Kings Pinnacle (41 page)

* * * *

Robert and Hugh

“
Where did Alex get off
to?” asked Hugh.

“He fired his longbow and
after that I lost track of him. That wall of rain that opened up
from the sky and moved across the plain has obscured everything,”
replied Robert.

It was now raining as hard
as they had ever seen it since they had lived on the frontier. The
clouds had opened up and poured torrents of water from the sky as
only an Appalachian thunderstorm can. They were all instantly
soaked to the skin, and their hair was plastered against their
heads.

“Let’s signal the fort and
stick with the plan. We’ll find Alex later. The thunderstorm has
put out all the fires at the fort, along with the camp fire the
Cherokees were using to light the fire arrows. There’s no more fire
threat to the fort,” continued Robert.

“Aye, I’ll get it done,”
said Hugh as he ran toward the fort, avoiding the attacking
warriors, and hailed the Longhunter.

“Lead out the men,
Alexander!” yelled Hugh.

“Aye,” answered the
Longhunter, as the Fort Watauga gates opened and the men came
streaming out to attack the Cherokees.

When Robert saw the fort
gates open and the men inside the fort come out, he rallied the
twenty-five men that had come with them from Fort Patrick Henry and
simultaneously attacked the warriors from the rear. The Cherokees
were caught in a no man’s land between two attacking forces. Their
fire arrow assault on the fort had failed, and they were trying to
determine what to do next. They looked for the Raven for orders,
and when they couldn’t locate him, they decided to flee into the
trees to escape the attacks coming from both sides, just as Alex
had predicted.

* * * *

Alex

Alex didn’t feel right just
slitting the Raven’s throat, butchering him while he was down, even
though he could have if he had wanted to. He knew that he should,
and that the Raven must die. But Alex also felt that the Raven
deserved a chance to fight like a man. So Alex released his grip,
rose to his feet, and allowed the Raven to do the same. If he had
to kill the Raven, he wanted it to be in a fair fight.

The sudden rain storm had
reduced his visibility to a few yards. He didn’t know if his plan
to save the fort was working or not. As far as he knew, it was only
him and the Raven, locked in mortal combat, and nothing else in the
world existed.

“You should have killed me
when you had the chance,” said the Raven in passable English as he
drew his knife from his belt sheath.

“
You speak our language,”
said the surprised Alex as the two men circled each
other.

“I learned it from our
captives,” said the Raven, lunging and making a wicked slash at
Alex, a move Alex easily evaded. “You should have killed me when
you found me in the cave,” continued the Raven.

“Why did you let us fix your
leg and then accept our hospitality while you healed?” asked
Alex

“I had no choice,” replied
the Raven. “When I left your cabin, I left you and your woman in
peace and did not kill you and her as a payment for fixing my leg.
Now we are even and my debt to you is no more.”

“Why don’t you just take
your warriors and leave?”

“We will never leave while
you invaders are here.”

“Why are you so determined
to die?”

Alex knew from the Raven’s
feints and from the way that he fought that he was not in the same
league that Alex was as a knife fighter.

“Living with invaders on our
land is not acceptable or honorable,” said the Raven, making
another swipe at Alex, who backed away from it easily.

The pouring rain had made
the ground muddy and slippery where Alex and the Raven circled each
other near a small stream that eventually fed into the Watauga
River. The Raven could also tell that he was outmatched in the
hand-to-hand knife fight with Alex, so he did the only thing he
could. He feinted with his knife and when Alex easily backed away
again, the Raven followed him closely and shoved him toward the
small stream. Alex slipped on the muddy ground, stumbled backward,
and lost his balance, flopping on his back into the middle of the
water. The Raven was on top of him instantly, holding Alex’s head
underwater with one hand and attempting to stab him with the knife
in his other hand.

* * * *

Robert and Hugh

“
Hi ho, the warriors
appear tae be gang. Do ye think we should go after them?” asked
Hugh.

“Nae, let them go,” replied
Robert. “Let’s find Alex.”

Robert and Hugh left, with
the Longhunter and Jonas in tow, running in the direction that they
had last seen Alex. The four men spread out into a line while
keeping as much distance between them as they could in the low
visibility and still maintain contact with each other. Soon they
walked past the last place that they had seen Alex.

Suddenly a rifle shot rang
out, causing the men to stop in their tracks. They all looked at
the Longhunter, who had fired the shot, and went running over to
him. As the Longhunter lowered his rifle, they all turned and
looked in the direction of his shot. They saw the Raven slowly
stand up in the small creek and then walk toward the creek bank
holding his knife. Just as the Raven reached the bank, he collapsed
like a sawn down tree, into the mud, face first.

As soon as the Raven had
stood up in the creek and stepped off of him, Alex had raised up
from under water, sputtering and coughing as he expelled water from
his lungs. Hugh ran into the creek and reached down to help Alex
stand up in the stream. The Longhunter’s musket ball had entered
the Raven’s side and punctured both lungs and the arteries that led
to his heart as it passed through his body. He was dead when he
fell into the muddy bank. Hugh helped Alex walk to the bank where
the Raven had fallen, where they joined Robert, the Longhunter and
Jonas standing over the Raven’s body.

“You saved my life,” said
Alex to the Longhunter, offering him his hand to shake hands with
him.

“I owed ye one from back at
the Watkins Ferry. Not that anyone is keeping score,” replied the
smiling Longhunter shaking hands with Alex.

“How did ye let the Raven
get on top of ye Alex?” asked Hugh.

“By acting like an idiot,”
answered Alex. “It won’t happen again.”

