Chapter 1

When the country learned of the existence of Lucky Jim III, the Lucky Jim Historical Society expanded their genealogical research of the Reynolds name, successfully tracing the Reynolds and related lines back to the mid 1200’s, mainly in England. While a few people continued seeking even more ancient Reynolds ancestors, more began tracing the descendants of the various branches they’d unearthed back towards modern times, finding tens of thousands of historical Reynolds relatives in the process. They also found hundreds of thousands of modern Reynolds relatives who were part of a direct Reynolds line and even more among various other branches of the family tree.

In the process of searching through an antique chest filled with old family documents, one Reynolds relative on a branch of the lineage predating Lucky Jim I, found an old journal.

While there were mentions of the name Reynolds associated with several noteworthy events around the time of the American Revolution, nothing tied them together with yet another Jim Reynolds like the journal did.

The discovery of the journal has led to an even more increased focus in the already extensive research into the Reynolds line in England. While no additional journals have been found to date, anecdotal evidence has been found showing that two Reynolds ancestors were instrumental in turning the tide in battles they were involved in. Further searches for more documentation continue to this day.

Thee Journale of James Reynolds

Begun this twelfth day of April in the Year of Our Lord 1765

[From here on, the entries have been edited to correct spelling and grammar, as well as to use more modern American English]

I begin this journal today because Father has finally agreed that I’m old enough and experienced enough to join the long hunt this coming winter!

My name is James Reynolds. When we leave on the long hunt later this year, I will be thirteen.

To reward my Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Philip for his unwavering financial and military support, as well as military leadership during the Battle of Boyne and the Williamite War in Ireland, King William issued him a land patent. Philip’s second son, my Great-Great-Grandfather Edward, chose a large estate in Virginia, one even larger than usual because he chose land in the eastern hills rather than along the flat coastal plain where farming was easier, and cotton and tobacco were the prevalent money crops.

After surveying the available areas, he chose a mountainous area in the southwestern part of Virginia, on the Piedmont, far from other established land patents. Having grown up on the family’s estate in a mountainous part of England, he was well acquainted with both the advantages and disadvantages of a mountain estate and felt that the property could eventually be as profitable as his father’s.

Great Grandfather William and Grandfather Philip were shrewd businessmen and gradually doubled the amount of property they inherited, which was already more than double the original patent. Part of the increase was due to headrights earned by paying to bring more than two hundred colonists to Virginia, men with needed skills and their families if they were married.

The headright was a grant of fifty acres for each person for whom William or Philip paid the passage to the colony, which usually cost six or seven Pounds per person. Each person then served an indenture to repay the amount of their passage. The vast majority chose to stay and work for our family once their indenture was paid off.

William wasn’t beyond accepting unintentional help to increase his holdings. When the land secretary made a mistake and issued a grant for five hundred acres less than he should have, William returned the next spring to complain. The old land secretary had been replaced and the new one mistakenly issued a new grant for the entire twenty-five-hundred acres instead of just the overlooked five hundred acres. William did not correct him.

William and Philip continued to claim the fifty-acre headright for the much-needed experienced craftsmen they convinced to come to Virginia. Starting in 1699, they also purchased Treasury Rights that were being sold by the Virginia Colony to raise money. For a mere five Shillings, or one-quarter of a Pound, they could buy the same fifty acres that a headright granted and did not have to gamble on the imported people surviving the arduous ocean journey or deciding to remain as an employee once their seven-year indenture was complete.

Buying Treasury Rights meant that, for what the fare cost them to bring one skilled worker to Virginia so they could acquire the fifty-acre headright, they could buy between a thousand and fourteen hundred acres.

Like most Virginia landholders who turned to tobacco as a cash crop, William tried it. However, he quickly realized that tobacco depleted the limited arable soil he had, requiring the constant acquisition, and clearing of new arable land. Since most of his land was hilly or mountainous, land suitable for crops was limited.

To this day, we still grow several acres of tobacco each year for our people who use it, but most of what we grow is traded to the local Indians. We rotate the tobacco fields and plant alfalfa for two years, and then amend the soil heavily with compost and ashes before planting tobacco again.

Instead of growing tobacco to sell, William and Philip, and eventually Charles, my father, concentrated on other industries, like raising horses, mules, and sheep.

Other settlers built many water-powered mills along the eastern edge of the Piedmont, taking advantage of the falls and rapids where the Piedmont descended to the coastal plain. Philip and William built their three sawmills farther west on three of the numerous creeks running through the mountainous valleys on their property, and paid men to operate the mills, cutting timber. They quickly added two more mills to keep up with the demand for lumber from landowners farther to the east and north. In addition to supplying lumber from the mills, they dug two saw pits where they cut longer timbers that were often used as ridge boards and rafters for houses, barns, and warehouses. The cut lumber was seasoned in one of those large warehouses.

