Rebel Rhyder 40 231 000
- 1 year ago
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The last ambush we staged in that area got a little out of hand. It was just George and me although I do not remember why. We saw this bunch at a farmhouse late one afternoon, found a good spot, loaded both rifles and muskets, fixed up a hiding place and waited. In an hour or so, here they came, and we counted in the long shadows.
"Seven," George said.
"Thought it was eight," I said. "You sure?"
He nodded. ""You ready?"
I nodded. Our horses were in the hiding spot, and we had plenty of practice. It looked like one officer and a half-dozen men, a pretty ordinary patrol. I wondered why they had visited the farm back there. We had seen no signs of violence or fire.
At about 250 yards, I brought down the first man and handed George my rifle while he gave me his. At about the same distance I got the second, who had dismounted to help the first. The others were coming at us hard, at where they had seen the smoke. At a hundred yards, I blew the leading rider out of his saddle, and his horse dragged him off into the woods. I wondered if I had hit the horse somehow.
We ran for our hole, moving in the woods toward the Redcoats rather than away from them. After they thundered by, I stepped out and shot the trailing rider. He waved his arms, dropped his musket and tumbled off the back of his horse. Three left, the officer and two men. We split up. George took the other side of the road. We both had big trees for cover. After a bit, here they came, back toward us. They stopped where the man lay spread-eagled in the road, and we stepped from behind our trees and shot down the dragoons, leaving only the officer. I pulled my pistol and walked toward him. He sat looking at the dead men, trembling and then he spurred his horse right at me.
"Shit," I said, and shot his horse in the chest as I ducked aside. The poor animal tumbled and rolled over the man. A thousand pounds of horse seldom does you any good. He was not dead when we got to him, but he was in bad shape, probably with internal injuries as well as a broken leg and fractured wrist.
"Why'n't you jus' shoot him," George asked, loading his rifle. "He ain't gonna make it."
I went back to strip the dead while George shot the injured horse and looked through the moaning officer's saddle bags. I did not find anything worth keeping, but George found a fat folder of papers we were sure Captain Foster was going to like, lists and lists of the names of cooperative Tories.
The damaged officer, a fair-haired lieutenant roused himself and cursed a bit. He sat up and coughed out some blood and mucous.
"Let's jus' shoot him." George said.
I made a sling for his arm and tied his leg around some sticks after popping the broken bone back together as best I could. He yelped but did not faint. We got him on a horse and headed back for the house they had come from, stopping twice to check bodies and finding little worth taking.
At the farm house a white haired man and aproned woman helped us get the Redcoat down, into the house and onto a cot. They cleaned him up and the man praised my splinting of his leg.
"What were they doing here?" I asked the man while the woman fixed us some victuals.
"Well," he said, "we're loyal, what I guess you call Tories," he say quietly.
"Where are the others?" the woman asked.
"Gone," I said. "Dead."
"All of them?" she asked.
I nodded and she sniffed.
A girl came in from the back, probably from the barn since she had a pail of milk in her hand. She was full grown and well-fed, almost busting out of her shirt in fact.
"My granddaughter, Jean," said the woman. "She's staying with us for a while."
"You a Tory too?" I asked her.
She smiled and nodded.
"She don' talk," the woman said. "Ain't since she were ten or so. Somethin' happened."
"We want to take that man back to camp with us; he's our prisoner," I said.
"Don' think so," said the man. "He's all broke up inside, ribs busted at least, maybe cut into a lung."
"George," I said, "how 'bout going back and fetching us a wagon, doctor if one's free."
George looked at the silent girl and then at me. He nodded and left.
I went in and sat by the lieutenant near the fireplace. The girl came and sat on he floor nearby.
"How you feeling?" I asked.
"Go to hell," he said.
"There's ladies here."
"Don' give a damn. Look what you done to me. Hurts to draw a breath."
"I sent for a doctor," I said.
"Ballocks," he said. "Why didn't you shoot me like your friend said?"
"Not my job. We're scouts. Them papers in your saddle bag are going to get us a few days off, I'm thinking."
