Kings Pinnacle (22 page)

“Well Hugh, what I can say
is that sometimes war is unpredictable,” replied Robert.

“I know that, but I just
didn’t expect the tide to turn so soon.”

“Hugh, we lost at Bunker
Hill before the British left, if you will remember,” said Robert,
holding back his hair and showing Hugh the scar that the British
musket ball had made across his scalp.

“Aye, Robber, I remember it.
After the British left Boston, and we freed the city, General
Washington thought they might try to come back and take New York.
So we marched down to New York and set up our defenses. Exactly how
did they beat us in New York anyway?”

“Well, Hugh, I heard that
the British out-flanked us by bringing most of their troops around
behind us. That’s how they had us surrounded at Brooklyn Heights.
If you remember, we had the East River to our backs. Our only
escape was to cross the river into Manhattan at night.”

“Yes, I know we had to be
very quiet to escape. One of my jobs was to help muffle some of the
wagon wheels. I remember that we were forbidden to talk during the
trek and ferry ride o’er to Manhattan that night.”

“Do you also remember that
the British chased us and beat us again at White Plains and also at
Fort Washington after that?”

“
I do,” replied
Hugh.

“Now we’re being chased
across New Jersey as we retreat southwest.”

“
Where do ye think we are
going now?” asked Hugh.

“I heard that we’re headed
for a winter camp in Pennsylvania just across the Delaware River
from Trenton, New Jersey.”

“Weel, I hope it’s a nice
camp with a nice warm fire. By the by, this is the longest
conversation that I’ve had with ye in some time.”

Robert just nodded.

* * * *

Alex

“
Can you tell me where the
army headquarters is located?” asked Alex.

He had been stopped by the
first sentry on the trail that he encountered as he approached the
bivouac where the Continental Army was camped.

“Keep heading toward the
smoke,” answered the sleepy and surly sentry, pointing toward the
way Alex was already going.

Discipline obviously wasn’t
too important in this army, thought Alex. There wasn’t much of a
challenge, and the sentry didn’t even ask him what he wanted at the
headquarters. Maybe he wanted to kill somebody. He didn’t, of
course, but Alex thought that a sentry might question him a bit
about what he wanted. Maybe the sentry didn’t like buckskins, which
Alex had gotten used to wearing in the Maryland Rangers.

The Continental Army had
driven the British out of Boston, which ended the siege and freed
the city. The war had shifted from Massachusetts to New York and
then to New Jersey. Alex had spent several weeks with Martha in
Williamsport and had finally left to join the Continental Army, if
he could find it. He traveled north asking questions of anyone he
met on the trail. He finally located the army in Pennsylvania, just
to the west across the river from Trenton, New Jersey. The
Continental Army was now commanded by General George Washington,
who had taken charge of it in Boston during the siege. The army had
not been very successful against the British since they had pushed
them out of Boston. The patriots had lost most of the battles that
they had fought against the British in New York and New Jersey. Now
they had pulled back across the Delaware River to regroup and come
up with a new battle plan.

After General Sir William
Howe had defeated the Continental Army at the Battle of New York
City, he had pursued them across New Jersey in their retreat.
Fortunately for the Continental Army, Howe ordered a halt in the
pursuit. He commanded his army to retire into winter quarters,
after creating a series of defensive outposts across northern New
Jersey in order to keep the Continental Army bottled up across the
Delaware River. Howe himself retreated to Philadelphia. A Hessian
unit consisting of fifteen hundred men was garrisoned at Trenton, a
small town of about one hundred houses located on the east bank of
the Delaware River. The Hessians were Prussian soldiers that had
been hired by King George to fight for the British against the
Continental Army.

It was a cold and windy
December day when Alex rode into the camp of the Continental Army
on the east bank of the Delaware.

“Report to the adjutant if
you want to join up,” said the militiaman.

“
Where can I find him?”
asked Alex.

“
He’s located over in the
big tent beside the grove,” said the militiaman pointing toward the
tent.

Alex had ridden into the
Continental Army camp and asked the first soldier he saw where he
could sign up to join the army. He walked his horse over to the big
tent, dismounted, pulled up the tent flap and walked inside. It was
a large tent that was divided into a small outer office and a much
larger inner office with a partition between them. As Alex walked
into the outer office, he spied the adjutant sitting behind a desk
with his head down writing in a ledger. Alex walked over to the
adjutant’s desk and stood in front of it. All he could see was the
top of the adjutant’s head, but the adjutant looked a little
familiar to Alex. He thought he might have seen him or met him
somewhere before.

“Sir, are you the adjutant?”
asked Alex.

“That I am, laddie” said
Samuel Ruskin, Alex’s old nemesis, looking up from his muster roll
ledger to scowl at Alex.

“What would a young
Caledonian laddie like you want with the adjutant?” asked Samuel in
a surly tone.

As soon as Samuel looked up
at him, Alex recognized him from his encounters with him back in
Larne at a dockside tavern and on the Ocean Monarch while sailing
to America. Alex instinctively reached for his boot knife but
stopped just before he pulled it and stood back up.

Samuel Ruskin had caught a
glimpse of Alex when he first pulled the tent flap back to enter
his office and instantly remembered him from their previous
encounters. Samuel’s Pennsylvania militia had joined the
Continental Army prior to the New York campaign. Since he was
already a major and a successful merchant, he was given the job of
adjutant to General George Washington. He had been serving in that
capacity for some time. The adjutant was the officer that handled
all of General Washington’s administrative duties such as
enlistments, drafting orders, filling out supply requests,
processing promotions, and other such duties. Samuel Ruskin stood
up, facing Alex from across the desk, and the two men glared at
each other without saying a word.