While most of the lumber was used on the estate or sold, some was used to make barrels of various sizes, including the hogsheads tobacco farmers utilized to pack their crops.

[From Wikipedia: A standardized hogshead measured 48 inches (1,219 mm) long and 30 inches (762 mm) in diameter at the head (at least 550 L or 121 imp gal or 145 US gal, depending on the width in the middle). Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about 1,000 pounds (454 kg)]

Since imported furniture was so expensive, William instead brought over six experienced craftsmen who wanted to emigrate to Virginia from his father’s estate in England. Once they arrived, each man was tasked with training two apprentices as they transformed some of the lumber into quality furniture.

By making their own goods instead of importing them and paying exorbitant prices for the imported goods, they avoided the common problem of selling a year’s worth of what the estate produced and then spending everything they earned on a handful of imported items. Things they sold to ships bound for England earned them cash. Things the family sold locally were bartered for or paid for with scrip.

Aside from providing timber for the mills, the men cutting down trees guided a second group to sites to gather chestnuts, hickory nuts, black walnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns. The second group also harvested plums, persimmons, and several edible varieties of wild grapes and berries. Many of those were dried or traded to neighboring Indian villages for furs. They mostly traded with the Tutelo villages and a few Cherokee villages, for furs. They also began trading iron cookware, hatchets, knives, and other goods like blankets in exchange for furs, which was yet another item exported to England.

Cedar trees were harvested to make shingles and fence posts, and entire hillsides were planted with them to increase the number available to use in the future.

Since good ale was both difficult to obtain and expensive, William grew enough extra grain to brew his own. The brewing was something the women on the estate oversaw once the process had been established. After a few years, his ale was good enough and he brewed enough of it that he began selling kegs of it locally. And yes, we made those kegs.

The discovery of easily accessible deposits of clay led to brickmaking, and a new Reynolds Estate Manor House was built, a beautiful, red brick mansion.

Sugar maples were tapped in early spring, but they used everything they collected on the estate. Some varieties of pine trees were tapped to collect pine sap that they sold by the barrel.

Some of the land cleared by logging was used for grazing the cattle that provided meat and milk for people on the estate. Flatter areas that were more suitable for crops were planted. Hills that were too steep to plant field crops were either planted with fruit trees or hand-seeded with alfalfa for the livestock. Some of the alfalfa fields were used for grazing and some were harvested by hand using scythes.

When the estate’s hunters found limestone, yet another industry was begun, and they added barrels of burned lime to the growing list of items they exported to England for cash.

The discovery of a deposit of iron ore north of the property led to Philip quickly buying the land before the discovery became common knowledge. A bloomery was built next to the mine and smithies were constructed close to each of the sawmills. Scrap timber and large branches were turned into charcoal to help work the blooms into usable iron and even a bit of steel. Initially, coal was imported to supplement the charcoal. Then, two coal deposits were discovered north of the property and east of the iron deposits. Once again, Philip bought the land, allowing them to mine their own coal. He kept the discovery of the coal deposits quiet so there wasn’t a rush of people into the area looking for more deposits of coal or other valuable minerals. If there were more minerals to be found, he hoped his people would find them first.

Yes, they did check every stream on or within a two-week ride of the estate looking for gold, but without success.

Aside from iron goods to trade with the Indians, the blacksmiths produced mainly tools, nails, horseshoes, and rings for tack to be used on the estate or sold to other settlers. Another smithy was built near the main estate building to support the industries there. When the blacksmiths were not busy repairing things, the nails they made proved easy to sell.

Then, they discovered deposits of niter in several caves and began mining it for shipment and sale. It sold so well, that a Swedish emigrant showed them how to build niter beds at the estate, although they were placed far from the housing because they stank. The Swede explained that each citizen in Sweden was expected to pay part of his annual taxes in niter, so they were well-versed in the construction and maintenance of niter beds.

The niter beds were trenches lined with clay and then partially filled with cartloads of manure. A layer of ashes was added and then a layer of vegetation, such as animal bedding, leaves, and moldy hay. A layer of animal dung and the viscera from when animals were slaughtered were next.

The layers were repeated until the piles were six feet high. Sticks were pushed into the pile to make channels that allowed air and liquids to penetrate the pile. Dung-water and urine from chamber pots were poured over the piles.

