American Revolution
Sponsored by the
| Main Campfire Page | Main Anecdote Page |
THE CAMP-FIRE AT LONG ISLAND
|
Night had settled around the plains and the rugged hills of Long Island. It was the evening which preceded the disastrous battle of August 27th, 1776; and both armies, having lighted their fires, seemed to be holding their breath in anticipation of the morning. The hills were dotted with watch fires; and many an eye, which had flashed wildly when the tocsin of liberty pealed first at Concord, or when in fierce strife it met that of an enemy, looked sadly on the flames as they slowly curled upward. Scarce a whisper disturbed the quiet of that calm and beautiful summer night.
Suddenly, a soldier issued from a pass between some hills, and advanced toward one of the tents. He was a young man, dressed as an ordinary soldier, and carrying a musket over his shoulder. "Stand!" exclaimed a sentinel. The young man stooped and gave a pass-word. "Your passport," demanded the inexorable watcher. "And why a passport?" the young soldier enquired. "I've given you the word by which I passed all the sentinels behind me." "I have just received the old man's orders, and the other sentinels still receive them also. Israel must be obeyed." The soldier stood for a moment, as though lost in astonishment. Then striking his forehead with one hand, he exclaimed with energy --- "I must see General Putnam!" The sentinel lowered his gun. "I must --- I must see the general. I have information of the first importance to our cause, and which no one can deliver but myself. -- Is there no exception to your orders?" "None," was the reply; "not for the old man himself, if he should come along. So, sire, you are my prisoner. "Take me prisoner --- and take me to the general." "You must go to quarters; he cannot be seen," was the reply. A strange variety of conditions were visible on the soldiers countenance, as he grounded his musket, to save his life. But scarcely had the sentinel advanced to seize him, when a horseman rode through the pass as fast as his jaded horse could gallop. "Is private Smith here?" he demanded, on reaching the sentinel. "I am he," replied the young man, turning round, and facing the officer. He was immediately recognized. "Here is a passport, to carry you to General Putnam. It should have been given you before --- lose no time." The young soldier bowed and passed on. He reached the general's tent, and delivered to him, --- partly in writing, partly in words, --- a message from General Greene. "That pass!" exclaimed Putnam, springing from his feet. "O! that Greene was here to direct us!" Orders were immediately issued to examine the Jamaica road; and all who could be spared from other points were directed to be stationed there. But the order was too late. The officers were mostly unacquainted with the ground; and, amid the perplexities of a night march over an unknown territory, so much time was lost, that even the following morning the pass had not been guarded. For a short time after delivering his message, young Smith had remained in the General's tent. The road by which he came was both difficult and dangerous; and he gladly accepted Putnam's offer, to remain in that part of the camp. Within the tent near which he had been stopped by the sentinel, he had observed two or three faces which seemed familiar to him; and he requested and obtained permission to quarter there during the night. A sense of hearty joy ensued on his arrival there. Two of the men within the tent, had passed with him through many of the trying scenes in Boston, which preceded the battle of Lexington. Their names were Wilson and Hanna. They had joined the provincial army soon after that event; but their young friend Smith, unable to leave Boston without being suspected and seized, remained there during the siege. Another soldier, named Rollin, had seen Smith on that joyous occasion, when the army of Washington, having driven Lord Howe from the city, marched triumphantly into it. Two others within the tent he did not know. "Smith!" exclaimed the three friends, springing to their feet, and grasping his hand. "Let me sit down, lads," were his first words. "I've been traveling all this hot day, since before sunrise, and feel as if I had lost twenty pounds of flesh." "But where have you been so long?" enquired Hanna. "Why, we used to see you every day." "I have been with General Greene," was the answer. "And will he lead us, in the coming battle?" "No, he will not. He's down with a fever, and can't lift hand or foot. We'll miss him, boys, depend upon it, when the fighting comes to be done." "I'm not afraid, when Israel's about," said Wilson. "Nor I, either," added a