Kings Pinnacle (27 page)

As soon as all the officers
had left, General Washington turned to Alex and Ellison.

“Captain McCoy and
Lieutenant Mackenzie, I am going to leave you and five hundred men
and one cannon behind. I want you to make noise with shovels and
picks and keep the fires burning to create the illusion that we are
digging in here. Fire the cannon into the British encampment at
irregular intervals to further the illusion that we are staying
put. Just before dawn, I want you to evacuate the men and cannon
and abandon this position. Quick march the men and the cannon to
join the main force for the attack on Princeton,” said the
general.

“Yes, Sir,” replied Captain
McCoy and Lieutenant Mackenzie in unison.

By the time the sun broke
through the low morning clouds just above the horizon, Alex,
Ellison, and the five hundred men that General Washington had left
behind had already evacuated their positions to join the main army.
So when the British attacked that morning, they found the
Continental Army was gone.

In Princeton on January 3,
1777, after a brief battle against the British garrison, the
Continental Army decisively defeated the British and captured most
of the troops under the command of General Mawhood. It was the
second British loss in ten days. General Howe was mortified by the
defeats and ordered the British Army to withdraw from southern New
Jersey, moving most of the British and Hessian troops all the way
back to New York.

* * * *

Samuel

“
Why are my messages not
getting through?” asked Samuel, speaking to Molly, who was sitting
on her cot inside her tent.

“What do you mean, sir?”
asked Molly.

“If the British Army knew in
advance where the Continental Army was located and what their
intentions were, then why did the British lose the last two battles
at Trenton and at Princeton?”

“I’m sure that I have no
idea, sir.”

“
Are you positive that you
delivered my message to General Cornwallis?”

“Yes, Sir, I
did.”

“
Describe General
Cornwallis to me.”

“Sir, he is a heavy set,
very courteous, rotund gentlemen with a ruddy complexion. He has a
very sharp, long nose and bushy eyebrows. His hair is blond and
curled at the ends, and he has a cleft in his chin. He was wearing
a red coat with black lapels, and the buttons on it were gold.
There was a gold braid attached to the top of the shoulders of his
jacket. His white vest also sported gold buttons.”

“Hmm, that does sound like
him. So you actually spoke with him in person in Princeton, not
just one of his aides?”

“Yes, sir, I spoke with the
general himself.”

Samuel was puzzled by the
patriot victories that he had surely sabotaged. He didn’t
understand how the British could lose, and he wanted to blame the
defeats on Molly. But it appeared that in spite of his advance
warnings, the Americans were superior in these two
battles.

Without another word, he
turned and walked out of Molly’s tent, deep in thought.

* * * *

Alex

“
It’s a good thing General
Washington has been keeping his plans to himself and then springing
them on us at the last minute,” said Alex, speaking with Robert and
Hugh after the Battle of Princeton.

“Why is that Alex, lad?”
asked Hugh.

“General Washington suspects
a spy in our midst, and he has asked me to ferret out the
traitor.”

“What progress have you
made?” asked Robert.

“Not much, but I have some
clues. I just haven’t been able to put it all together
yet.”

Alex then told Robert and
Hugh about why he was interested in the young woman that he had
described to them earlier. He also told them about his hopes that
she would provide a clue to solving the mystery.

“Alex, now that the British
have retreated, and we are going to move to our winter quarters, I
doubt that the spy will be very active. We may have to wait until
the spring campaign later this year to make any progress on it,”
said Robert.

“
My thoughts exactly,”
replied Alex.

Alex looked at Robert. It
was probably the longest conversation that he had engaged in with
Robert since they had been reunited. Alex knew how intelligent
Robert was and that Robert, Hugh, and the Longhunter could probably
help him find the spy. If Robert put his mind to a problem, he
usually solved it.

* * * *

Captain Ferguson

“
General Howe, Captain
Ferguson reporting for duty,” barked the captain, standing at
attention in front of General Howe’s desk in his office in New
York.

“Welcome to the colonies,
Captain Ferguson. I have heard a lot about you and have been
eagerly expecting you, your troops, and your new rifle. I am sure
that you will be of great assistance to me in putting down this
damnable colonial rebellion,” replied the enthusiastic general, who
stood up from his desk to shake hands with the smiling
captain.

“My men and I have just
arrived in New York and are waiting aboard the Christopher, sir. We
are ready and eager for a fight,” said the elegantly dressed
captain in his green jacket and black trousers.

“Excellent! You will be
assigned to help me with the spring campaign in New Jersey. We have
experienced losses to the rebels late last year in Trenton and
already this year in Princeton. As soon as we get this winter
behind us, we will need something or someone to provide a spark for
our side. I think that you and your new rifle might be just the
thing to provide that spark.”

“I remain at your service,
sir,” replied the captain, preening a bit and formally bowing at
the waist.

“How many men do you have,
Captain?”

“We are one hundred strong,
sir, ready and chomping at the bit.”

“Tell me more about this
rifle of yours.”

“This new rifle that I
invented is a breech loader, sir, based on an improved version of
Chaumette's breech loading design. It shoots sixty-five caliber
balls and is accurate to a range of up to two hundred yards. That’s
twice the range of the Brown Bess. It can be loaded and fired from
a standing, kneeling, sitting, or lying position. And its rate of
fire is twice that of the Bess, sir.”