"Oh my God," he said, looking really frightened, trying to sit up. I held him down. "You got any liquor?" I asked the girl. She nodded and brought back a jug. I poured the man a cupful and handed it to him. It drank it down like it was water and shuddered. I poured cup for myself and took that down in a gulp or two. It was good stuff, felt it flow all the way down to my cods.
"You grandpa make this?" I asked the girl by the fire.
She nodded and smiled. I wondered how old she was, fifteen, twenty, hard to say with her freckled face and skinned back hair. She was mature, that was certain, and robust enough to get my blood churning.
I talked with the white-haired man and his wife, explained that George would not be back at the earliest in a full day and more likely two if he had to find a doctor that was free and if our captain thought it worth doing.
They allowed as how the wounded man could stay where he was, and I could sleep in the barn loft. I told the man how much I liked his corn, and he smiled and thanked me. I asked the girl if she would take care of the lieutenant, and she looked at her grandparents and then nodded at me. I could not think of what else to do so I took care of my horse, used the privy, climbed the ladder and rolled up in my blanket.
"Something odd is going on over in Wessextown," the old lady said. "You've nothing useful to do. Go investigate." I gobbled down my breakfast, tended to my horse and weapons and was on my way before the sun topped the trees. Wessex was a small, tidy town with a pleasant square, a white church, two taverns, a sawmill and a respected potter. I headed for the larger tavern and had a good beer. The place was empty but it was barely noon. "Yer jus' in time for the show," the publican...
The British continued to harass us, pressing us back in our retreat. My company was usually doing rear-guard duty. One day, a week or so after my enjoyment of the girl in the barn, a pleasure my aching cock still recalled early in the morning, we swooped down on the supply train of a Redcoat regiment and were deep into pillage and plunder when a bunch of dragoons appeared out of nowhere, and we had to fight for our lives and then flee, every man for himself. They ran off our horses, and I...
The girl that sat on the pulled-down steps of the fancy carriage looked sad indeed, nearly despondent, head down and knees wide apart. She was drawing on the ground with a stick. She glanced up as I dismounted and gave me a wan smile. There was neither team nor driver in sight so the problem was obvious. She stood and my cock stirred. She was a true stunner, dressed in the height of fashion and sporting a mop of dark red hair that cascaded over her shoulders and well down her straight back,...
I reached the McB-- plantation on a bend in the James just about sunset, feeling very proud of myself since I was about halfway to Portsmouth. I had a good horse under me and had rearmed myself with the weapons I had used all during the Revoltuion, tools my hands knew well. Now if I could promote a hot meal and a warm woman for my bed, it would be an almost perfect day. Long and bloody, but almost perfect. On my way south I had given the Ranger camp a wide berth. I left my horse with a young...
"Those beasts," said Madam Von R--, "are holding a fair, as they call it, and have a girl, a very comely girl, as one of the prizes in some sort of contest." "One of our people?" I asked. "A rebel?" "Of course. Why else would I bother?" she said impatiently. "Go get her out of there." "Yes'm," I said and set out. It made for a very curious weekend. That Friday I nosed around and found that there was, indeed, a competition, open only to militiamen, no British regulars or...
"There is," said the old Madam, looking exceedingly cross, "a woman who is doing us harm, at least she is trying to do so, the foolish harridan. I want you to go see her and convince her of the wickedness of her ways." "Me?" I said. "Why not send a preacher?" "No," the Madam said with an evil smile, "you have the equipment for this task. This woman is using her body in the service of our enemies and crowing about how much more manly the Germans and English officers are compared...
General Greene detached Von Steuben to head up Virginia's defenses and headed south again, looking for whatever was left of Gates' defeated army. At Hillsboro, North Carolina, where a rag-tag government sat, no one knew where Gates was, but we were told that Cornwallis had abandoned Charlotte after the fight on King's Mountain. That is where General Greene finally found General Gates, in Charlotte on December 2. Gates, disgraced as well as defeated, seemed as happy to see us as we were to...
