Читать книгу Corporal 'Lige's Recruit: A Story of Crown Point and Ticonderoga - Otis James - Страница 1

There was great excitement among the citizens of the town of Pittsfield in the province of Massachusetts on the first day of May in the year 1775.

Master Edward Mott and Noah Phelps, forming a committee appointed by the Provincial Assembly of Connecticut, had arrived on the previous evening charged with an important commission, the making known of which had so aroused the inhabitants of the peaceful settlement that it was as if the reports of the muskets fired at Lexington and Concord were actually ringing in their ears.

These two gentlemen had with them a following of sixteen men, equipped as if for battle, and the arrival of so large an armed body had aroused the curiosity of the good people until all were painfully eager to learn the reason for what seemed little less than an invasion.

When it was whispered around that Master Mott and Phelps had, immediately upon their arrival, inquired for Colonel James Easton and Master John Brown, and were even then closeted with those citizens, the more knowing ones predicted that this coming had much to do with the warlike preparations that were making in Boston and New York, designed to put a check upon the unlawful doings of his majesty the king.

When morning came, that is to say, on this first day of May, it was generally understood throughout the settlement that the Provincial Assembly of Connecticut had agreed upon a plan to seize the munitions of war at Ticonderoga for the use of that body of men known as the American army, then gathered at Cambridge and Roxbury in the province of Massachusetts.

The gossips of Pittsfield stated that one thousand dollars had been advanced from the Provincial Treasury of Connecticut to pay the expenses of the expedition; that the sixteen men making up the following of the committee were recruits who had pledged themselves to capture this important fortress which formed the key of communication between New York and the Canadas, and that they proposed to march through the country to Shoreham, opposite Ticonderoga, recruiting as they went, with the belief that on arriving there their force would be sufficiently large to capture the fort.

The boys as well as the men were highly excited, as was but natural, by such rumors, and a certain Isaac Rice, who prided himself upon being fourteen years old, instead of gathering with his companions, listening eagerly to every word which dropped from the lips of the older members of the community, conceived the idea of applying to what he believed to be the fountain-head of all information regarding military matters.

This supposedly wise man was none other than Corporal Elijah Watkins, generally known as “Corporal ’Lige,” sometimes spoken of as “Master Watkins;” but always to Isaac Rice, “the corporal.”

He was looked upon as an old man when he served under Abercrombie at Ticonderoga in ’58, and believed of a surety he was as well informed in military affairs as Isaac Rice, his ardent disciple, fancied him to be.

Ever ready to give advice on important matters; not backward about criticising the alleged mistakes of his superiors, and holding himself as with the idea that during the late troubles with the French he had learned all the art of warfare; but yet with such possibly disagreeable qualities, Corporal ’Lige had shown himself to be a brave soldier, willing at any time to do more even than was his duty.

The old man was sitting outside the door of a tiny log building which he called home, smoking peacefully, much as he might have done had the committee from Connecticut never passed that way, and this apparent indifference surprised the boy.

“Why, corporal, don’t you know what’s going on in the town? Haven’t you heard that they are talking of taking the fort at Ticonderoga, and running the king out of the country?”

“First and foremost, Isaac lad, are you so ignorant as to think the king is here in this ’ere province to be run out? An’ then agin, can’t you realize that talkin’s one thing an’ doin’s another?”

“Yes; but, corporal, haven’t you heard the news?”

“If you mean so far as concerns the committee from Connecticut, Isaac, I have heard it, and what’s more, Master Noah Phelps talked with me before ever he went to see Colonel Easton. He knew where he could get information about Ticonderoga, for bless your soul, lad, wasn’t I there in ’58? An’ would you find a stick or stone around the place that I can’t call to mind?”

“Did Master Phelps come to see you first?”

“Well, yes, lad, it ’mounted to much the same thing. I was down the road when he come into town, an’ seein’ me he acted like as if a great load had been lifted off his shoulders, ’cause he knowed I could tell him a thing or two if I was minded. ‘Good-evenin’ to you, Corporal ’Lige,’ he said sweet as honey in the honeycomb, and I passed the time of day with him, kind of suspicionin’ something of this same business was goin’ on. ‘Want to take a little trip up through the country?’ he asked friendly-like, and do you know, lad, the whole plan come to me in a minute, an’ I says to him, says I, ‘Master Phelps, you can count me in, if it so be yo’re goin’ toward the lakes.’ ‘That’s where we’re bound for, Corporal ’Lige,’ says he, ‘and I’ll put your name down.’ I said, says I, ‘It’s rations, an’ somethin’ in the way of pay, I reckon?’ an’ he allowed as that part of it would be all fixed, especially with me, ’cause you see, lad, it wouldn’t be much good for these people what never knew anything ’bout war, to start out leavin’ me behind. Why, bless your heart, I allow that’s why they come through Pittsfield, jest for the purpose of seein’ Corporal ’Lige.”