What is dung-water you ask? Imagine a burlap sack filled with cow dung and soaked in a small barrel of water. After soaking for a day, the sack is removed and pressed to remove excess water. The excess water when the bag is pressed is returned to the barrel and the whole thing is then poured on the niter bed. Working on the niter beds was something nobody looked forward to.

Then, the entire bed was covered with straw to keep rain out of it. After a year or so, once the entire mass had decomposed, it was closely watched for niter crystals to begin forming so they could be harvested.

The collected crystals were then dissolved in water, which was strained to remove impurities and then boiled away until the crystals reappeared. Those crystals were packed in casks. The family used the ground crystals to make their own gunpowder and sold any excess niter to English ships.

Five years ago, fed up with the price he had to pay for good rope, Father began growing hemp and making his own rope.

Able to produce most of what we needed so we did not need to import it, and unwilling to spend exorbitant amounts on unnecessary luxuries, our family has prospered. Goods sold to ships for export earned hard cash, a rare commodity in the colonies.

They also grew potatoes on some of the gentler hillsides, something that provided food for everyone at the estate and that also sold well to ship captains for part of their ships’ stores.

Producing so many other things to trade locally also helped the family earn money. One of the most common items used for barter was warehouse receipts for goods like tobacco and cotton that someone had in storage, waiting to sell it. After receiving a warehouse receipt, our family sold those goods to a ship’s captain and collected even more hard currency.

Being the youngest of three sons, I knew that I wouldn’t inherit anything. Benjamin, my oldest brother, was already successfully helping to oversee the mining and manufacturing businesses and Levi, my older brother, the agricultural ones. Although I had worked at each one for a short time, just long enough to understand the basics, rather than become involved in any of the existing family industries, I elected to follow my passion and become a hunter, venturing deeper into the forest as I got older. One of the local Tutelo Indians took me under his wing and taught me to hunt, stalk, and trap at an early age, as well as to spot edible and otherwise useful plants and herbs. Unlike my brothers, I found being alone in the forest to be exhilarating, even in the cold of winter, as long as I was properly attired and outfitted.

When the long hunters returned each spring, I grilled various members of the expedition, trying to learn new ideas and techniques, as well as what NOT to do. Two years ago, at age eleven, I began asking for permission to join the long hunters, permission that was immediately denied.

This last winter, Simon, who was one of the usual long hunters, decided that he was too old to make the grueling six-month trek. Instead, he joined me as we went out for three or four weeks at a time. He must have told Father that I was ready for the long hunts because Father has now consented.

Long hunting expeditions travel into the interior, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The men were hesitant to take me at first since I was only thirteen. The men in each group depended on each other for both their lives and their profits. If one man did not carry his weight, the others in that group made less money. However, Simon’s approval, my proficiency with a long rifle and my ability to track, trap, and stalk game convinced them to give me my chance, one from which I returned successfully. I made more that winter than both of my brothers combined!

After three winter trips with that group, and now at age sixteen, I felt that there was a way to make a long hunt more profitable. After explaining my ideas to Father and Simon, they approved, and I organized my own group of twenty men from among the hunters we employed, adding an equal number of the neighboring Indians, something the other groups of long hunters refused to allow. That spring, in preparation for the hunt, we increased the size of our tobacco plot so I would have enough to use for trading with the Indians we would meet. We also made or purchased more than normal quantities of iron pots, knives, hatchets, glass beads, and other trade goods that I knew were popular.

The first long hunt I led was wildly successful, causing a marked increase in the number of people who accompanied us the following year when I was seventeen. The second group included far more Indians, along with more than a dozen of their women. In addition to cooking for everyone, the women processed the game we brought back to camp, saving us both time and effort. They also smoked the meat we returned with, sending much of it back to their villages, along with the tendons and other usable parts they used to make tools, bowstrings, and such. In addition, they gathered herbs and edible plants. Among those edible plants were the same nuts we gathered at home and traded to them.

The women had insisted that we take several large iron pots, at least one of which always held a batch of hot stew. Most of the rest were used to render fat. They mixed melted buffalo lard with dried berries and chunks of dried meat to make pemmican. We took the rendered fat from other animals back with us to use for making soap and candles.

Each year, we returned from our long hunt with an enormous collection of furs and skins, including deer, buffalo, elk, and even bears that chose not to hibernate or that exited hibernation early. Smaller pelts included beaver, rabbit, squirrel, fox, raccoon, opossum, groundhog, weasel, muskrat, otter, bobcat, and mink. We even brought back wolf and cougar pelts.

