Chapter 24

(The surrender heard around the world)

It had finally come down to that fatal time of surrender and both sides knew that this represented the final chapter of a collapsing empire for Britain and an opening chapter for the new nation of the United States with its thirteen original colonies now a sovereign nation in the new world.

I was fortunate to see the lead-up to the official surrender and was surprised that the British high command was so up-beat about the defeat. I occurred to me that the politically connected officers were shrewd enough to realize that with the arrival of the French fleet, the internal conflict with unruly colonists had suddenly turned into and International combat zone and that other great power were casting their hat into the ring against the British Lion.

The rumor that the defensive position was weakened by the flooding of two large gunpowder storage areas reducing the British ability to employ their larger long range cannon to any degree of continuity needed to turn back a direct attack either by land or by sea.

As time progressed it looked like the defensive walls would be tested both from the inland side and also from the coastal side with the numerous French fighting ships within range of the city defenses.

The confusion in the streets was enough to convince me that the British forces would be fighting off the civilians as well as the Patriot forces. Of course, most of the civilians had been weeded of the opponents of King George. They were mostly a pro-King group with their families and businesses heavily invested in the rule of the British over the American colonies.

When the farmers and other merchants came in from the countryside, they were carefully screened to make certain they were all followers of King George and would cause no trouble inside the marketplace or in the vital dock area where all of the supplies were landed almost on a daily basis. None of the civilians wore any item of clothing that might be associated with the Patriot cause and blue jackets and coats were a non-starter because it was too close to the Rebel uniforms of the Continental Army. The favorite color was red because it complimented the redcoat uniform of the regular British Army.

There were no Indians with the British and that was because General Cornwallis’s wife had expressed a belief that they were savages and smelled quite dirty all the time. The Indian supporters were turned over to General Arnold for his use as he so desired. He was quite happy to have this contingent of proven killers in his unit and he rewarded them with provisions from the reserve food supplies and outfitted them with brand new axes that looked like a replica of their favorite weapon. He was more circumspect with the distribution of long rifles because he understood how dangerous that could be to all settlers in the hands of irate Indians after some encroachment on their territory, no matter how innocent or well-meaning.

I had almost a full squad with him but they were all innocuous looking fellows with an air of obedience to the rule of a far distance King. The British soldiers manning the crossroads checkpoints were not interested in any of them and had eyes only for the female pedestrians that passed their way. It seemed likely that most of the females would be tempted to entertain the prospect of a standing hump with a uniformed soldier as both exciting and dangerous even in the shadows of a public thoroughfare.

I watched them cut out a pretty little thing with blonde curls and stand her in the shadows of the closed church and do her from behind one at a time with not much fuss and bother since the girl was not fairly silent about the entire affair. I wondered why she was being so compliant and then I saw the little girl waiting at the checkpoint for her mama to come back from playing with the nice soldiers in the redcoats.

Needless to say I was filled with a black rage that comes on me at times usually when I am feeling like I am getting cornered or walking into an ambush that is I am unable to avoid.

Finally, they were finished with her and she limped back over to her little one and they wheeled their wagon down the road to the market hoping to sell enough cabbage to restock their seed supply for the following year. It had been a hard winter for the farms in the area and that was a severe problem because it followed a hard draught from the year before.

My six followers and I followed along behind the girl and I could tell she was hurting because she was finding it difficult to push the cart uphill with the young girl unable to help very much because her hands could barely reach the handles of the cart. The cabbages were fairly heavy and that was not a problem on a level surface or even a slight downhill because gravity was working in their favor.

I signaled two of my men to assist her up the grade and she thanked them profusely not realizing they were part of a larger group with me at their head.

The market was crowded.

My men scattered to buy our needed provisions and I paused to talk to the woman now sitting on a barrel next to her wares. Her daughter was sleeping on a potato sack under the cart and she looked totally exhausted. It must have been a long journey from the farm into the town.

“I guess your daughter needed her sleep more than anything else.”

The woman looked up at me and nodded her head with the pretty blonde curls. It was hard to imagine her thoughts when she was bending to the redcoat’s will just to keep the peace in the early morning hours. I suspected that the Patriot farms and the small towns were filled with similar females that had been accosted and shamed whilst their husbands and boyfriends were away serving in the Continental Army for a good and valuable cause of freedom and liberty.

“It is a long day, your honor, and I only pray they buy my cabbage before the sun is high because I have a long trip back to my little village a good distance from here.”