The old man ceased speaking to puff dense volumes of smoke from his pipe, and Isaac Rice gazed at him in wonder and amaze.

That the committee from Connecticut had visited the town for the sole and only reason of inducing the corporal to join the force, there was no question in his mind, and now, more implicitly than ever before, did he believe that throughout all the provinces there could be found no abler soldier than Corporal ’Lige.

“Yes, lad, I’m goin’ with the committee, more to tell ’em what they ought to do, as you might say, than to serve as a private soldier, for you see I know Ticonderoga root and branch. I could tell you the whole story from the meanin’ of the name down to who is in command of it this very minute, if there was time.”

“But there is, corporal. The committee are talkin’ to Colonel Easton and Master Brown now, and don’t count on leaving here before to-morrow.”

“What do they want of the colonel?”

“I don’t know; but they are stopping at his house.”

“I ain’t sayin’ but that the colonel is as good a soldier as you’ll find around here; but bless your soul, lad, though it ain’t for me to say it, he could learn considerable from Corporal ’Lige if he was to spend a few hours every now and then listenin’.”

“But tell me all you can about Ticonderoga, corporal.”

The old man looked around furtively as if half-expecting the committee from Connecticut, or Colonel Easton, might be coming to ask his advice on some disputed point, and then, shaking his forefinger now and again at the lad much as though to prevent contradiction, he began:

“In the first place the folks ’round here call it ‘Ticonderoga’ when it ain’t anything of the kind. The real name is ‘Cheonderoga,’ which is Iroquois lingo for ‘Sounding Water,’ being called so, I allow, because the falls at Lake George make a deal of noise. The French built breastworks there in ’55, which they christened Fort Carillon. Now you see it’s a mighty strong place owin’ to the situation, and its bein’ located on a point which, so I’ve heard said, rises more’n a hundred feet above the level of the water. The solid part of it – that is to say, the land – is only about five hundred acres. Three sides are surrounded by water, an’ in the rear is a swamp. That much for the advantages of the spot, so to speak. Now I was there in July of ’58 when Montcalm held the fort with four thousand men. Lord Howe was second in command of General Abercrombie’s forces, and Major Putnam, down here, was with the crowd. That’s when the major wouldn’t let his lordship go into the battle first; but banged right along ahead until we come to the first breastworks, finding it so strong that the troops were marched back to the landin’ place and went into bivouac for the night. It was the sixth day of July; on the eighth we tried it again; but the fort couldn’t be carried, an’ the blood that was shed there, lad, all under the British flag, would come pretty nigh drownin’ every man, woman an’ child in this ’ere settlement. On the twenty-sixth of July in the year 1759, General Amherst with eleven thousand men scared the French out; they didn’t fire a gun, but abandoned the fortification and fled to Crown Point. Since that time the king’s forces have held it.”

“How many are there now?” Isaac asked, not so much for the purpose of gaining information as to tempt the old man to continue his story.

“I can’t rightly say, lad, though it’s somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty. The commandant is, or was when I last heard, one Captain Delaplace, and it is said that he’s a thorough soldier, though I’m allowin’ he hasn’t got any too much of a force with him.”

“Do you think the Connecticut gentlemen can raise men enough between here and there to take a fort which resisted General Abercrombie’s entire army?”

“That remains to be seen, lad. If they are willin’ to act on such advice as can be got from some people hereabouts, I allow there’s a good chance for it, more especially if the Green Mountain boys take a hand in the matter, as Master Phelps thinks probable. In that case Colonel Ethan Allen would most likely be in command.”

“And you are really going, corporal?” asked Isaac.

“Yes, lad, it don’t seem as though I ought to hang back back when I’m needed. If all we hear from the other provinces is true, you’ll be old enough to take a hand in the scrimmage before the fightin’s over, so here’s a chance to serve an apprenticeship. If it so be you’re of the mind I’ll take you under my wing, an’ by the time we get back you’ll have a pretty decently good idea of a soldier’s trade.”

“Do you really mean it, corporal?” and Isaac sprang to his feet in excitement. “Do you really mean that I may go with you just as if I was of age to carry a gun?”

“Ay, lad, if it so be your mother an’ father are willin’, an’ I can’t see why they shouldn’t agree, seein’s how they know the company you’ll be in. It would seem different if you talked of goin’ with the general run of recruits, who are green hands at this kind of work.”

“But will the committee allow a lad of my age to go as a soldier?”