companion. "It's no difference who commands," Smith replied "if he don't know what the ground's like, that he's fighting on. His excellency himself couldn't gain a battle, unless he knew something of the kind before battle beforehand. And let me tell you, lads, General Greene is the ony man that has the proper knowledge of it." "Well, I'm tired of this war," remarked a man named Pierce. "I wish Lord North and the other lords had gone to smash before they passed the stamp act. Here we've been quarreling six or seven years, and at last got to blows, without the least good to either party. Why can't they let us have our homes, and our little property, in peace, instead of murdering and destroying all before them?" "We don't want peace!" exclaimed Rollin, sharply. "Peace!" who'd be a subject of King George again, and call him, 'gracious majesty," and "kind majesty' and 'most serene highness," when we know he'd cut the throat of every mother's son among us, if he only had the chance, and the knives. I go by the declaration of our Congress --- and may God help them to keep it! They know more than I do of all these things; for some of them have read all kinds of history, besides other books; and this makes them know how to talk in the right style. Didn't they say all people are free when they are born, and that one's as good as another?" I didn't recollect the words exactly, but that's something like it." "That's it!" exclaimed Hanna. "And they said also that George III is a tyrant; which I believe with all my heart. "Who cares for his property," remarked Rollin, "if we can get our freedom? That's what we're fighting for now, and we must fight it out. Any man that don't come up to the scratch, oughtn't to be free. And, let me tell you, there are boys in this camp that never will be under a king agin, unless it be his excellency. They'll live among the Indians first --- yes, they'd rather stand still and be chopped in pieces. What good did ever King George do us? --- that's what I want to know. He got our money, and made us fight the French, and left his armies here to be fed, and made us pay for his quarrels, and then called us 'rebels.' And all the time, we, like poor fools as we were, kept saying, 'gracious majesty, generous majesty, O! how gracious!' But, boys, even kittens get their eyes open at last; and all honor to the wise men in Congress, we've got ours opened --- I go for the Declaration!" "So do I!" exclaimed Smith. "Stick to it lads, forever! I wish we had a Declaration when the red-coats left Boston. That was the time to give it to them; but you see our hands were tied, because we were subjects, and so they slipped away." "Were you in Boston all the time the siege lasted?" asked Wilson. "Yes; and many a hard scene the people passed through. We didn't care as much for ourselves, as for the women and little children. Some of them suffered enough last winter; for many families had been robbed of their money and other articles, after the battle of Bunker Hill." "Let's hear something about it," said Hanna. "I can't tell you more abut the battle than you know yourselves," replied the young soldier. "It was a busy day, however, in Boston, and the whole town looked like a beehive. I got on old Neddy Ingle's roof; but I could see nothing but the hill where the fort was, on account of the crowds that covered the houses before me, and on all sides. They clung to each other in bunches; and every window was filled with heads. At last, I climbed to the top of a chimney. The redcoats were just marching up the hill; and then, boys, you ought to have seen the pale forces around me, and how the poor women clasped their hands, and looked up to Heaven, with trembling lips, and sometimes with short prayers. There were some handsome young girls among them, too; but I hadn't time to look at them, only now and then. Every eye was on the red-coats; and when they got quite near, so that they seemed only two or three steps off, I began to think all was over. Ah, boys, it would have looked bad to give up the fort without fighting, after all that had been done at Lexington." "But they didn't though," interrupted a voice. "No indeed," resumed Smith; " but a good many thought so, besides myself. You remember Passy, Joe?" "The old, cross ugly man, with a flat, round nose, who swears so?" enquired Hanna. "Yes, he. He's a bad sort of a man, but a firm patriot. When he saw, as he thought, that the Americans were afraid to fight, he broke out all at once with a mouthful of curses, as frightened everybody. Some tried to stop him; but he swore worse at them, and nearly pushed Mrs. Johnson's Sally off the roof. If she had fallen, half a dozen, at least, would have gone with her. She began to cry; and as all hearts were full, we soon had tears enough. The girls wrung their hands, and some of the men hid their faces, saying that all was over. But just as I was hallooing to Passy, to ask him if he wasn't ashamed of himself, the little fort broke out in the right way. Every one was on tiptoe. 