* * * *

Kings Pinnacle Part 6

Major Ferguson

“
Congratulations, Major
Ferguson. Charleston has fallen. You and your men fought well
during the battle. I am sailing back to New York in order to more
effectively direct the overall strategy of the war. I want you to
stay here in the southern colonies. I am reassigning the men in
your command and appointing you as Inspector of Militia to recruit
and train local Loyalists to fight the rebels,” said General
Clinton.

“Sir, I would be pleased to
perform that task for you. I have adopted a new training technique
that I am anxious to try out on the new recruits. I think it will
be very useful in bringing them up to speed most expeditiously,”
replied Major Ferguson.

“Very well. Do whatever you
think best. I am assigning your base of operations to be Fort
Ninety-Six in western South Carolina. You will recruit Loyalists
from the area around that frontier area and train them at the fort.
I must be on my way immediately. Good luck to you, sir,” concluded
General Clinton.

Major Ferguson bowed as General Clinton
left the office and smiled to himself at his new
opportunity.

It was late May, 1780. A
little over two years had passed since Alex had left Valley Forge
and a little over a month had passed since the Longhunter killed
the Raven outside Fort Watauga. And the British had just taken
Charleston.

* * * *

Alex

“
Since the British took
Charleston, they have expanded their theater of operations into the
western regions of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia,”
said Colonel Tipton.

“They have been raiding the
patriots’ farms and businesses all along the frontier just east of
the Appalachians. They have also captured and cut off one of our
main grain sources at Musgrove Mill in western South Carolina. And
they have taken control of the ford at the Enoree River near there.
There are only about two hundred Loyalist men holding the mill and
ford. We need to send about an equal number of troops over the
Appalachian Mountains to run them out of there.”

“Yes, sir, how can I help?”
asked Alex standing in Colonel Tipton’s office inside Fort Watauga.
Several months had passed since the fall of Charleston. It had been
a busy time for the men stationed at the fort.

“Captain Mackenzie, I want
you and your men to go along on this raid. Colonel Isaac Shelby
will be in overall command, and he will give you direct orders. You
will muster your men the day after tomorrow in the early morning
and leave to go over the mountains at first light. We at Fort
Watauga need to do our part to help in our struggle for
independence.”

“Yes, sir,” replied
Alex.

Alex left the fort with his
orders and soon dispatched riders to round up his men for the raid.
Hugh, Robert, the Longhunter, and Jonas Dunne were the first to
report. Soon all of Alex’s men turned up, packed for the journey
over the mountains.

“
Where’re we headed,
Alex?” asked Hugh.

“We’re going over the
Appalachian Mountains to attack a Loyalists camp near Musgrove Mill
in South Carolina,” replied Alex.

“And where’re we headed
after that?” asked Hugh.

“
We’ll have to come back
over the mountains so that we can get the harvest in,” answered
Alex.

“Over the mountains and then
back over the mountains; before long people will be call us the
Overmountain Men,” laughed Hugh.

The trip over the mountains
took almost a week, but Fort Watauga soldiers were soon assembled
with Colonel Shelby’s men just beyond the ridge that led down the
hill to Musgrove Mill and the Enoree River ford.

“The Loyalists are located
just over the ridge, sitting behind fortifications. Does anyone
have a suggestion on how we should go about attacking their camp?”
asked Colonel Shelby.”

“
I have an idea,”
volunteered Alex.

“What is it, Captain
Mackenzie?”

“Well, the Loyalists are
pretty well dug in behind their fortifications, and if we attack
them directly, we’ll lose a lot of men and probably not do much
damage to them. I suggest that I take my men over the ridge and
attack the camp in a frontal assault that they will expect. In the
process of attacking them, we will act like we are confused about
what we are supposed to be doing. I will have some men go one way
and other men go the other way. Men will be bumping into each other
and creating all kinds of confusion, with a few fights breaking out
among my own men. The enemy will see our small numbers and our
confusion and come out from behind their battlements to attack us,
thinking that we are easy prey.

As soon as they begin to
come out after us, we will retreat back over the ridge with the
Loyalists hot on our heels. We will lead them directly back here to
you. Your men will set up a defensive position here so that when
the enemy comes chasing after us over the ridge, your men can fire
on them from behind our own fortifications.”

“Excellent idea, Captain
Mackenzie; let’s get to work setting up our defensive positions. We
don’t need anything fancy; just fallen timber and brush to hide
behind and to rest our rifles on so that we can aim properly,”
concluded Colonel Shelby.

The men immediately set
about building their fortifications. As soon as the colonel had
inspected the fortifications and deemed them ready, he notified
Alex that it was time to execute the plan. Alex and his men
assembled for the short march over the ridge to attack the Loyalist
camp.

What Alex and Colonel Shelby
did not know was that the initial two hundred Loyalists militiamen
had been reinforced with another one hundred Loyalists plus two
hundred additional provincial regular British Army troops on their
way to join Major Ferguson at Fort Ninety-Six. The patriots did not
know that they were outnumbered by over two to one. That was
probably for the best. Had they known, they might not have moved
forward with the plan of attack.

When Alex’s men advanced
over the ridge and began acting like they were confused, it didn’t
take long for Alex to realize that they had encountered a much
larger force than he had anticipated. It didn’t take much feigned
confusion for the enemy to come out of their fortifications and
attack them. As the Loyalists attacked them, Alex and his men ran
as fast as they could over the ridge, where they jumped over the
downed timber and brush to reassemble at the rear and form a
reserve force for Colonel Shelby.