The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War - xaviantvision

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"You want to see how well our guns can cut down rebels, sir?" the sergeant asked happily after he had helped McLean onto the table."Oh, I know you lads can defend us," McLean lied. He stood on the table and wondered why no bagpipers had come with the two regiments. He smiledthat so strange a thought should have occurred to him at such a moment. "I do miss the pipes," he said."Bagpipes, sir?" Lawrence asked."Indeed! The music of war.""Give me a good English band any day, sir."McLean smiled. His undignified perch on the table gave him an excellent view of the ground over which the rebels must advance. He reached into apocket of his red coat and took out a folded penknife. "Sergeant, would you be so kind as to open that?""Going to stick a rebel, General?" Lawrence asked as he extracted the blade. "I reckon your sword will do more damage."McLean took the knife back. The hand of his injured right arm was too weak to loosen the halliard holding the flag and so he held the short blade in hisleft hand ready to cut the line when the moment came.Captain Fielding came to the bastion where he insisted on laying the twelve-pounder cannon himself. "What's the charge?" he asked Lawrence."Quarter charge, sir," Lawrence said, "three pounds."Fielding nodded and made some calculations in his head. The gun was cold, which meant the shot would lose some power, so he elevated the barreljust a trifle, then used the trail spike to aim the gun at a knot of men standing close to the rebels' bright flags. Satisfied that his aim and elevation weregood, he stepped back and nodded to Sergeant Lawrence. "Carry on, Sergeant," he said.Lawrence primed the gun, ordered the crew to cover their ears and step aside, then touched flame to the portfire. The gun roared, smoke smotheredthe bastion, and the round shot flew.It flew above the abatis and over the shattered stumps, and it began to lose height as the ground rose to meet it. To Peleg Wadsworth, standing toLovell's left, the ball appeared as a lead-gray streak in the sky. It was a flicker of gray, a pencil stroke against the sudden white-gray of powder smoke thatobscured the fort, and then the streak vanished and the ball struck. It hit a militiaman in the chest, shattering ribs, blood, and flesh in an explosion ofbutchery, and plunged on, flicking blood behind its passage, to rip a man in the groin, more blood and meat in the air, and then the ball struck the ground,bounced, and decapitated one of Revere's gunners before vanishing noisily into the woods behind.Solomon Lovell was standing just two paces away from the first man struck by the round shot. A splinter of rib hit the general on the shoulder and astringy splat of bloody flesh spattered wetly across his face, and just then HMS North, which lay closest to the fort, fired its broadside at the marines whowere on the right of Lovell's lines, and the thunder of the sloop's gunfire filled the Majabigwaduce sky as Captain Fielding's second gun fired. That secondball hit a tree stump just in front of Colonel McCobb's men and struck with such violence that the stump was half-uprooted as it shattered into scraps thatdrove into McCobb's front rank. A man screamed in pain.Sergeant Lawrence's crew, drilled and practiced, had swabbed and reloaded the first gun, which they now levered back to the low embrasure soLawrence could fire it a second time. The ball struck the ground just paces from Lovell and bounced harmlessly overhead, though not before it drove ashower of soil at the general's staff.The man whose groin had been pulped by the first shot was still alive, but his belly was eviscerated and his guts coiled on the ground and he breathedin short, desperate spasms. Lovell, transfixed, watched appalled as a pulse of blood, obscenely thick, spilled out of the man's gutted trunk. The woundedman was making a pathetic noise and Lieutenant-Colonel Revere, whose uniform had been spattered by blood, was white-faced, staring wide-eyed,unmoving. Wadsworth noted the pine needles sticking to the loops of intestine on the ground. The man somehow brought up his head and lookedbeseechingly at Wadsworth, and Wadsworth involuntarily moved towards him, wondering what in God's name he could do or say when, with another surgeof blood from his ruined guts, the man's head fell back."Oh dear God," Lovell said to no one."God rest his soul," the Reverend Jonathan Murray said, his voice unusually strained.Wadsworth looked into the dead man's face. No movement there except for a fly crawling on an unshaven cheek. Behind Wadsworth a man vomited.He turned to stare at the fort where the cannon smoke lingered. "We should advance, sir," he said to Lovell, and was surprised that he had spoken at all,let alone sounded so detached. Lovell seemed not to have heard him. "We should advance, sir!" Wadsworth said in a louder voice.Solomon Lovell was gazing at the fort where another billow of smoke jetted from an unfinished bastion. The ball flew to the general's left, crashing into atree behind the militia. "Colonel Revere?" Lovell asked, still looking at