French were left at the harbour and the West India Regiment marched to the barracks, rejoining Billy’s companies. They had lost enough men that they fitted into the French accommodation, separate from the fort and the Fencibles, which both preferred.

  Captain Simons was in command, Major Palmer having been sent back to Antigua as unfit for service.

  “Lieutenant Bacon – there are but the pair of us as officers, and we are short of sergeants. The Brigadier has ordered that we must make up our own sergeants from the men. Unbelievable, but an order must be obeyed. We shall remain as three companies, each with two sergeants, so you need to make up a pair of these fellows. It’s your idea, so you can choose them, and take the blame when they go wrong, as is certain. There will be another officer, one at least to come from Antigua. What rank the officers will be, I do not know. The Brigadier has all in hand, so he says.”

  Billy saluted and said nothing. He set about putting the men into order in the barracks, and then arranging their food.

  Freeman went to Billy’s room and lugged his bags inside.

  “Heavy, two of they bags, sir.”

  “Take a look inside them. No reason you should not know what they contain.”

  Freeman peered at the wealth inside, said nothing. He had never owned a shilling piece in his whole life, had never seen more than two together. He could not imagine just how rich Billy was.

  Billy pulled out two shillings, put them in Freeman’s hand.

  “You are my personal man, so you are entitled to pay, Freeman. Now, find out what is going on in town. Did the French officers live in the barracks here? If not, where were they?”

  Sergeant Affleck answered those questions later.

  “Bachelor Mess, sir. None of the French had brought families with them. I suspect, sir, that when the regiment got its orders, before the Revolution, all the married men transferred out and single men came in. Same sort of thing happens in England too, sir. Captain Simons is in the other big room, the same size as this, and there’s a dozen other smaller ones. I’ve set the corporals to clearing them, sir. Freeman will have the stuff from the rooms, if you want it; there might be some clothing you could use.”

  There had been a French officer a little bigger than Billy in the room he had appropriated, but they wore clothing loose in the islands, and the shirts and linen trousers were easily modified, Freeman able to find a needlewoman in town. That man’s boots were simply too small, which was a pity as half-boots and even more, knee-highs, were hard to come by. Freeman set to work, rooting through the trophies collected from the other rooms and making exchanges or offering silver for those claimed by the corporals. A few days and Billy had boots and cotton stockings and a dozen shirts and linen neckcloths and four pairs of trousers; riches, in fact. He had never owned more than two shirts to his back in his life. Freeman came up with unmentionables as well, smallclothes in cotton and in linen; then he found some handkerchiefs.

  A personal servant, something Billy had never dreamed of, made life so much easier, and required only a very few of his shillings.

  Freeman thought of a solution for the weight of silver in the bags.

  “Man down in the town, sir, he got gold coins. French, them louis of theirs. He can’t spend gold on St Pierre, for being seen if he do. Must be a smuggling man, I thinks; maybe he sell French slaves across to English islands, or the other way about. He pay a good rate, gold for silver, sir. Easier to carry louis than shillings, sir.”

  As well, Billy thought, if he was noticed to be in possession of louis, they would be loot, and ignored. If he was seen to have too many silver shillings, then questions might be asked.

  “Who is he, Freeman? No, don’t answer that, none of my affair. Deal with it for me, Freeman. Take a cut on the deal yourself – no such thing as something for nothing, not in my book!”

  Freeman had intended to pocket a shilling or two, but was pleased to be treated so open-handedly. He came back with two hundred and ninety louis d’or, each coin weighed and true.

  “Man say they go weight for weight at seventeen shillings, sir. I give he two hundred and twenty pounds in shillings, sir, at twenty to the pound, so I reckon we are up about three hundred shillings on the deal!”

  Billy was unsure of the arithmetic, but it sounded good. He tossed a louis across to Freeman.

  “Tuck that away safe, man. With my thanks.”

  The small gold coins took up far less space in Billy’s luggage. He had two leather valises now, as well as a leather trunk and his original knapsacks – he was accumulating the possessions of an officer and a gentleman, he believed. If he was ever transferred to another battalion, men would see his baggage and believe he was something more than a poverty-stricken ranker lieutenant, and that might be useful.

  Three weeks after the island was taken and Billy was formally ordered into the Brigadier’s presence.

  “Confirmation has harrived from Antigua, Mr Bacon. The West India Regiment is to have four companies, under command of Major Simons, which I have just spoken to him. Two other lieutenants have been located and are to arrive within days. You are to be breveted Captain; that is, given the
rank temporary-like. Hif you perform well, Mr Bacon, you will be granted permission to purchase in two years; or the rank may become available without-purchase, under normal terms. The Governor writes that the promotion is made in recognition of your service in the taking of the two islands. You are formally commended, Mr Bacon, and Horse Guards has been informed that you have been very successful in the bringing to discipline of the men of the West India Regiment. I believe that as many as a full brigade is now to be recruited from slaves and freemen.”

  Captain - that was almost unbelievable, even if it was only a brevet. He could do the job, he realised; most lieutenants spent three or four years learning how to be soldiers before they became captain, and he knew that already. Any sergeant worth his salt knew how to lead a company – it was just a matter of standing in front and shouting ‘come on’; that was not hard, provided one was a man, not a sheltered boy, and the concept of a ‘sheltered’ sergeant was a nonsense.

  He would receive the pay and perquisites of the rank, and eventually would make it permanent. He would stay with the West India Regiment, no doubt, but he had never expected to return to England and the alternative was to go to India, which he might still do. He would be second-in-command, as well, and if they went into the field again, then no doubt Major Simons would prefer to remain at home.

  Billy allowed himself to smile.

  “Thank you, sir. I am much obliged to you.”

  “Not at all, Mr Bacon! You performed your duty well, sir!”

  “Will we remain at four companies, sir?”

  “No decision has yet been taken, Mr Bacon. The West India Regiment will be used as garrisons, mostly, and will not need full sized battalions in its locations, probably. At the moment, it is planned to ‘ave at least five battalions to the Regiment. It may be that the Regiment will be used if attacks are to be made on the Spanish Main, where the fevers wipe out English battalions in days sometimes. No such plan has yet been made. The Fencibles are to return to Antigua, Mr Bacon, leaving your forces to garrison St Pierre. You will be at liberty to make up your numbers to the original level.”