'That battle's begun! Shouted the men, in all directions. Sure enough it had begun. The red-coats poured out their fire, covering themselves in clouds of smoke, and hiding our fort; and at the same moment, all the ships in the harbor vomited out fire and death, till the houses in town seemed to be shaking to pieces. "You may guess how anxiously we looked till the smoke should clear away; for nobody doubted that the fort would be knocked off the hill like a football. In a few minutes we saw the legs, and then the bodies of the red-coats, pushing out of the smoke, and running down the hill as if they'd break their necks. 'What's the matter with my eyes, chil'ren! Exclaimed Deacon Wadloe; for he didn't dream, not anybody else, that the British were really flying. But he had hardly cleaned his spectacles, and put them on again, when the smoke was blown away, and we saw what the matter was. Then there were more tears, but they were tears of joy. Then the girls hugged each other, and the men stamped, and the old women clapped their hands, till I expected they would tumble headforemost into the street. At first we didn't hurrah, for fear of the officers; but Sammy Cropp grabbed his son Bill by the shoulder, and shouted, 'Hurrah, my boy --- hurrah for America, if you're shot for it!" Bill roared out like a thunderclap; and the way that all on the roof joined him was a lesson to tories. Pretty soon, up comes three officers, through the trap-door. They wanted to know what the rebel noise meant. Charley Cannon made answer, that he hadn't heard any rebel noise, nor any loyal one either. The nearest officer swore and oath that made even Passy shudder, and drew his sword to run Cannon through; but he couldn't get at him, for the crowd of women. One or two begged Charley to be quiet; but he swore that if they'd clear the roof, he'd fight al three with his fists. The officers ordered him to surrender; but as he know very well what would be done wit him if he complied, he only folded his arms and looked at the officers. 'Never surrender, Charley,' two or three whispered. 'I don't intend to,' was the answer. 'Look here, Mr. Officer: you're dressed in a nice clean suit, and got a very fine long sword of your own; but I'll just tell you, on the part of Charley Cannon, you can't do everything. I don't like to brag; but I'll just say of myself, I'm no rebel. And I'll just say again, that you can't frighten me with your sword, if it ain't rusty. And p'r'haps, I may as well add, that if either of you lays a finger on me, he'll go over this bannis'er into the street, quicker than they are flying over there, down Breed's Hill!" "Good!" ejaculated Hanna, "That was the right way to make speeches." "It was indeed. And the way the men crowded round to help him was the right way, too. For you see, boys, we thought that if our friends could whip an army on a hill, we might easily whip three officers on the roof of a house. But just then three more officers came up; and there would have been serous work, if an order hadn't soon after arrived, for them to repair with all haste to their commands. Then we gave three cheers for Charley Cannon; but as his foe had now fled, we thought it best that he should go off the roof, lest the red-coats would tell, and have him arrested. He wouldn't go, though; and, pretty soon afterwards, orders came from one of the British generals, to clear the roof; so we had to get down without seeing the end of the battle. We listened again; and a good many run through the town in spite of the soldiers, and hid themselves near the harbor, where they could see all. "You know, boys, how the battle ended; so I needn't say anything further about that. In the afternoon, the wounded were brought over in boats; and a long string of wagons and carriages took them up to head-quarters. Jake White and I were peeping from behind a pile of logs to the old board-yard, trying to count them as they passed. But there seemed to be no end; and so at last we stopped. Jake was so pleased, that I could scarcely keep him from screaming out; but it seemed to me a hard thing to see so many men, who were well enough in the morning, hacked and bruised; --- some with their arms or legs off, some shot in the head, others just dying. I wasn't used to such sights then, and that one made me feel very uneasy for a good many days. |
| Go to Top |