Kings Pinnacle (19 page)

Hugh finished opening the
hatches and led George and his men down into the hold, where Hugh
pointed out where the tea was stowed. They lit the candles and
began placing them where they illuminated the hold so that the men
could see to work.

“Why do ye want to throw the
tea into the harbor?” asked Hugh.

“It’s a long story, lad.
Let’s just say that we need to send a message to King George and
the Parliament in England,” said George Hewes.

“Me brither Robber and I can
help ye throw the tea into the briny. We got a head start and
already threw some of it into the harbor back in Larne,” said Hugh
to the puzzled look on George’s face.

George had no idea what Hugh
was talking about, but continued to light the candles and size up
the job.

“Well, lads, let’s get to
it!” shouted George to his men.

The men spent the next three
hours hoisting the tea chests to the main deck using the ship’s
block and tackle gear. On the deck, they broke open the tea chests
with hatchets and clubs, and dumped them, along with their
contents, into Boston harbor. When they were nearing the end of
their task, Robert pulled Hugh aside.

“Hugh, come with me,”
whispered Robert.

Hugh followed Robert as he
led the way down into the ship’s galley. Robert grabbed a handful
of cold ashes from the cook’s fire and mixed them with some water.
He took the dark paste that was formed by the mixture and smeared
it on his face and on Hugh’s face so that they would look like the
Sons of Liberty in Mohawk costumes who had boarded the Dartmouth.
Robert then tore up some rags and tied them around his and Hugh’s
head and around their sleeves to further disguise their appearance.
The brothers then took the ship’s blankets from their cots and
wrapped them around their shoulders. They climbed up to the main
deck, where they joined the men who had just thrown the last of the
tea chests into the harbor.

As the patriots began
climbing down the ship’s ladder to their boats, Robert and Hugh
mingled with them. They got in the line at the ladder to depart the
ship as if they had been members of the party. Just as they were
about to descend the ship’s ladder to the boats waiting below,
Captain Hall caught sight of them. He ran up and stopped them from
going down the ladder.

“Good luck to you lads. I
have no hard feelings, and I’m not going to try to stop you,” he
said as he held out his hand to shake hands with the two
brothers.

“You two would have made
good sailors, but I understand why you want to leave the ship. Your
debt for the tea you threw overboard in Larne is erased as far as I
am concerned. That tea would have gone overboard here in Boston
harbor anyway. Farewell to you both,” said the captain.

“Good luck to you and the
Dartmouth,” said Robert as they descended the ladder and took up
rowing positions in the patriots’ boat.

It was about nine o’clock at
night and after a few strokes of the oars, Robert climbed up the
dock ladder onto Griffin’s Wharf and looked around at the city of
Boston, cloaked in its cold December night colors.

“Weel Robber, what do we do
now?” asked Hugh after he had climbed onto the wharf behind
Robert.

Of course, Robert said
nothing, but led off walking toward the lights of Boston, and Hugh
fell in walking with him.

* * * *

Alex

The months passed quickly
for Alex at Fort Cumberland and on the frontier in general. There
was plenty to do, whether at the fort or when the Rangers were on a
mission or out on patrol. It was only a little over a sixty mile
ride along the banks of the Potomac River from Fort Cumberland to
Williamsport, so had Alex spent all the time he could with Martha.
They had become very close, and Alex courted her whenever he could
take some leave from his job with the Rangers. Martha’s Uncle Sean
and his wife liked Alex and approved of him. Alex thought that they
would like to see him and Martha married as soon as possible. But
there was no place for a wife at Fort Cumberland, and Alex thought
that the frontier environment was much too rough and dangerous for
a woman.

Alex had been quickly
promoted from his cooking job and before long had become a
full-fledged Ranger scout. He participated in almost all the
missions and patrols against the Iroquois and eventually came to be
respected by the other Rangers for his marksmanship, bravery, and
leadership. He maintained his continuing friendship with the
Longhunter and met him a number of times at Fort Cumberland and out
in the wilderness.

At the end of 1773, about
the same time that the patriots, including Robert and Hugh, were
dumping tea into Boston harbor, Ellison McCoy retired and named
Alex his replacement as commander of the Maryland Rangers. Alex was
the youngest commander that the Maryland Rangers had ever promoted
into that position.

* * * *

Kings Pinnacle Part 4

Robert and Hugh

”
Robber, do ye think we’ll
ever find Alex in America?” asked Hugh as he stood next to Robert
in the militia formation on Lexington Green in the village of
Lexington, Massachusetts.

“We’ve been in America for
well over a year now, and there’s been no sign of him,” Hugh
continued.

Robert looked puzzled, but
he did not answer the question or nod. The truth was that he didn’t
know. They had been looking for Alex since they had arrived in
America, as much as they could anyway and stay alive themselves.
When they arrived in Boston, they had no money and no possessions,
so they were forced to find work as quickly as possible to keep
from starving to death or freezing to death. After spending a few
nights sleeping on the freezing ground in the Boston Common,
wrapped up in the ship’s blankets that they had used as disguises
to escape from the Dartmouth, they finally were able to find jobs
at a gunpowder mill located near Charlestown, beyond the Neck, on
the Charles River.

After a few months of
working at the mill, Robert was able to take a leave of absence
from his job. Leaving Hugh behind, Robert had traveled to
Philadelphia to see if he could find any trace of Alex. The trip
proved to be fruitless since there was no sign of Alex in
Philadelphia or the surrounding area. After a week of searching,
Robert gave up and traveled back to Boston to resume his job at the
gunpowder mill. They still asked every traveler if they knew
anything of Alex or had heard of him, but none of them proved to be
of any value or have any knowledge of him at all.