the fort."General?" Revere acknowledged."Can your artillery reduce the fort?""It can," Revere said, though without any of his usual confidence. "It can," he said again, unable to take his eyes from the bloody mess on the ground."Then we shall give your guns that chance," Lovell said. "The men will shelter in the trees.""But now's the moment to advance and'" Wadsworth began a protest."I can't attack into those guns!" Lovell interrupted shrilly. He blinked, surprised by his own tone of voice. "I can't," he began again, then seemed to forgetwhat he wanted to say. "We shall reduce their walls with artillery," he said decisively, then frowned as another British gun hammered a ball up the ridge."The enemy might counterattack," he went on with a note of panic, "so we must be ready to repel them. Into the trees!" He turned and waved his sword atthe thick woods. "Take the men into the trees!" he shouted at the militia officers. "Dig defenses! Here, at the tree line. I want earthworks." He paused,watching his men retreat, then led his staff into the cover of the high wood.Brigadier-General McLean watched in astonishment as his enemy vanished. Was it a trick? One moment there had been hundreds of men forming intoranks, then suddenly they had all retreated into the trees. He watched and waited, but as time passed he realized that the rebels really had gone into thewoods and were showing no sign of renewing their attack. He let out a long breath, took his hand from the flag's halliard, and pushed the open penknifeback into his pocket. "Colonel Campbell!" he called, "stand down three companies! Form them into work parties to heighten the ramparts!""Yes, sir!" Campbell called back.Fort George would live a few hours yet.
From Brigadier-General Lovell's despatch to Jeremiah Powell, President of the Council Board of the State of Massachusetts Bay, dated July 28th, 1779:This morning I have made my landing good on the S.W. Head of the Peninsula which is one hundred feet high and almost perpendicular verythickly covered with Brush and trees, the men ascended the Precipice with alacrity and after a very smart conflict we put them to rout, they left inthe Woods a number killed and wounded and we took a few Prisoners our loss is about thirty kill'd and wounded, we are with in 100 Rod of theEnemey's main fort on a Commanding peice of Ground, and hope soon to have the Satisfaction of informing you of the Capturing the whole Army,you will please to excuse my not being more particular, as you may Judge my situation.Am Sir your most Obedient Humble ServantFrom Brigadier-General Solomon Lovell's Journal. Wednesday July 28th, 1779:When I returned to the Shore it struck me with admiration to see what a Precipice we had ascended, not being able to take so scrutinous a view of itin time of Battle, it is at least where we landed three hundred feet high, and almost perpendicular and the men were obliged to pull themselves upby the twigs and trees. I don't think such a landing has been made since Wolfe.From the letter of Colonel John Brewer to David Perham, written in 1779 and published in the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier , August 13th, 1846:The General [McLean] he received me very politely, and said . . . "I was in no situation to defend myself, I only meant to give them one or two guns,so as not to be called a coward, and then have struck my colors, which I stood for some time to do, as I did not want to throw away the lives of mymen for nothing."
Page 2 and 3:
THEFORTA Novel of the Revolutionary
Page 5 and 6:
A voice in the darkness, a knock at
Page 7 and 8:
A Note on Names and TermsIn 1779 th
Page 9: Chapter OneThere was not much wind
Page 12 and 13: ecome a base for Britain's Royal Na
Page 14 and 15: "I bloody hope so," Moore said with
Page 16 and 17: Chapter TwoLieutenant-Colonel Paul
Page 18 and 19: magazines that would keep the ammun
Page 20 and 21: "So you will take the oath?" McLean
Page 22 and 23: Excerpts of a letter from the Selec
Page 25 and 26: inflate a company into a battalion
Page 28 and 29: "The world would be better without
Page 30 and 31: So now one less man would sail east
Page 32 and 33: Chapter FourThe fleet sailed eastwa
Page 34: "We were maltreated in Boston," Cal
Page 37 and 38: Tyrannicide had also confirmed that
Page 39 and 40: From the Oath demanded by Brigadier
Page 41 and 42: "Plug it!" Little shouted at the ma
Page 43 and 44: "You promoted me to general yesterd
Page 45 and 46: "Long as it takes."They had to wait
Page 47 and 48: Chapter SixThe daylight was fading.
Page 49 and 50: "He's a patriot!" Lovell said in a
Page 51 and 52: "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: Solomon Lovell's heart seemed to mi
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 and 104: dared to hope that the British woul
Page 105 and 106: From a letter by General Artemas Wa
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, "
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CopyrightT HE FORT. Copyright (c) 2
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The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War - xaviantvision

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