by Ron Carter
They slung their bedrolls over their shoulders, picked up their rifles, and walked out into the brilliant day. A few soldiers slowed to stare at them as they made their way north through camp. Eli waited while Billy delivered his letter to the office of the adjutant, and they continued on, out of camp, following the wagon ruts winding north at the foot of the western slopes of the Thimble Mountains.
Eli slowed to stare silently at the spectacular colors, and listen to the sounds of birds and insects. The mountain air was so pure they could count branches on pine trees half a mile away. Billy said nothing, giving him his time, and then suddenly Billy was aware that Eli was doing more than basking in the deep beauty of a rare spring day. He was drawing a strength from the wilderness into his soul. He had been too long away from the power of the forces of nature, too long in the confused, tangled webs of intrigue of the world of white men. His inner wellsprings had been drained.
As they moved on, Billy spoke. “Will we be going near where you were born? Your home?”
“Probably not. We’ll likely not get that far north.”
“How far south did the Iroquois come while you were with them?”
“All down the Lake Champlain country. A long way south in the Hudson River valley. We fought battles. Hunted food.”
They fell silent as they moved on, each deep in their own thoughts. The wagon road rose to cross a low knoll, and as they reached the crest, Billy stopped and turned to look back. The valley lay before them, with the three white steeples and the green trees marking Morristown, and the smoke of cook fires rising straight into the still air to show the Continental army camp. Billy stood still for a time while his thoughts ran.
Eli spoke quietly. “I been concerned since you decided to come. Your home is in Boston. You’re leaving a lot behind, and no one knows when you’ll ever see it again.” He looked Billy in the eyes. “You belong here. Sure you want to go on? No one would fault you for staying.”
Billy stood silent for a long time. “Why are you going north?”
Eli drew and released a great breath. “I believe I have a sister up there, and I learned down here that she was taken in by a preacher named Cyrus Fielding. Maybe I can find her.” He dropped his eyes for a moment, then raised them. His gaze was intense as he finished. “But that’s not the whole reason. I got a feeling that this country was meant to be free and it won’t let go of me. That’s why I’m going.”
Billy dropped his eyes and for a long time stared unseeing at the dirt and growing grass and tiny mountain flowers in the wagon road, and then raised his eyes.
“I know. It won’t let go of me either.”
They looked back at the breathtaking beauty of the valley for a moment longer, then turned their backs. With the warm sun on their heads and shoulders, rifles in their hands, they walked over the crest of the low hill, down the north slope.
They did not look back.
Notes
Washington established his headquarters in Morristown on January 7, 1777, and the Continental army quartered in the protected valley all winter (see Stryker, The Battles of Trenton and Princeton, p. 303).
May 6, 1777, British general John Burgoyne arrived in Canada with a plan to proceed south down the Lake Champlain-Hudson River “corridor” and target several forts, particularly Fort Ticonderoga, which was thought to be the key to holding the northern section of the continent. From there, he would proceed further south to Albany to join forces with General William Howe and the Mowhak Indian chief, Joseph Brant. The objective was to cut off the northern colonies and end the war with a “divide and conquer” tactic. General Burgoyne was not only well known in the high society of England, he was an effective, proven officer (see Ketchum, Saratoga, pp. 73-76, 84-85, 88).
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Chase, Philander D. ed. The Papers of George Washington. Vol. 7, October 1776-January 1777. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia, 1997.
Clark, Ronald W. Benjamin Franklin: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1983.
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Fast, Howard Melvin. The Crossing. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1971.
Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951.
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Johnston, Henry P. The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn. 1878. Reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1971.
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Mackesy, Piers. The War for America, 1775-1783. 1964. Reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
Nelson, Paul David. General Horatio Gates: A Biography. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1976.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Richard B. Bernstein, a constitutional historian specializing in the Revolutionary generation, made a tremendous contribution to the historical accuracy of this work, for which the writer is deeply grateful. The staff of the publisher, Bookcraft, most notably Lisa Mangum, editor, and Jana Erickson, art director, spent many hours immersed in the details of preparing the manuscript for publication. Harriette Abels, consultant and mentor, again performed her magic, and finally her approval.
However, the men and women of the Revolution, whose spirit reaches out from the pages of history to lift and inspire, were ultimately responsible for this series.
This work proceeds only because of the contributions of all those who have helped.