Many of the smaller animals were caught in the strings of traps and snares that each group of three men tended while they hunted larger animals. When we returned each March, each hunter had earned between four hundred and six hundred Pounds, a veritable fortune for a man to earn in a single year. Since I organized and led the hunt, and supplied the food, ammunition, and trade goods we took with us, aside from what I brought back, I received ten percent of everything the others returned with. While that sounds like a lot, after deducting expenses, the extra was about thrice the expenses, or only half again what I brought back myself.

For the long hunt, as well as most times that I hunted, I carried three long rifles, courtesy of Grandfather Reynolds. One was .25 caliber for small game, one was .48 caliber for most game, and the third was a .62 caliber rifle for large animals like buffalo and bears.

After spring planting, we traveled to Lynch’s Ferry and then took the finished furs down the James River to Richmond where we sold them to ship captains--for yet more specie. The secret to prosperity was to NOT buy expensive luxury and other non-essential items shipped over from England. Since we grew or made most of what we needed to survive, we bought little in the way of expensive imports.

We even had three gunsmiths who repaired our rifles and made new ones, and a man who made gunpowder for us. With our niter beds, all we had to buy to make the gunpowder was sulfur, and that was available locally from one of the places that bought our barrels. We did have to buy lead, but that was also available from local sources.

Each winter for six years, I led the hunts as our group expanded. Word of our success spread rapidly among the Indian villages. We would have so much bounty that part of our group had to take everything back at the end of December. What the Indian hunters and women who went with us sent back in December made the lives of their entire village much better. Not only did it help the villages survive the winter, but it made our return in March easier since we had less to haul home. The Indian villages got most of the dried food, pemmican, sinew, claws, antlers, and all the trade goods; we returned with most of the furs and pelts to sell.

Word spread among the colonists in the region, too. We had men apply who lived more than a hundred miles away. We rejected most of them simply because their hunting skills were sorely lacking or nonexistent. They expected to team up with us and have us do all the work. For the last two years, we split into two groups of forty to fifty men since eighty to a hundred hunters were far too many for a single group.

We also brought back an abundance of salt thanks to the discovery of two salt springs. Both were in a location where we could establish a main camp, and the Indian women accompanying us spent much of their time boiling brackish water to extract salt.

At the salt springs, we began by collecting the crystallized salt from along the edges of the spring. The crystals were exceedingly dirty, so we bagged them, and the Indians took them back to their villages where the crystals were again dissolved. The clear water was poured off, leaving the dirt in the bottom of the kettle, and was boiled until the salt crystallized again, much like the process of extracting niter from our niter beds.

Both groups taught the other; the Indian hunters learned to use rifles and the white hunters learned to use bows, as well as how to be much stealthier while we hunted.

Many of us did not get to hunt the seventh year, the winter of 1775-76. The Indians made the trip, using rifles we had sold to them over the previous six years. Some of the colonial hunters still went, either because they did not care about the increasing hostilities between England and the colonies, or perhaps because of it.

Word about the battles of Lexington and Concord had reached, and alarmed, us. Then the Crown’s Governor Lord Dunmore in Virginia issued a proclamation declaring that Virginia was in a state of rebellion. Me, I found it disconcerting that, after being granted the land for supporting King William, we were now preparing to fight against King George.

With Dunmore’s proclamation, our family ceased shipping niter and other goods to England, although ships bound for France, Denmark, Prussia, or Sweden eagerly purchased them.

Instead of going on the long hunt, forty-six of us made the trip east to join the fight against the British, taking as much powder and lead as we could carry, as well as lots of pre-cast bullets. In Richmond, we were directed to the Norfolk area since that seemed to be where the British troops were concentrated.

After making our way across the Elizabeth River via a ferry operated by a nervous ferryman, we made our way to the farm of a man we were told in Richmond to contact, one of the Whigs (revolutionary colonists). He had room to stable our horses, plenty of feed for them, and we were only about a mile from Norfolk. Two nights after our arrival, a man rode in with a message for the farmer. He immediately roused us to let us know that nearly one hundred fifty British troops had been seen leaving Norfolk, marching south. They should pass by us along the road in front of the farm.

The farmer’s contact believed the British troops were headed towards a confrontation with the Colonial militia troops in the south who were blockading Great Bridge. The blockade had effectively cut off any British supplies from North Carolina bound for the British troops and ships stationed in Portsmouth and Norfolk.

When they passed by us, eleven men followed them, being careful not to be seen or heard. Eleven of us got in front of the column, the remainder moved quietly through the forest, pacing them.