“That’s impressive. Let’s
work out how you and your troops can best be used in my spring
campaign to wipe out the Continental Army.”

The two officers sat down at
the desk to come up with a plan to use the new rifle company
against the Continental Army during the coming spring
campaign.

* * * *

Alex

“
We’re now settled into
winter quarters here in Morristown. There won’t be any more battles
fought until spring,” said Alex, who was talking with Robert, Hugh,
and the Longhunter.

Following the Battle of
Princeton, General Washington had moved his troops to Morristown,
New Jersey to spend the rest of the winter. After the victory at
Princeton and the retreat of the British Army to New York, the
Continental Army had marched due north to Morristown, arriving
there on January 6, 1777. General Washington had known that the
British were regrouping in New York, so the Continental Army
regrouped just to the west in New Jersey. The troops knew that the
battles would start again as soon as the weather improved in the
spring.

“Why do ye suppose that
General Washington picked this spot for our winter camp?” asked
Hugh.

“
Well, it’s far enough
from New York to keep us from being surprised. And it’s got good
access to Philadelphia, so I rate it a fairly strategic location,”
answered Robert, before Alex could speak.

Alex nodded agreement with
Robert’s analysis. General Washington had established his
headquarters at Jacob Arnold’s tavern located on the Morristown
Green. The army was quartered just outside the small town in their
tents. Morristown was also chosen because General Washington and
his staff thought that the town could supply enough food for the
army for the few months that they would be camped there.

“I want you three to fan out
in the camp and make as many friends among the troops in the other
units as you can. Try to find out from the other soldiers about
anything unusual that is going on or any stories about strange
things that might have happened that defy logic. Also check out the
camp followers. They seem to know a lot about what is going on in
the army. There might be a clue out there somewhere that will help
us find the traitor. I don’t want to leave any stone unturned this
winter,” said Alex.

“
I would be more than
happy to spend some time among the camp followers,” said Hugh with
a grin.

“I’ll bet you would,”
replied Alex with a glare. Turning to his other brother instead, he
continued, “Robert, why don’t you spend some time with the camp
followers and let Hugh make the rounds with the troops?”

General Washington’s main
job during the time that the army was idle was to replace the men
whose enlistments had expired. Many had left the army to return to
their homes, and the new recruits needed to be trained. The Second
Continental Congress that met in Philadelphia was encouraged by the
victories at Trenton and Princeton. They had given General
Washington enough funds to replace all the men who had left the
army.

Alex did not lose any men
from his unit that winter. They trained on horseback when the cold
winter weather would allow it. When the weather was too bad to
train, Alex, his two brothers, and the Longhunter continued their
investigation into the traitor to see if they could gather any
clues. But clues were not easy to come by. Molly stayed in her tent
most of the time and was seldom out during the daylight hours.
During one such venture out, she had seen Alex from a distance at
the camp and had recognized him as the officer who had questioned
her at the Assunpink Creek Bridge. After that, she took every
precaution to avoid him. As a result, the investigation went
nowhere during the winter. Robert, Hugh, and the Longhunter had no
luck at all, even though they had moved freely among the troops in
all the units of the army. They had asked a number of pointed
questions that could lead to a clue about the identity of the
traitor, but they got nowhere.

When spring finally arrived,
General Washington decided to begin his campaign again, so he
called a war council of his officers. As each officer filed into
his conference room, he shook hands with each one individually,
thanking them for coming.

“Gentlemen, our tactics
against the British this coming summer are going to be hit and run.
They will try to draw us into a major battle, but we are not strong
enough to take them on right now. We currently have about eight
thousand men, and almost three thousand of them are either sick or
disabled. These men are unable to fight. The British have seventeen
thousand fighting men at New Brunswick alone. We are outnumbered a
little over three to one. We will fight skirmishes and try to
whittle away at their numbers until we can get them down to our
size before we will risk a general confrontation. I would like for
everyone to give me a report on the condition of their units,”
concluded General Washington.

During the spring and summer
of 1777, General Washington kept his word and did not engage the
British Army in any major confrontations. He harassed them
constantly and fought skirmishes, but there was no apparent victor
in any of these confrontations.

* * * *

Captain Ferguson

“
Captain Ferguson, you and
your men have performed admirably against the rebels this year.
That rifle of yours is all that you said it would be. With a whole
army equipped with your rifle, I could put an end to this rebellion
in a few months,” stated General Sir William Howe in a conference
with the captain at his New York headquarters. It was the middle of
July 1777.

“Thank you, sir,” replied
the smiling Captain Ferguson.

“
Tell me about the
incident with the ammunition,” commanded General Howe.

“Ah, the ammunition, yes,”
said Captain Ferguson. “It was our first engagement, sir, and the
quartermaster issued my men seventy-five caliber ball shot, which
is the size ball that the Brown Bess uses. My rifle is, of course,
bored for sixty-five caliber balls. The difference in size and
weight between the seventy-five and the sixty-five is very small.
It’s relatively easy to mistake one ball for the other. The
ammunition, of course, jammed in the breeches, and we had a few
rifle barrels explode when the ball was fired into the barrel by
the powder blast. We had a devil of a time clearing the jams until
we borrowed some ramrods from the regular units to dislodge the
oversized balls. It was a dicey bit for a while, but we were able
to escape the skirmish and acquire the proper size ball,” continued
the captain. “From there we have had no problems.”