Harold, the coffee-colored horse trader, proved to be, as reported, a good man who knew his business. I used Jeff's name, and he showed me some animals. We dickered a bit, and he sold me a mare and a decent saddle and set of capacious bags at a fair price for those days when the rebels and Tories had cleaned the countryside of horse flesh more than once. "Do me a favor while you're here," Harold said as I looked my new horse in the eye and stroked her big nose. "Certainly," I said,...
Of course, I did go on to visit Trenton, just to renew the human spirit, check up on my trusted sources and get my ashes hauled. Both Ginny and Mrs. Foster seemed happy to see me, and I them. Ivy and I saw each other, too, but kept our distance like a brace of mockingbirds in the same shrubbery. Rebecca had returned to New York and her Royal Navy husband. On my final winter-time visit to Trenton, during one of our brief periods of rest, Ginny said, "You gotta do me a favor." "Like...
I awoke to the sound of many hooves on the nearby road. I rolled out of my blanket, found my rifle, stayed low and crawled to the roadside. Here came a redcoated officer, a captain, followed by a bunch of horses and a couple of well-mounted dragoons. I watched them pass, trying to count the horse flesh, at least a dozen, roped in pairs and threesomes. Then there was a mule-drawn farm wagon filled with barrels, kegs and a small blonde, bound and gagged, that I assumed was a girl from the...
Being seduced means being made a fool, and it happened to me more than once. You would think I would learn but I didn't. When a young lady suggested love making, my brain stopped working and other glands took control. This time it happened at a tavern in New Brunswick. I had been in town almost a week, dressed as a farm laborer and spending most of my time and some of General Washington's brass in trying to find out what the British were planning. I had not shaved for a while and probably...
And then I found the lovely Teresa, my gorgeous, gold-haired girl. I had rescued her from a dock in New York, loved her until we both were senseless, saved her from a burning shack after she had been repeatedly raped by a score of militiamen, and then sent her on to her faux diplomat-father, hoping she would mend and he would properly care for her. That was where I found her, at her father's fine, tall, brick house. (See Rebel #8) One of my contacts told me that there was a wealthy Spanish...
In mid-August I entered Portsmouth to find the town almost deserted. I guess it was still technically in British hands because that flag flew on the docks and at the magazine, but the royal presence was much diminished. Margy sat with me drinking beer and describing the exodus of Cornwallis and his troops. "You should a'seen some of the women he took off with him. Ew, the smell," she held her nose and laughed. "So business has been kind a'slack?" "Right, an' they closed Arnold's...
On my way back to my duties, I stopped to visit Frances again, drawn like a bear to honey, anticipating another happy tumble in the hay, complete respite from the never-ending war. It was a terrible mistake. She rose to her toes and kissed me when I opened the door to her bedroom and found her alone, writing a letter. The room smelled like roses. It was midday, bright and sunny, and the large, high bed looked very inviting. "So how's the poor, lonely, little widow?" I asked when my mouth...
The second time I went to visit Madam Von R--'s doctor friend, he had good news for me. A compatriot of his, another doctor, had died, he said, and had shelves filled with various medications. "I'm sure his widow has no use for the stuff," he assured me. "She's a fine woman, but I have no idea if she is politically inclined." He gave me directions and a note of introduction. It took most of the day to make the trip with my light wagon, and I was hungry and tired when I knocked at the...
"They's been transferred," the girl said with a smile. "I ain' gonna miss 'em neither." "Who?" I asked, "who's been transferred?" "The bloody regiment," the girl said with an exasperated tone, almost ready to give up on my flabby member which was all right with me since we had been at it hard and heavy for nearly an hour. "Are they now?" I said. "Who'll be coming in?" "Don' know," she said, slapping the limp thing and rolling out of bed, giving me a good look at her...
I was bent low when the shot burned my thigh and hit my poor horse. She stumbled, dumped me in the frigid stream, got to her feet and limped away after scrambling up the far bank. By then I had rolled over several times, failed to grasp a tree root and was in the swift-flowing main stream. I pulled off my soggy boots and thrashed about, trying not to swallow too much water and then I rammed head first into a boulder and knocked myself silly. I awoke with two people pulling on my arms and my...
