The Fort: A Novel of the Revolutionary War - xaviantvision

"Whereas General Lovell is convinced the fort cannot be taken until the ships are destroyed.""General Lovell is entitled to his opinion," Saltonstall said loftily."If we succeed in capturing the enemy's remaining shore battery," Wadsworth suggested, "it will make your task easier, sir?""My task?""Of capturing the enemy ships, sir.""My task, Wadsworth, is to support your forces in the capture of the fort.""Thank you, sir," Wadsworth said, hiding his exasperation, "but might I assure General Lovell that you will attack their shipping if we mount an assault onthe fort?""This presupposes that you have disposed of the enemy's shore battery?""It does, sir.""A joint attack, eh?" Saltonstall still sounded suspicious, but after a brief hesitation, nodded cautiously. "I would consider a joint attack," he saidgrudgingly, "but you do realize, I trust, that the position of Mowat's ships becomes untenable once the fort is taken?""I do, sir.""But that McLean's position is still formidable whether the ships are taken or not?""I understand that too, sir."Saltonstall turned to glower at the waist of the Warren, but saw nothing to provoke a complaint. "The Congress, Wadsworth, has spent precious publicmoney building a dozen frigates.""Indeed it has, sir," Wadsworth said, wondering what that had to do with the fort on Majabigwaduce's peninsula."The Washington, the Effingham, the Congress and the Montgomery are all scuttled, Wadsworth. They are lost.""Sadly, sir, yes," Wadsworth said. The four frigates had been destroyed to prevent their capture."The Virginia, taken," Saltonstall went on remorselessly, "the Hancock, taken. The Raleigh, taken. The Randolph, sunk. Do you wish me to add theWarren to that sad record?""Of course not, sir," Wadsworth said. He glanced up at the snake-embossed flag flying at the Warren's stern. It bore the proud motto "Don't Tread onMe," but how could the British even try if the snake's only ambition was to avoid battle?"Capture the shore battery," Saltonstall said in his most lordly voice, "and the fleet will reconsider its opportunities.""Thank you, sir," Wadsworth said.He had been silent as he was rowed ashore from the frigate. Saltonstall was right, Wadsworth did disagree with Lovell. Wadsworth knew the fort wasthe king on Majabigwaduce's chessboard, and the three British ships were pawns. Take the fort and the pawns surrendered, but take the pawns and theking remained, yet Lovell would not be persuaded to attack the fort any more than Saltonstall could be persuaded to throw caution to the southwest windand destroy Mowat's three sloops. So now the battery must be attacked in hope that a successful assault would persuade the two commanders to greaterboldness.And time was short and it was shrinking, so Peleg Wadsworth would attack that night. In the dark.James Fletcher tacked the Felicity south from Wasaumkeag Point where the rebels had taken over the remaining buildings of Fort Pownall, a decayedwooden and earth-banked fortress erected some thirty years before to deter attacks upriver by French raiders. There was no adequate shelter forwounded men on the heights of Majabigwaduce, so the house and storerooms of the old fort were now the rebels' hospital. Wasaumkeag Point lay on thefar bank of Penobscot Bay, just south of where the river opened from being a narrow and fast-flowing channel between high wooded banks. James, whenhe was not needed by Wadsworth, used the Felicity to carry wounded men to the hospital and now he did his best to hurry back, eager to join Wadsworthbefore dusk and the attack on the British battery.The Felicity's course was frustrating. She made good enough progress on each starboard tack, but inevitably the wind drove the small boat nearer andnearer the eastern bank and then James had to endure a long port tack, which, in the flooding tide, seemed to take him farther and farther fromMajabigwaduce's bluff beneath which he wanted to anchor the Felicity. But James was used to the southwest wind. "You can't hurry the breeze," his fatherhad said, "and you can't change its mind, so there's no point in getting irritated by it." James wondered what his father would think of the rebellion. Nothinggood, he supposed. His father, like many who lived about the river, had been proud to be an Englishman. It did not matter to him that the Fletchers hadlived in Massachusetts for over a hundred years, they were still Englishmen. An