“Isaac, my boy, when Corporal ’Lige says to Master Phelps, says he, ‘This ’ere lad is goin’ under my wing, so to speak,’ why bless your heart, that’s the end of the whole business. They’ve got to have me, an’ won’t stand out about your joinin’ when it’s known my heart is set on it.”

“Will you come now while I ask my mother?”

“Well, lad, I ain’t prepared to say as how I will; but this much I’m promisin’: Go to her an’ find out how she’s feelin’ about the matter. If there’s any waverin’ in her mind I’ll step in – you see I’ll be the reserves in this case – an’ when I charge she’s bound to surrender. But if it so happens that she’s dead set against it at the start, why, you had best not vex her by tryin’ to push the matter.”

Having perfect faith in the corporal’s wisdom Isaac was thoroughly satisfied with this decision, and after the old man had promised to await his return at that point, the lad set out for home at full speed.

Perhaps if Isaac had been the only son of his mother he would have found it difficult to gain her permission for such an adventure as Corporal ’Lige had proposed.

There were five other boys in the family, and Isaac was neither the oldest nor the youngest.

The fact that Mrs. Rice had so many did not cause her to be unmindful of any, but less timorous perhaps, about parting with one.

However it may be, the lad gained the desired permission providing his father would assent, and this last was little more than a formality.

Master Rice was found among the throng of citizens in front of the inn where recruiting was going on briskly.

The opportunity served to give the good man a certain semblance of patriotism when he showed himself willing that one of his sons should go for a soldier, and he would have had the boy sign the rolls then and there, but that Isaac demurred.

It was not in his mind to enlist save in the company and after being again assured of the corporal’s protection, therefore he insisted on presenting himself as the old man’s recruit rather than his father’s offering.

Corporal ’Lige was well pleased when Isaac returned with a detailed account of all that had taken place, and said approvingly:

“You have shown yourself to be a lad of rare discretion, Isaac Rice, and I will take it upon myself to see that such forethought brings due reward. Suppose you had signed the rolls at the inn? What would you be then? Nothin’ more than a private.”

“But that is all I shall be when I sign them with you, corporal.”

“It may appear that way, I’m free to admit lad; but still you will be a deal higher than any non-commissioned officer, because you’ll be under my wing, and when we have taken Ticonderoga, though I ain’t admitting that’s the proper name of the fort – when we’ve taken that, I say, you’ll be fit for any kind of a commission that you’re qualified to hold.”

“Yes,” Isaac replied doubtfully, and then he fell to speculating as to whether even though Corporal ’Lige did not “take him under his wing,” he might not be fit to fill any position for which “he was qualified.”

While he was thus musing a messenger came from Master Phelps saying the recruiting was coming to an end in this town, and the party would set out that same afternoon on their way to Bennington, expecting to enlist volunteers from Colonel Easton’s regiment of militia as they passed through the country.

“Never you fear but that I’ll be right at my post of duty when the command is given to form ranks,” Corporal ’Lige said to the messenger, and after the latter had departed he added as he turned to the boy, “Now, Isaac, lad, you can see what they think of Corporal ’Lige. Colonel Easton and Master Brown are hangin’ ’round the inn instead of waitin’ for the committee to visit them. An’ what do I do? Why, I stay quietly here, knowin’ they can’t well get along without me, an’ instead of coolin’ my heels among a lot of raw recruits, I’m sent for when the time is come, as if I was a staff officer. That’s one thing you want to bear in mind. If you don’t count yourself of any importance, other people are mighty apt to pass you by as a ne’er-do-well.”

“But I haven’t enlisted yet, corporal.”

“Of course you have. When you said to me ‘I’m ready to go as your apprentice in this ’ere business,’ it was jest the same as if you’d signed the rolls. I’ll arrange all that matter with Master Phelps, my lad. Now do you hasten home; get what you can pick up in the way of an outfit; borrow your father’s gun, and kind of mention the fact to your mother that the more she gives in the way of provisions the better you’ll be fed, for you an’ me are likely to mess together.”

“How much are you going to take, corporal?”

“That will depend a good deal on what kind of a supply your mother furnishes. I’m willin’ to admit she’s nigh on to as good a cook as can be found in Pittsfield, an’ will take my chances on what she puts up for you, providin’ there’s enough of it.”

“Of course you are to take your musket?”

“I should be a pretty poor kind of a soldier if I didn’t, lad – the same one I used under Abercrombie,” and he pointed with his thumb toward the interior of the dwelling where, as Isaac knew, a well-worn weapon hung on hooks just over the fireplace. “It’s one of the king’s arms, an’ I reckon will do as good service against him as it did for him, which is saying considerable, lad, as Major Putnam can vouch for. Now set about making ready, for we two above all others must not be behind-hand when the column moves.”