"Now," the old madam said, lifting an eyebrow, "this is a special case." "You always say that," I told her with a smile. She hit me with her fan. "This fine young woman really is especially special, you impertinent cur. Wait until you see her; you will understand. And she may be in serious trouble. I can't really tell from her note. She has been useful to us, very useful. Go quickly, do whatever she tells you." I went quickly where I was told, arrived late at night, stabled my...
Foster sent me and George right back to New York as a team. We had our separate tasks but worked several times together to achieve our ends, either for ourselves or the Continental Congress. George would sometimes rescue a damsel from my attentions or I would come upon my friend trying to rob or assault someone, drive him off and earn his or her gratitude. One of the people Foster told me to see about was a colonel of artillery who supposed knew all about forts and gun positions, numbers of...
"Take off your clothes, you stupid bitch," commanded the sneering officer. I was beaten and chained to a rafter so there was little I could do but watch. The major glanced at me and then returned his attention to the girl who had removed her bodice and dropped it to the floor. "Hurry up, strumpet," the officer snarled. "Haven't got all day." She stepped from her skirt gracefully, let it fall and pulled her shift over her head and tossed back her long hair. She had not worn...
The men who captured me were a mix of Scots and Germans under the command of a young Englishman with an aristocratic look and a sadistic streak. His mixed and motley company had been out stealing horses when they found me late one morning disporting myself in a barn with a young maiden who had been around the track a few times. We were so busy with our efforts to please each other that neither of us heard the horsemen approach until they were in the barnyard. The girl squealed, slithered out...
Jeff Reynolds and Harry Smith had begun work at the mine in Kolbazi on the same day. Jeff was an accounting manager and Harry worked in distribution. Both men were expatriates from England, having moved to Africa lured by the promise of salaries that were four times what they could ever expect to receive at home. In addition, they were provided with small but comfortable bungalows in a safe section of the small city. Jeff and Harry were similar in appearance and personality. Each was in...
A captain we met down there had two lovely daughters, and on several occasions he brought them into camp to entertain the visiting officers from the north. One was sweet and cooperative, charming and polite, but the other, the younger one, was a tease. That's what we called girls like that back home, cock teasers. She led men on, flirted and flounced, played with them, fanned them, flattered them, made them think it was available, showed it to them and then took it away, rejected them and...
The shots were from up the hill in front of me and somewhere off to the left, two of them. I kicked my horse and moved that way while a part of my mind suggested hesitation and care as well as minding my own business. The first things a saw when I broke out of the treeline was a a small farm house, a good sized knot of horses, a man holding some of them and obviously guarding the others. His back was to me and he wore a militia uniform. He was a Tory. I counted six well-groomed mounts at the...
My horse had gone lame, and I was afoot that morning, carrying my rifle, the captured muskets well hidden, when I almost walked into a Tory company camped alongside the road. One man saw me, yelled and waved as I ducked into the pine trees and ran for it, in no mood to tackle a dozen, well-armed men. They came crashing after me, hooting and hollering like it was some kind of game or cross-country hunt. I stayed low and moved as fast as I could through the dense woods, across a stream, up a...
Mrs. Snyder, Ivy and the tangle of bony arms and thin legs that were her three rambunctious sons welcomed me with a fine, late supper behind shuttered windows. I looked at Ivy in the candlelight and saw why her mother was so determined to hide her, to save her chastity if she could. She was blooming, becoming a beauty, finer boned than her lusty mother but just as lovely and almost as tall. In Felicity's large, soft bed, after we had satisfied each other to the point of mutual moaning and...
My luck held. I did not have to spend much time freezing in Morristown that long winter, and I already had a bout with smallpox which left a few holes in my hide but little more. Instead, Lieutenant Foster got made a captain, and our bunch became a ranger company, at least for a while. Mostly we were back at harassing the Redcoats and Germans as much as we could, shooting unwary officers, playing fox and hounds and making their lives miserable as possible on a regular basis. I even started...
On one early winter trip back to camp after an invigorating evening in Ginny's arms and legs, I ran into an odd situation. I heard a couple of gunshots in the distance and then discovered an expensive chaise standing at the side of the narrow road, and in it I found a very dead British lieutenant of infantry. He had been shot twice, evidently at close range. Powder burns showed around his wounds. The only other thing in the small carriage was a lady's reticule or purse. The man's pockets...