The farmer had told us that Great Bridge was about a three to four-hour march to the south, so we followed them for a little more than an hour, making sure they were far enough from Norfolk that returning there would take as long as continuing on to their goal. When Ralzieman and I agreed that we had been following them for long enough, I took the first shot, aiming for the only officer on a horse. Ralzieman fired a moment later, hitting an officer who was leading the troops.

Everyone else then began sniping at them, picking off officers when we could identify them, and then the grenadiers, our second-favorite target.

Having previously been involved in a few skirmishes with hostile Indians during our hunting trips, we had learned a few tricks, among them, moving immediately after firing. When the British troops returned fire, they fired at positions we had used and immediately abandoned. Not only were we in a new position, but we were also clear of the cloud of smoke and the spot where our muzzle flash had been seen.

At first, the British tried to pursue us as we faded back into the woods, but quickly learned both the futility and fatality of so doing. Instead, they regrouped and tried to hurry on their way, leaving skirmishers behind to cover their escape. That might have worked had we only been following them. Unfortunately for them, we were already positioned all along the road and continued to snipe at them. After we eliminated the first two groups left behind to stop us, the rest were disorganized and simply fled south. By the time they reached their destination, barely twenty of them arrived, many of those wounded. We captured and questioned the wounded that had fallen behind, learning that they were, indeed, headed to Fort Murray, a wooden stockade fort at Great Bridge. As the farmer suspected, their goal had been to assist the troops already there when they tried to rout the colonial militia blockading the road from the south.

While we continued harassing the troops who had reached their destination, joining the troops already at the fort, half of our men began gathering weapons from the dead and wounded troops. We rendered basic medical assistance like bandaging wounds, but then left the prisoners resting along the road, so they did not slow us down. Few of them were going anywhere, not that we cared. They wouldn’t be able to fight for a month or more if they survived their wounds. Those who fought when we confiscated their weapons were quickly killed. We had no intention of leaving armed enemy troops behind us if they continued to fight, not even wounded troops.

The captured weapons included the renowned Brown Bess muskets, complete with bayonets, as well as swords, sabers, knives, and the pouches of grenades carried by the grenadiers. We also confiscated three halberds and two pistols.

When we reached the British stockade, we kept our distance. It was surrounded by streams, creeks, and a vast swampy area making a quick retreat difficult for us. Instead, we settled in and watched the fort, choosing positions that would give us clear shots and still allow us to retreat quickly.

We noticed the British moving before dawn and prepared for an attack against us, as well as preparing for our retreat since we were severely outnumbered. Our nighttime attack against a larger force was one thing. During the day, especially on open ground, of which there was little, the British troops’ superior numbers and discipline gave them a distinct advantage.

Since we were downwind, we started small fires using dry twigs for fuel. Each of us had two oak twigs with a glowing ember at the end that we could use to light one of the grenades we had captured from the grenadiers.

Rather than attack us, we were astounded when the British formed up and prepared to march in the opposite direction. We knew from interrogating our prisoners last night that the Colonial forces had their own breastworks at the south end of the targeted bridge.

I could not believe that the British were grouping to attack to the south before dealing with us, the enemy that had decimated their reinforcements just a few hours earlier. In the partially cloud-obscured light of the nearly full moon, I did notice about fifty British troops deploying and finding cover while facing the north in case we attacked.

“I’m going up,” I whispered to the man closest to me as I pointed up the tall pine tree I was crouched behind. Climbing with a rifle slung over each shoulder was awkward, but I did not have any rope handy.

Finally satisfied that I was high enough to give me a good field of view, I began watching the British troops as they moved around. Ten minutes later, I felt that I had identified the top two officers. Steadying my .62 caliber rifle on a branch, I lined up my shot, watching as my target continued issuing orders to the men around him.

When I fired, my target’s knees buckled, and he slowly keeled over backwards while everyone else ducked. I waited for several more minutes until my second target was brave enough to peek over the edge of their earthen breastworks. While waiting, I managed to reload instead of having to use the .48 caliber rifle and I sighted on my second target. It was several more minutes before he gathered the courage to show enough of himself for me to be confident of hitting him. Several other men had already moved around, bent over, but still visible from my perch.

When I fired the second time, the results were nearly the same as the first time, except that he fell forward. With both targets down, I climbed down, making sure to keep the trunk of the tree between me and the British troops, even though I doubted that they could hit me at this distance with their muskets.

Shortly after that, and just before dawn, the one-hundred-fifty or so British troops who had formed up to the south of their stockade began marching. I watched as several of their men replaced planks that had been removed from a bridge over a wide creek immediately south of their crude fortress. Once the boards were in place, the troops continued to march south. A few minutes later, I heard sporadic gunfire that intensified slowly, quickly followed by occasional fire from two cannons.