old, yellowing print of King Charles I had hung in the log house throughoutJames's childhood, and was now tacked above his mother's sickbed. The king looked haughty, but somehow sad, as if he knew that one day a rebellionwould topple him and lead him to the executioner's block. In Boston, James had heard, there was a tavern called the Cromwell's Head which hung its innsignso low above the door that men had to bow their heads to the king-killer every time they entered. That story had angered his father.He tacked the Felicity in the cove just north of the bluff. The sound of the cannonade between the fort and the rebel lines was loud now, the smoke fromthe guns drifting like a cloud above the peninsula. He was on a port tack again, but it would be a short one and he knew he would reach the shore wellbefore nightfall. He sailed under the stern of the Industry, a transport sloop, and waved to its captain, Will Young, who shouted some good-natured remarkthat was lost in the sound of the cannons.James tacked to run down the Industry's flank where a longboat was secured. Three men were in the longboat while above them, at the sloop'sgunwale, two men threatened the trio with muskets. Then, with a shock, James recognized the three captives: Archibald Haney, John Lymburner, andWilliam Greenlaw, all from Majabigwaduce. Haney and Lymburner had been friends of his father, while Will Greenlaw had often accompanied James onfishing trips downriver and had paid court to Beth once or twice, though never successfully. All three men were Tories, Loyalists, and now they wereevidently prisoners. James let his sheets go so that the Felicity slowed and shivered. "What the devil are you doing with the bastards?" Archibald Haneycalled. Haney was like an uncle to James.Before James could say a word in response a sailor appeared at the gunwale above the longboat. He carried a wooden pail. "Hey, Tories!" the sailorcalled, then upended the bucket to cascade urine and turds onto the prisoners' heads. The two guards laughed."What the hell did you do that for?" James shouted.The sailor mouthed some response and turned away. "They put us here one hour a day," Will Greenlaw said miserably, "and pour their slops on us."The tide was taking the Felicity north and James tightened the jib sheet to get some way on her. "I'm sorry," he called."You'll be sorry when the king asks who was loyal to him!" Archibald Haney shouted angrily."The English treat our prisoners far worse!" Will Young bellowed from the Industry's stern.James had been forced onto a port tack again and the wind took him away from the sloop. Archibald Haney shouted something, but the words werelost on the breeze, all but one. Traitor.James tacked the boat again and ran her towards the beach. He dropped her anchor, furled her mainsail, and stowed the foresails, then hailed apassing lighter to give him a dry-ride ashore. Traitor, rebel, Tory, Loyalist? If his father were still alive, he wondered, would he dare be a rebel?He climbed the bluff, retrieved the musket from his shelter and walked south to Dyce's Head to find Peleg Wadsworth. The sun was low now, casting along shadow over the ridge and along the harbor's foreshore. Wadsworth's men were gathering in the trees where they could not be seen from the fort."You look pensive, young James," Wadsworth greeted him."I'm well enough, sir," James said.Wadsworth looked at him more closely. "What is it?""You know what they're doing to the prisoners?" James asked, then blurted out the whole tale. "They're my neighbors, sir," he said, "and they called metraitor."Wadsworth had been listening patiently. "This is war, James," he said gently, "and it creates passions we didn't know we possessed.""They're good men, sir!""And if we released them," Wadsworth said, "they'd work for our enemies.""They would, yes," James allowed."But that's no reason to maltreat them," Wadsworth said firmly, "and I'll talk to the general, I promise," though he knew well enough that whatever protesthe made would change nothing. Men were frustrated. They wanted this expedition finished. They wanted to go home. "And you're no traitor, James," hesaid."No? My father would say I am.""Your father was British," Wadsworth said, "and you and I were both born British, but that's all changed now. We're Americans." He said the word asthough he were not used to it, but felt a pang of pride because of it. And tonight, he thought, the Americans would take a small step towards their liberty.