Unlike warmly remembered Boston, we did not find many welcoming women out there in the swamps and hills. Nancy, Melissa and Cecelia were the satisfying exceptions, along with a few others. Much of the frozen countryside was deserted, the animals confiscated or driven off and the farmhouses and barns empty if they still stood. For some reason the Crown sent a new minister into the wilds of New Jersey. The old one had fled during the confusion after the fights at Trenton and Princeton. The new...
The year is 2058. For the last decade, most of the world has known only conflict as east and west waged total war on one another. After the nuclear destruction of many prominent cities across the globe, an uneasy truce was signed and a new order has emerged. Most of Eastern Europe and Asia have fallen behind what has been called a "New Iron Curtain" as a Russian-dominated union spread its influence further across the continent... ----- An old moped drove through rural Belarus in the very...
It was late, or early actually, and the moon was setting, looking cold and distant, when the woman came to my blanket. "Please," was all she said, on her knees beside me, her hand at my shoulder. I lifted the edge of the old blanket, and she rolled in, sighing. She was barefoot but fully clothed. I put my hand on her ribs and felt her stays. "How can you sleep in those things?" I asked, sliding my hand up between her full breasts to begin unlacing her strings. "Don't," she said,...
The last river I had to cross was a nameless, northern tributary of the Broad. Winter had finally arrived with day after day of cold rain blowing in from the northwest. The fords were high and I kept going upstream until I found an operating ferry. I beat on the keg intended as a signal drum and a person finally emerged on the far side, waved at me and went to the flat-bottomed barge. Across the roiling stream it came, bobbing up and down, and I loaded my two horses aboard and tried to help...
"Missy," I yelled, "where the hell are my clothes? I can't go running around out there killing Redcoats and chasing after Benedict bloody Arnold and your frigging husband, the honorable Justin sodomite H--, in jus' my birthday suit!" "Now, don' get yo'self all riled up," she said, crawling back into the bed after using her chamber pot and adopting a deeper Southern accent. "Old Miss Martha'll be along directly with your clothes, all brushed and so forth, honey lamb, boots shined...
Late one rainy afternoon when I returned to my basement hideout, I found a woman standing at the foot of the steps, huddled in a dark, hooded coat and using her sleeve to ward off the blowing sheets of cold rain. She was tall and that was about I could tell about her except that the hem of her coat and dress were very wet and heavy. "Help you?" I asked, huddled in my old jacket and wishing I had worn a hat. I could feel cold water running down the back of my neck. "Does the S- family...
And then I awoke in a cellar although it took me some time to figure out where I was. My feet were tied together, my hands bound behind me, there was a damp gag in my mouth and my eyes were bandaged. I mentally took inventory and found most of my other parts were present and in working order. I could not feel any blood or new lumps on my head, but I had a metallic taste in my mouth. The gag was absolutely the worse part not only because it nearly strangled me in my own spit but tore at the...
The three men bent over their horses' necks and galloping down the road may or may not have seen me as they came on in a rush, but they simply ignored me, and I was forced to scramble into the woods to avoid them. I cursed under my breath and watched as the Redcoat hallooed and his two German companions dug their heels into their steeds to keep pace. I cut back through the trees, urged my mare to leap a small stream and came back to the road in plenty of time to dismount, load a double shot...
There I was, tied to a post in a dirty barn, stripped bare to the waist and facing as nasty a crew as I had yet found. They did not give a damn about rebels and Tories or anything else. They wanted money and they had mine and hoped I would lead them to more since my purse had been heavy with blood money. I had at least one tooth that was loose, and my eyebrow was dripping blood. I worked on my knots, rubbing my hands up and down the rough post, failed to get the thick pole moving by pulling...
On one of my last trips to visit with Mrs. Von R--, seeking knowledge of British intentions and a warm bed, a black woman hoeing at a kitchen garden stopped me as I walked past the back fence of her long plot. "Ho, mistah," she cried, waving her free hand. "You shore is a big 'un. How 'bout helpin' some poor folks?" She leaned on her hoe and looked at me stony faced, a bandana covering her head and her feet bare. I was in a hurry, eager to find a bedmate since Mrs. Von R-- usually...