A fine thing it was to be a soldier, so Isaac thought as he went leisurely from Corporal ’Lige’s log hut to his home; he was forced to pass through the entire length of the village, stopping here and there to acquaint a friend with what he believed to be a most important fact.

Among all the lads in Pittsfield of about his own age he was the only one who proposed to enlist, and from all he heard and saw there could be no question but that he was envied by his companions.

From the youngest boy to the oldest man, the citizens were in such a ferment of excitement as gave recruits the idea that to enlist was simply providing amusement for themselves during a certain number of days, and, with the exception of those experienced in such matters, no person believed for a moment that the brave ones who were rallying at their country’s call would suffer hardships or privations.

In fact, this going forth to capture the fort at Ticonderoga was to be a pleasure excursion rather than anything else, and Isaac Rice believed he was the most fortunate lad in the province of Massachusetts.

His outfit did not require that his mother should spend very much time upon it.

The clothes he wore comprised the only suit he owned, and when two shirts and three pairs of stockings had been made into a parcel of the smallest possible size, and he had borrowed his father’s gun, powder horn and shot pouch, the equipment was complete.

Then came the most important of the preparations, to Isaac’s mind, for he knew the corporal would criticize it closely – the store of provisions.

Had he been allowed his own bent the remainder of the Rice family might have been put on short allowance, for, with a view to pleasing the corporal, he urged that this article of food, and then that, should be put into the bag which served him as a haversack, until the larder must have been completely emptied but for his mother’s emphatic refusal to follow such suggestions.

If Mrs. Rice did not shed bitter tears over Isaac when he left her to join the recruits, it was because she shared the opinion of many others in Pittsfield, and felt positive the lad would soon return, none the worse for his short time of soldiering.

It was but natural she should take a most affectionate farewell of him, however, even though believing he would be in no especial danger, and a glimpse of the tears which his mother could not restrain caused an uncomfortable swelling in the would-be soldier’s throat.

This leaving home, even to march away by the side of Corporal ’Lige, was not as pleasant as he had supposed, and for the moment he ceased to so much as think of the provision-bag.

“Now, see here, mother,” he said, with a brave attempt at indifference. “I’m not counting on doing anything more than help take the fort, and since the corporal is to be with us, that can’t be a long task.”

“You will ever be a good boy, Isaac?”

“Of course, mother.”

“And you will write me a letter, if it so be you find the opportunity?”

This was not a pleasing prospect to the boy, for he had never found it an easy task to make a fair copy of the single line set down at the top of his writing-book; but his heart was sore for the moment, and he would have promised even more in order to check his mother’s tears.

Therefore it was he agreed to make her acquainted with all his movements, so far as should be possible, and, that done, it seemed as if the sting was taken in a great measure from the parting.

Feeling more like a man than ever before in his life, Isaac set forth from his home with a heavy musket over his shoulder, and the bag of provisions hanging at his back, glancing neither to the right nor to the left until he arrived at the corporal’s dwelling.

An exclamation of surprise and delight burst from his lips when he saw the old man, armed and equipped as he had been in ’58, wearing the uniform of a British soldier, even though by thus setting out he was proving his disloyalty to the king.

“Well you do look fine, corporal. I dare wager there are none who will set forth from this town as much a soldier as you!”

“I reckon Colonel Easton will come out great with his militia uniform; but what does it amount to except for the value of the gold lace that’s on it? All I’m wearin’ has seen service, an’ though it ain’t for me to say it, I shouldn’t be surprised if him as is inside this ’ere red coat could tell the militia colonel much regarding his duty.”

“Of course you can, corporal, every one knows that, an’ I’m expecting to see you put next in command to Colonel Allen, if it so be he goes.”

“Not quite that, lad, not quite that, for there’s jealousy in the ranks the same as outside of them, though I warrant many of ’em will be glad to ask Corporal ’Lige’s advice before this ’ere business is over. Now let’s have a look to your stores, and we’ll be off.”

The examination of the impromptu haversack appeared to be satisfactory to the old man, and without doing more in the way of securing his dwelling from intruders than shutting the outer door, he marched down the street with such a swagger as he evidently believed befitting a soldier.

Isaac followed meekly at his heels, troubling his head not one whit because he lacked a uniform, but believing he shared to a certain degree in Corporal ’Lige’s gorgeousness and martial bearing.

The two came to a halt outside the inn, standing stiffly at “attention,” and there they remained until Master Phelps was forced to go out and bid the old man enter, that the formality of signing the rolls might be gone through with, after which Isaac Rice was duly entitled to call himself a militiaman.