The British government had
restricted the manufacture of gunpowder and controlled its
importation by the colonies. With the increase in tension between
England and the colonies, the British government further restricted
the amount of gunpowder that the colonists could manufacture
themselves to the bare minimum that the British thought was
required for survival.

The gunpowder mill on the
Charles River had been in operation since the early 1700s. In the
1730s, stamp mills were replaced by edge-runner mills, which used
limestone runners that were carved into large upright wheels. A
stone bed made of limestone or marble provided a table for the
wheels to run on, in order to grind the ingredients for making
gunpowder. The gunpowder that the Charles River mill manufactured
was sold to colonists throughout Massachusetts and beyond. The
excess gunpowder was not stored on site because of the explosion
risk. Once a week, Hugh drove a wagon with the excess barrels of
gunpowder to several sites that were used as powder magazines in a
circuit around the Charles mill. One of these magazine sites was
located at Concord, Massachusetts.

By weight measure, black
powder or gunpowder was made of seventy-five parts saltpeter finely
ground, fifteen parts charcoal, and ten parts sulfur. These three
ingredients had to be ground separately and then mixed together in
an incorporating mill to become the explosive mixture, gunpowder.
Sulfur was usually obtained by importing it from the natural sulfur
deposits of Sicily; however, saltpeter and charcoal could be easily
obtained locally. Saltpeter was usually leached from manure. In
colonial America, the manure contained in barnyards, outhouses, and
bat-cave guano deposits was considered the property of the British
government. Charcoal was manufactured from the low-oxygen burning
of willows or cottonwood trees.

Robert and Hugh were
standing in a military formation of the Massachusetts militia
commanded by Captain John Parker at the Lexington Green just at
sunrise on the morning of April 19, 1775. They had joined the
Colonial militia, as had most of the young men in the area, out of
a feeling of patriotism for their new country and because they
hated the British. The militia had been alerted several hours
previously by Paul Revere, William Dawes, and Samuel Prescott.
These men had triggered throughout the countryside an alarm and
muster system that had been carefully planned for months in
advance. The alarm system had been in operation since the so-called
Powder Alarm, during which British troops had confiscated a large
supply of gunpowder from the Powder House magazine north of Boston.
This time, the midnight riders had alerted them that the redcoats
were coming to confiscate unauthorized supplies of gunpowder and
arms that were stored in an armory and magazine at Concord. The
British were also going to arrest patriots Samuel Adams and John
Hancock.

Hugh had helped move the
gunpowder and military goods out of the armory and the magazine at
Concord several days earlier when he had made his circuit stop
there. Because of that, the mission by the British Army was doomed
to failure before it ever began. It was rumored that General Gage’s
wife, Margaret Gage had informed the colonists of the upcoming
mission so that the arms and gunpowder could be moved in
time.

Robert and Hugh were talking
to each other and with the other men standing in the military
formation while trying to stay warm in the early morning hours. All
of them were snickering about the British Army marching all the way
to Concord to find nothing and then having to march all the way
back to Boston. As soon as the British Army marched up the
Lexington common and arrived at the Lexington Green, Captain Parker
called the men to attention in their formation.

"Stand your ground, don't
fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it
begin here,” said Captain Parker, speaking to the men of
Massachusetts militia.

The British Army began to
deploy and formed a battle line opposite the colonists, who were
still standing in formation. A British officer soon rode up on
horseback to survey the situation.

“Lay down your arms, you
damned rebels,” shouted the British officer across the hundred
yards between the two forces.

“We will, only if ye do
first!” shouted the impetuous Hugh back to the British
officer.

The shouting back and forth
between the two armies continued for a short time as Captain Parker
and the British officer struggled to maintain order. As the
shouting died down, a single shot rang out, the so-called “shot
heard round the world”. The man standing next to Robert grabbed his
arm after the musket ball from that shot had passed through it,
leaving behind a bloody wound. No one knew who fired the shot, but
Robert pushed Hugh to the ground and dove down next to him. Robert
aimed his musket at the British Army soldiers, as did Hugh. Without
any orders to fire, Robert and Hugh fired into the British ranks
and then retreated over a stone wall to reload. Robert’s shot
wounded a British corporal, who was the only British casualty of
the entire skirmish.

The British Army responded
by firing a devastating volley toward the militia men, killing
several of them, and then charged with bayonets fixed to their
muskets. At the sight of the bayonet charge, Robert and Hugh and
all the rest of the militia men that were not badly wounded ran for
their lives.

* * * *

Captain Ferguson

“
Captain, you may proceed
with the demonstration,” said the colonel to the young British
officer standing at attention in front of the reviewing
stand.

The young officer bowed at
the waist to the dignitaries sitting in the reviewing stand and
nervously glanced at the other military officers and functionaries
standing to the side of it. Then he began speaking.

“Your Royal Highness and
gentlemen, thank you for coming today. This is my invention, and
how it works is what I will be demonstrating to you today,” said
Captain Ferguson as he held up the rifle, which to the untrained
eye looked just like any other musket, including the British Army
standard issue called the Brown Bess.

Captain Ferguson was
standing in front of and speaking to King George of England and the
chiefs of staff of the British Army, as well as a number of other
interested men, at a rifle range in England. This range was
normally used to train British Army marksmen and was located just
to the southeast of London at the Military College at Woolwich. The
rifle that the captain was holding up for everyone to see was
called the Ferguson rifle by those few who knew of its existence.
And those who knew of it were excited about its potential and what
it was capable of doing for the British Army. The demonstration had
been arranged by Captain Ferguson himself at his own
expense.