It took me a while to figure out that the big, young woman with the long legs and wild hair was in charge of the place and that the man I mistook for the inn-keeper was just one of her employees. She was well past being sturdy, nearly six feet high in her thick-heeled boots and easily twelve stone. She wore plain, country clothes with no decoration and her full, firm body moved freely beneath them like some sort of caged animal. She had heavy thighs, wide hips and full breasts, a firm jaw and...
The woman under me was smiling while her body heaved and rolled from side to side. She raised her hips and her velvety quim pulled me deeper into her when I already felt fully extended. I surged up and back, rocked left and right, trying to screw it in even farther. She squealed and shuddered, pouring fluids over my root as our bodies slapped together. We grunted and throbbed together, thrust and recoil, thrust and recoil. It felt a foot deep in her, banging into her bones, thick and hard....
Staging ambushes became our specialty. Since most agreed that I had the best Pennsylvania rifle in the company, I was often the bait in our trap. Once we had spied a small camp of the enemy pickets or a foraging party at work, my job would be to step out in the open, fire at them a time or two, aiming for the officers of course, and then run for it once they got moving toward me. If we worked it right, we could bag up to a dozen men and horses that way, replenish our supplies and send a...
Not Credible "See this here place, this area," the lieutenant said pointing to his map. I nodded. "Somewhere in these woods there's a home guard bunch that has been raising hell with the Redcoats," he stopped and looked at me. "You ain't busy are you?" "No sir," I said, not wanting to lie but having enjoyed several days of inactivity. "Go find out who's leading 'em. Tell 'em we're getting ready to retreat again. See if you can get this bunch to join up." I nodded and...
"Now," said the big Redcoat, "since you insist on being uncooperative, I have a bargain for you, a trade let us call it." He turned to one of the men near the door. "Bring those two bitches in here," he said. The heavy door of the basement room swung open and two more British soldiers entered, each with a woman in tow. They brought their prisoners to the colonel, clicked their heels and left. Now, just a few feet away, stood a handsome woman and a younger girl. Both wore nothing but...
It was absolutely one of our best ambushes of the whole retreat. We cut the foraging party down like hay, seven men dead and one dying in less than a minute. The women driving the two big wagons did not even have time to duck for cover before it was all over. While the smoke blew away and my lieutenant finished off the wounded man with a pistol shot, I took note of the women with the reins in their hands. They looked a lot alike, fair-haired and sun burned, poke bonnets and farm dresses, long...
"So where have I gone wrong?" "You have not gone wrong Jane, its just that we are not going anywhere in this relationship" "Graham, I gave everything in this relationship, I gave up promotion opportunities,hobbies, you name it". Tears were now in her eyes, there was also a pause. She thought about the holiday in Spain she had booked for them both. "Jane we have both tried, but I find it hard now." He did not want to say it, but before he could even think about it, Jane asked...
“I fucked Becky Howard last night, and she has the smallest tits I have ever seen,” said Todd to his two friends. They laughed and went back to their hamburgers.“Was she any good?” said one of the others after putting down his food.“She was alright I guess, sucked my dick a bit but wasn’t very good at it. And she would only do the missionary position and that’s so fucking lame.”The three young men continued to discuss Becky’s body and what she had done the previous night. I sat at the table...
College SexSince I was in town I rode out to check on Sarah and Jean, the two girls we had rescued from the Hessians earlier that winter. They were living with a farm family that had lost two chidlren to the smallpox and seemed to have settled in right well. Neither had become pregnant as a result of their repeated rapes and both were happy to see me and insisted that I stay for supper to see how well they had learned to cook. I did and they had. Their sour apple pie was as good as any I ever...
We rode right into it and paid the price; two of my company dead plus the driver and footman shot off the carriage. I rolled from my wounded horse and scrambled into the weeds and thorn bushes while George galloped off in the other direction, going for help I certainly hoped. It was a whole company of howling Germans, blue jackets with red facings, and they laughed and gabbled while they searched the dead and pulled two women and a well-dressed man from the rig. I had not been told who we...
