Kings Pinnacle (20 page)

The Ferguson rifle was one
of the first rifles in the world that loaded from the breech rather
than from the muzzle. This feature allowed it to be fired at the
rate of six shots per minute. The Brown Bess, which was the
standard issue British Army musket, employed the time-consuming
muzzle loading ramrod system. This limited a soldier to three shots
per minute and required him to load his weapon while standing
upright. In contrast, the Ferguson rifle could be loaded, reloaded,
and fired while standing, kneeling, sitting, or lying on the
ground. The sixty-five caliber Ferguson rifle was forty-nine inches
long, including a thirty-four inch barrel. It was accurate at a
range of up to two hundred yards, whereas the Brown Bess was
accurate to a range of only one hundred yards.

“I apologize that the
weather is so dreadful, but I intend to go on with the test and
trial anyway with your kind permission,” said the
captain.

The king nodded his approval
to start the test. The weather was in fact very foul. It was
raining and the wind was gusting to speeds of up to twenty-five
miles per hour. A group of down range targets had been set up at a
distance of two hundred yards from the firing stations in front of
the reviewing stand.

The captain began at the
left-most firing position on the rifle range, where he stood and
fired a single shot into the center of the target. He then reloaded
from a standing position and fired a second shot from the standing
position at the same target, striking it again. The captain then
moved to the second firing position, knelt down on one knee and
rotated the trigger guard breech screw to open the breech. He
loaded a musket ball and powder into the breech from his powder
horn. Then he closed the breech by rotating the trigger guard
breech screw in the opposite direction. Firing from this kneeling
position, he struck the second target, and then he repeated this
procedure, striking the second target again. The captain then moved
to the third firing position on the range and assumed a prone or
lying-face-down firing position, where he loaded and fired two more
shots, striking the third target twice.

After this demonstration,
the captain stood and reloaded. Then he started walking toward the
last target. He paused to take aim and hit the fourth target. Then
he resumed walking and reloaded the rifle while walking. As soon as
he had reloaded it, he paused, took aim and hit the fourth target
again. In spite of the heavy rain and strong wind, the rifle had
operated flawlessly, and Captain Ferguson had proved to be an
outstanding marksman.

Carrying his rifle slung
over his shoulder, the captain walked back toward the covered
reviewing pavilion, where King George and the military men were
discussing the demonstration. It was obvious that the rifle could
be fired, reloaded, and fired again without breaking cover. This
was a huge advantage that could change the way battles were fought
all over the world. Rather than standing in a formation and firing
in ranks, riflemen could find concealed positions and fire at
targets of their own selection and at their own pace. This rifle
could also potentially eliminate the bayonet fighting that usually
followed the initial rifle volleys and cost so many
lives.

Captain Ferguson stopped in
front of King George and bowed and then straightened up to address
the king and the other officials.

“Your Royal Highness and
gentlemen, this concludes my demonstration today of my new rifle. I
hope that you agree with me that it was successful and may prove to
be valuable to the British Army,” said the captain, with another
formal bow to the dignitaries.

“Captain Ferguson, we are
very impressed with your rifle and the test that you conducted for
us today. We would like to extend this test of your rifle into a
field trial of it. And as such, we hereby commission the
manufacture of one hundred of your rifles for this field trial. We
command you to train one hundred regular army British riflemen in
it use. This rifle company under your command as Captain Commandant
will be transported to the American colonies after the completion
of your training to assist in putting down this damned rebellion.
That should prove to be an adequate field trial of your rifle,”
replied King George.

“Thank you, Sire, I am
humbled to follow your orders,” said the smiling and gracious
captain.

* * * *

Samuel

“
I have been promoted to
the rank of major in the Pennsylvania militia,” said Samuel to
General Gage’s quartermaster, Colonel Barton.

“Excellent news,” replied
the quartermaster.

“General Gage wants to speak
with you personally before you leave today. But before I show you
into his office, I want to say what a wonderful job you have done
supplying food and other materials to the British garrison in
Philadelphia.”

“Thank you very much Sir. It
is my humble duty as an Englishman to be of service to the
crown.”

What Samuel did not say was
that he had also become personally wealthy by purchasing from the
colonists at rock bottom prices, by using his leverage as one of
them, and reselling those goods to the British Army. He in turn
billed the British at greatly marked up prices because, even at
those inflated prices, the food and supplies were less expensive
than importing them from England or other countries. It was a
dangerous game that he was playing. The colonists had no knowledge
that he was supplying the British Army, and he took every
precaution to prevent them from learning about it. He knew that his
very life depended on it. Samuel went so far as to load most of the
goods he purchased from the colonists onto boats. He then shipped
them to his warehouses in New York or Boston and later reshipped
them back to the Philadelphia British Army depot. That way the
British Army could receive them at the dock as if they had arrived
from England or another foreign country. Samuel had also joined the
Pennsylvania militia to further his ties with the colonists who
were selling him the goods. He was in Boston checking on his
warehouse operations and had scheduled a meeting with Colonel
Barton, the quartermaster, while he was there.

General Gage had recently
arrived back in Boston from England and had just been appointed to
the position of military Royal Governor and Commander-in-Chief of
Massachusetts by King George. General Gage was now becoming very
concerned about his army and navy’s position in Boston. After the
Battles of Lexington and Concord, the colonists had surrounded
Boston and were making preparations to drive the British out. If
they were successful, General Gage had plans to retreat to New York
and reorganize his army.

When Samuel Ruskin was shown
into General Gage’s office by his friend the quartermaster, he was
asked to take a seat. General Gage offered him no hand but
immediately looked up from his work.

