The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War - xaviantvision

ashore and recover its discipline. A road could be hacked westwards through the woods so that new men, new ammunition, and new guns could bebrought to renew the assault on Majabigwaduce. As a child Wadsworth had loved the story of Robert the Bruce, the great Scottish hero who had beendefeated by his English enemies and who had fled to a cave where he watched a spider try to make a web. The spider failed repeatedly, but repeatedlytried again until at last it was successful, and that spider's persistence had inspired the Bruce to try again and so achieve his great victory. So now therebels must play the spider, and try again, and keep trying until at last the British were gone from Massachusetts.But as the crew rowed him steadily upstream, it seemed to Wadsworth that the river hardly twisted at all. An island, Orphan Island, divided the river intotwo channels and Odom's Ledge was in the navigable western branch. Once past Orphan Island the river's bends seemed gentle. The flooding tidehelped the oarsmen. They were now far ahead of the ships, traveling in a summer's gentle evening up a swirling, silent river edged by tall, dark trees."Where are these sharp bends?" Wadsworth asked James Fletcher nervously."Up ahead," James Fletcher said. The oar blades dipped, pulled, and dripped, and then, suddenly, there was the perfect place. Ahead of Wadsworththe river twisted abruptly to the east, making almost a right-angled bend, and the slope above the bend was steep enough to deter any attack, but not sosteep that guns could not be placed there."What's this place called?" Wadsworth asked.Fletcher shrugged. "The river bend?""It will have a name," Wadsworth said vehemently, "a name for the history books. Spider Bend.""Spider?""It's an old story," Wadsworth said, but he did not elaborate. He had found the place to make his stand, and now he must gather troops, guns, andresolve. "Back down the river," he told the crew.Because Peleg Wadsworth would fight back.The rebel warships were faster than the transports and they gradually overhauled the slower vessels and passed Odom's Ledge into the river narrows. Allthe warships and almost half of the transports passed that bottleneck, but a dozen slower boats were still stranded in the bay, where the tide wasslackening, the wind dying, and the enemy approaching. Every sailor knew that there was more wind at the top of a mast than at the bottom, and themasts of the British ships were taller than the transports' masts, and the frigates were flying all their topgallant sails and so had the benefit of what smallbreeze remained in the limpid evening. The sun was low now so that the frigates' hulls were in shadow, but their high sails reflected the bright sun. Theycrept northwards, ever closer to the transports crammed with men, guns, and supplies, and looming behind them, queen of the river, was the toweringRaisonable with her massive cannon.Just short of Odom's Ledge, on the western bank, was a cove. It was called Mill Cove because a sawmill had been built where a stream emptied intothe cove, though the mill was long gone now, leaving just a skeleton of rafters and a stone chimney overgrown with creepers. The dozen transports, almostbecalmed and increasingly threatened by the frigates, turned towards the cove. They were being towed, but the river's current had now overpowered thelast of the flood tide and they could not force their way through the narrow channels either side of the ledge and so they hauled themselves across thecurrent to the shallow waters of Mill Cove and used the last of the wind to drive their bows ashore. Men dropped over the gunwales. They carried theirmuskets and haversacks, they waded ashore, they gathered disconsolate beside the mill's ruins and they watched their ships burn.One by one the transports burst into flames. Each and every ship was valuable. The boat-builders of Massachusetts were famous for their skills and itwas said that a ship built in New England could outsail any vessel from the old world, and the British would love to capture these ships. They would betaken to Canada, or perhaps back to Britain, and the ships would be sold at auction and the prize money distributed among the sailors of the ships thathad captured them. The warships might be purchased by the Admiralty, as the captured frigate Hancock had been bought, so the Hampden would endits days as the HMS Hampden and HMS Hunter would be using her New England-given speed and her New England- cast guns to chase smugglers inthe English channel.But now the American transport skippers would deny their enemies a similar victory. They would not yield their ships to a British prize court. Instead theyburned the transports and the banks of Mill Cove flickered with the light of the flames. Two of the burning hulls drifted towards the river's center. Their sailsand rigging and masts were alight. When a mainmast fell it was a curving collapse of bright fire, sparks exploding into the evening as the lines and yardsand spars cascaded into the river.And the fire did what the Warren and the other warships had failed to do. It stopped the British. No captain would take his ship near a burning hull.Sails, tarred rigging, and wooden hulls were dangerously flammable and a wind-driven spark could turn one of His Majesty's proud ships into a charredwreck, and so the British fleet dropped anchor as the last of the evening wind died.Upstream, beyond Odom's Ledge, the rest of the rebel fleet struggled northwards until the current and the dying light forced them to anchor. At Mill Covehundreds of men, with no orders and no officers confident of what should be done, started walking westwards. They headed across a wilderness towardstheir distant homes.While in Fort George Brigadier-General Francis McLean raised a glass and smiled at the guests who had gathered about his table. "I give you theRoyal Navy, gentlemen," he said, and his officers stood, lifted their glasses of wine and echoed the brigadier's toast. "The Royal Navy!"