The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War - xaviantvision

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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!"
From a letter by General Artemas Ward, commander of the Massachusetts Militia, to Colonel Joseph Ward, September 8th, 1779:The commander of the fleet is cursed, bell, book, and candle. . . . Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Revere is now under an arrest for disobedience oforders, and unsoldierlike behaviour tending to cowardice.From Brigadier-General Solomon Lovell's journal, August 14th, 1779:The British Ships coming up the Soldiers were obliged to take to the Shore, and set fire to their Vessels, to attempt to give a description of thisterrible Day is out of my Power it would be a fit Subject for some masterly hand to describe it in its true colors, to see four Ships pursuingseventeen Sail of Armed Vessells nine of which were stout Ships, Transports on fire, Men of War blowing up, Provision of all kinds, and every kindof Stores on Shore (at least in small Quantities) throwing about, and as much confusion as can possibly be conceived.Excerpt from Brigadier-General Francis McLean's letter to Lord George Germaine, His Majesty's Secretary of State for the American Colonies, August1779:It only remains for me to endeavor to do justice to the cheerfulness and spirit with which all ranks of our little garrison underwent the excessivefatigue required to render our post tenable. The work was carried on under the enemy's fire with a spirit that would have done credit to the oldestsoldiers; from the time the enemy opened their trenches, the men's spirits increased daily, so that our last chief difficulty was in restraining them.
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THEFORTA Novel of the Revolutionary
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A voice in the darkness, a knock at
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A Note on Names and TermsIn 1779 th
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Chapter OneThere was not much wind
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ecome a base for Britain's Royal Na
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"I bloody hope so," Moore said with
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Chapter TwoLieutenant-Colonel Paul
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magazines that would keep the ammun
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"So you will take the oath?" McLean
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Excerpts of a letter from the Selec
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inflate a company into a battalion
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"The world would be better without
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So now one less man would sail east
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Chapter FourThe fleet sailed eastwa
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"We were maltreated in Boston," Cal
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Tyrannicide had also confirmed that
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From the Oath demanded by Brigadier
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"Plug it!" Little shouted at the ma
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"You promoted me to general yesterd
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"Long as it takes."They had to wait
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Chapter SixThe daylight was fading.
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"He's a patriot!" Lovell said in a
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"What are you doing?" Revere again
Page 53 and 54: A rowboat banged against the Centur
Page 55 and 56: Chapter SevenThe first shots crashe
Page 57 and 58: sir," McClure shouted over the musk
Page 59 and 60: Solomon Lovell's heart seemed to mi
Page 61 and 62: From Brigadier-General Lovell's des
Page 63 and 64: emembered the tall American in his
Page 65 and 66: "We thought him indestructible," De
Page 67 and 68: could conceal men from the guns of
Page 69 and 70: Chapter Nine"Where the devil is Rev
Page 71 and 72: "Then they will have something to f
Page 73 and 74: They would attack the battery.In th
Page 75 and 76: Hundreds? He wondered. Maybe two hu
Page 77 and 78: Chapter TenThe sun had not risen wh
Page 79 and 80: Praise the Lord, Wadsworth thought,
Page 81 and 82: marsh. The rebels patrolled that gr
Page 83 and 84: Letter from Brigadier-General Lovel
Page 85 and 86: on their flank?" Easily, Wadsworth
Page 87 and 88: Commodore Saltonstall declared he w
Page 89 and 90: ecome mired in pessimism and it nee
Page 91 and 92: Chapter TwelveAnd, suddenly, there
Page 93 and 94: at their sterns. Away to port was C
Page 95 and 96: need men willing to make that attac
Page 97 and 98: timber splinter to drive cloth into
Page 99 and 100: Chapter ThirteenA Royal Marine at t
Page 101 and 102: The fifty men filed through the aba
Page 103: dared to hope that the British woul
Page 107 and 108: the powder charges were being carri
Page 109 and 110: fire, of the sparks flying and fall
Page 111 and 112: Historical NoteThe Penobscot Expedi
Page 113 and 114: on which Carnes was expertly equipp
Page 115 and 116: About the AuthorBERNARD CORNWELL, "
Page 117 and 118: CopyrightT HE FORT. Copyright (c) 2
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