“I understand from my staff
that you have been very helpful to the crown’s cause here in the
colonies,” opened General Gage.

“I have tried to do some
small service to the crown,” replied Samuel with the appearance of
utmost modesty.

“Your effort at supplying
our troops has been most commendable,” said the general.

“Thank you for those kind
words.”

“
I think that you may
become even more valuable to us in the future.”

“What do you mean,
Sir?”

“General Howe is on his way
to Boston and will arrive any day now with reinforcements. He will
also take command of his majesty’s army in Boston. I want you to
work with Howe and from time to time provide him with any
information that you may have gathered about the colonist’s
activities and plans in Philadelphia and the surrounding area where
you are active. You may be more valuable to the crown as a source
of information than as a factor. Is there any possibility that you
can enlist in the colonial militia?”

“I have just been promoted
to the rank of major in the Pennsylvania militia and would be most
honored to provide what information that I can,” replied
Samuel.

“Excellent, please work out
any details with the quartermaster and if you require any
additional funds to carry out this service, please let him
know.”

“Thank you,
General.”

“That will be all,” replied
General Gage as he went back to work, leaving Samuel Ruskin to find
his own way out of the general’s office.

Samuel saw this as a golden
opportunity, and now was the time to grab the golden goose that
laid the golden eggs. Of course, he would need additional funds to
help the British Army, lots of additional funds. He thought that
now he would move from being wealthy to being very wealthy at the
British Army’s expense. Samuel immediately began a mental checklist
of all the things that he would have to accomplish to be of even
greater service to the British Army.

The trip back to
Philadelphia by ship had favorable winds and was not too tedious.
As soon as he landed and walked into his office in the back of his
largest warehouse, he called for his straw boss that helped him
oversee his operations in Philadelphia.

“What’s happened while I
have been gone?” asked Samuel.

“
Nothing of any major
import,” replied the henchman.

“I’m going to be leaving
soon and traveling with the Continental Army full time. So I am
going to leave you in charge of my warehouse operations while I am
gone. You know the drill, and I know that you can handle it. Keep
everything running as smoothly as it has been running in the
past.”

“
I will be happy to do
it.”

“Any new rumors around the
dock?” asked Samuel.

“Nothing new to speak of,
but we did catch a couple of young women trying to pilfer one of
our warehouses.”

“Where are they
now?”

“We’re holding them in one
of the warehouse storage rooms. We were waiting until you got back
to see what you wanted to do with them.”

“Bring them to me. I want to
talk with them,” commanded Samuel.

The two young women were
brought into Samuel’s office, and he leered at them as they walked
in.

“What are your names?” asked
Samuel.

“
I’m Molly and this is my
sister Maggie,” said one of the girls.

“Molly and Maggie, it is
then. We three are going to have a good time together,” said Samuel
as he ogled the pretty young women.

* * * *

Robert and Hugh

“
Weel, I love that dirty
water,” said the bored Hugh as he gazed into the Charles River. The
river did in fact look dirty because it was flowing with a great
deal of silt and soil due to the heavy rains that had recently
fallen in its watershed.

“Why’s that?” replied the
usually taciturn Robert.

Hugh turned his head to look
directly at Robert in shock. It was one of the few times Robert had
actually responded to one of his comments. Hugh normally tendered
these questions, unsuccessfully, just to try to start a
conversation with him. Hugh thought that Robert would never take
the bait, and he was totally shocked that he had.

“Weel now, since ye asked,
Robber, the dirty water turns the wee water wheel that powers the
gunpowder mill where we used to work. Without that dirty water, we
would have starved to death or frozen to death when we first
arrived in Boston. Furthermore, it helps us keep the British Army
bottled up inside Boston. I suspect that someone will someday write
a song about that dirty water,” said Hugh.

“Doubtful, but maybe,”
replied Robert with a thoughtful look. Hugh was doubly shocked that
Robert had responded again. Hugh was, for once, speechless and
immediately dropped the conversation. Robert didn’t try to keep it
going either.

Robert and Hugh had taken
leave from their jobs at the Charles River gunpowder mill to join
the Massachusetts militia under a full time one year enlistment
contract. They didn’t know if they would get paid or not, but they
weren’t getting paid very much for working in the gunpowder mill
anyway. So not much would be lost if they didn’t get paid for their
Massachusetts militia service.

After their skirmish with
the colonists at Lexington Green, the British Army marched on to
Concord in search of weapons and gunpowder. At Concord, they were
confronted to a standoff at the Old North Bridge and driven back
all the way to Boston by the American militiamen. After the word
spread about the battles at Lexington and Concord, thousands of
militiamen from all over Massachusetts, and eventually from all
over New England, gathered around Boston to form a siege line
surrounding Boston on three sides. They blocked the Charlestown
Neck and the Boston Neck, leaving only the harbor and the sea
access under British control. As the colonial state militias began
to arrive, the British moved their troops out of Charlestown,
across the bay into the city of Boston proper. This effectively
prevented the British Army from operating outside of the city of
Boston. The military action by the Colonial army became a siege of
Boston.

General George Washington
had not yet arrived to take charge of the Continental Army, as it
was now being called. The colonial troops surrounding Boston
numbered about fifteen thousand men under the command of Artemas
Ward. Robert and Hugh had signed their oath and enlistment papers
under Colonel William Prescott. They had been assigned as riflemen
to a unit that was operating in the Charlestown Neck region of the
siege. The area north of Charlestown was essentially a “no man’s
land” between the two armies.