I once got to play the knight in shining armor, but of course in my own shabby way. I was eating and drinking in a tavern near the river when the stage stopped and seven passengers trooped in to dine. The group included one striking woman in a long purple cloak. She stood out from the crowd, like a rose among toadstools, not only because of her dress, but because of her cool poise, striking posture, curly brown hair, dark eyes and voluptuous beauty. She was a fine, healthy woman, perhaps...
For the next couple of months, things went on much that way. The British sat in the towns, enjoying life among the Tories as best they could, eating well and rogering regularly, I'm sure, and Washington worried about where they were going and had his recruiters out far and wide seeking replacements for his still-dwindling infantry companies. We heard all sorts of rumors, even a report that a big Redcoat and Indian army was coming down the lakes from Canada, but basically it was a waiting...
When I reported back Captain Foster smiled and said I was just the man he wanted to see. Peter McGinn and I were the only members of the company in town, and there was a visiting officer who had asked for some protection while he scouted about and got to know the country. The officer was a portly Frenchman who spoke almost no English but had with him a young woman, who he claimed was some sort of relation and who acted as his interpreter. We just assumed she was his doxy. The four of us set...
In April, I had an interesting experience with an officer's wife and one of her sons. She was Angela McG-- and he was her oldest, Rodney, a good-sized lad of sixteen, fuzz-faced, long-legged, gawky and eager to get into the fight. He wanted to join the army like his quartermaster father, and she did not want him to. Captain Foster sent me to see her, and I am not sure whether or not he thought he was doing me or her a favor. She was a healthy and handsome woman in her mid-thirties. She had...
I had one more side trip on my way north, again a pleasurable one although it involved a lot of hard work and very little killing. A woman stopped me from beside the road just after I had topped a rise. She held up her hand and smiled at me, sharing a fine and gracious look. I dismounted. I always had a thing for redheads, and this woman had a rich, dark, auburn mane that flowed well down her back. She was handsome and she knew it. There was pride in her stance. "Need some help," the big...
Catching the general was much easier than it should have been. He was traveling without a guard detail, just the driver and an armed footman on the seat. We shot them both, tore open the door and found a portly man of fifty or so in a long-tailed red coat, a trim captain less than half that age, a stylish woman of perhaps thirty and a frilly girl that might have been twenty. The women claimed to be the wife and daughter of the general, although I doubted that from the first sight of them, and...
In May I reported that it seemed the British were getting concentrated down toward Amboy. Captain Foster decided that meant Philadelphia for sure, and I warned the ladies in Trenton to be prepared to run for it if Howe's big army came their way. It took me two pleasurable days and long nights to do that. Washington then moved down to some wooded hills in what the locals called the Watchung Mountains, to keep a closer eye on the British. While his much healthier and somewhat larger army dug...
It took me almost another week to make my report and find that Dan Morgan, Captain Foster and most of my fellow scouts were being pursued by Tarleton's legion in a hit and run series of fights and skirmishes. The British were hitting and we were running, deeper into the hills. By then, just after Christmas this was, Morgan had crossed the Broad River heading west, and, we found out a week later, Greene had moved the rest of his raggedy army, perhaps a thousand men, out of Charlotte and set...
Then Howe's big army just up and vanished. Captain Foster was fit to be tied and gelded. "What the hell do you mean, they're gone?" he yelled at me when I reported I could not find them. "Where did they go? When did they go? What the hell have you been doing? No, don' tell me." "I think they got on ships," I said. "I was all the way down to Hazlit before I ran into pickets and sentries. Fellow in a tavern said he had seen two hundred ships out in the bay. I asked him if he counted...
That day, the 16th of January it was, I looked up the date, we found Tarleton's bunch only about five or six miles away and coming on pretty fast. Captain Foster said the army would be leaving Thicketty Creek and that Dan Morgan was looking for a place to stop running. He planned to stand and fight. I hurried back with my information while Reedy stayed to shadow the British and Tories. He never came back so I guessed he must have made a mistake somewhere. Morgan had camped near a low hill...