At that moment, the tent
flap behind Major Ruskin was parted and two men stepped out of the
larger inner office located behind the adjutant. Samuel turned
around to look at the men, and Alex glanced over at them at the
same time. One of the men was General George Washington and the
other one was Ellison McCoy, the former Captain of the Maryland
Rangers who had hired Alex and then promoted him into that position
when Ellison left to retire. Ellison spied Alex and walked over to
intercept him, shaking his hand heartily and patting him on the
back.

“Hello Alex, I’m glad to see
you again. What are you doing here?”

“I came to enlist in the
Continental Army.”

“Come over here with me.
There is someone I would like to introduce you to.”

He then led Alex over to
General George Washington, who was standing behind Samuel Ruskin,
observing the conversation.

“Alex, I would like for you
to meet General George Washington,” said Ellison.

“It is an honor to meet you,
sir,” said Alex, extending his hand and shaking hands with General
Washington.

“The pleasure is all mine,”
replied the amiable general.

“I selected Alex to replace
me as head of the Fort Cumberland Maryland Rangers when I retired,”
said Ellison to General Washington.

“I wonder if this might be
the man we’re looking for, Ellison?” asked General
Washington.

“
There’s no doubt that he
could do the job,” answered Ellison.

Alex eyed Ellison and
General Washington with a puzzled look; he had no idea what the two
men were talking about. Samuel was also confused and the
uncertainty served to defuse the situation between Alex and Samuel
as they both put the conflict in the back of their minds. Alex
scratched his head, and Samuel sat back down in his
chair.

“Come back into my office,
and let’s all discuss it. Please excuse us for a moment, Major
Ruskin,” said General Washington as he raised the tent divider and
led Ellison and Alex back into his office, closing the tent divider
after they entered.

“Please have a seat,
gentlemen,” said the general.

Alex looked around General
Washington’s office and decided that it was fairly spartan for the
leader of the Continental Army. It contained a small portable field
desk positioned to one side near the rear of the tent. In the
middle of the office was a large folding conference table with a
dozen or so worn chairs around it. General Washington seated
himself at his field desk and Alex and Ellison sat down in two of
the side chairs beside the desk. Alex obviously had no idea what
Ellison and the general were talking about in the adjutant’s
office. But he was willing to hear them out.

“I understand that you want
to join the army?” asked the general, looking at Alex.

“Yes, sir,” replied
Alex.

“Captain McCoy and I have
decided to start a new unit in the Continental Army. It’s going to
be a light cavalry unit that consists a few men that know how to
ride and shoot and aren’t afraid to take a risk. This unit will be
used for special operations and scouting missions. It will also be
used for other tasks, such as blocking the enemy’s retreat or
opposing enemy resistance. Based on your experience with the
Maryland Rangers and Ellison’s recommendation, are you interested
in leading this group for me?” asked General Washington, speaking
directly to Alex.

“I would be honored to serve
in that capacity, if you will let me wear my buckskins,” said the
smiling Alex.

“Excellent. Welcome to the
army, and I think that the buckskins will be a fine uniform for a
light cavalry unit,” said General Washington, standing up and
reaching out to shake hands with Alex again.

“As your first task, I want
you to search among the members of the army in this encampment and
select up to ten good men who own a horse and are willing to join
your unit. On your way out, tell the adjutant that you are joining
the army as a lieutenant in charge of the First Continental
Cavalry.”

“Yes, sir, thank you very
much, sir,” replied Alex.

“I’ll walk out with you,
Alex, and explain things to the adjutant, since I was just leaving
anyway,” said Ellison.

Alex and Ellison stood up
and both of them said goodbye to General Washington in parting.
Ellison lifted the tent flap, and they walked out into the
adjutant’s office. Ellison talked to Samuel Ruskin and gave him
instructions about Alex’s enlistment and rank while Alex stood off
to one side and stared at Samuel. Alex was extremely concerned
about Samuel Ruskin, but he was in no position to do anything about
it yet. So he decided to wait and see what would happen. As soon as
Ellison was finished talking to Samuel about Alex, the two friends
walked out of the tent and closed the tent flap behind
them.

“Ellison, I have run across
Samuel Ruskin before, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience,” said
Alex once they were out of earshot of Samuel and the
tent.

“Well, he’s been in the job
for a quite a while. He joined up right after the siege of Boston
when we were in New York, and he’s done a good job for General
Washington so far,” replied Ellison.

“I don’t trust him,” said
Alex.

“We’ll keep an eye on him.
That’s all we can do now. Let’s get you settled into a place to
camp,” said Ellison as the two men walked further into the
encampment, leading their horses away from the tent and then
mounting up to ride.

* * * *

Robert and Hugh

“
Weel, Robber, what do ye
think of our bonny new camp?” asked Hugh in his mild Scottish
brogue, which had abated some since they arrived in
America.

Robert shrugged, giving Hugh
a noncommittal answer and a quick glance. He noticed that Hugh was
losing his Scottish accent. He suspected that Hugh’s association
with British, Irish, and other nationalities, had softened his
brogue over the years in America. The two brothers were bundled up
in blankets, trying to keep warm inside a tent with its flaps tied
down securely on a cold, windy December day. They had rags tied
around their ears to help them keep warm from the howling wind
outside the tent.

The cold, windy bivouac area
was designated for the Second Massachusetts Militia or the “Second
Mass” as all the troops called it. It was a part of the Continental
Army under General George Washington, now camped across the
Delaware River from Trenton, New Jersey. The weather was blustery,
but there was no sign of any precipitation yet. Robert had fully
recovered from the head wound that he had received from a British
musket ball at Breeds Hill. There was still a part in his hair
where the musket ball had creased his scalp, but his hair had grown
out and now covered the scar. When he was riding or if it was
windy, his hair blew back, and you could still see the scar, making
him look like a grizzled, old war veteran.