Chapter 5

All the women came out ta he'p me remove the bodies from our front yard. There wuz way too many ta bury, soz we decided ta burn the bodies, instead. We looted whatever we could use, which wuz mostly silver an' copper coins, muskets, powder an' shot, an' knives. I did take some boots what would fit me an' a couple of shirts. The rest we just burned in the pyre.

Yep, they wuz British, all right. I found markin's on every one of the shot pouches showin' British Army issue, an' that wuz enough proof fer me. I wuz a mite surprised that Regulars would let themselves git caught like that. The only thin' that I kin figure wuz they had gotten arrogant an' complacent with the easy time they'd had with other small farms. Oh, well ... I shore wuzn't complainin'.

I did worry a bit 'bout what would happen ifen the British decided ta send in a bigger troop with cannon.

There wuz a tavern what served as a meetin' house 'bout 10 miles away. There wuz also a general store an' a blacksmith/farrier workin' there, so I guess you could say that a town wuz growin' an' we wuz becomin' civilized.

We needed a few thin's afore hard winter hit with its cold weather an' rain. Man, I don't know what the world wuz comin' ta, we actually had two nights last winter when ice formed on the water barrels we had outside. Ifen it kept gettin' that cold, we wuz gonna need a fireplace an' chimney in the new room.

Anyway, we organized a trip ta the town so that the women could buy the few thin's we needed. Not everybody could go because we wuz gonna have ta walk. On of the thin's I wanted wuz another wagon. Our old one what had come with us from the Carolina low country wuz just too beat up ta use anymore. None of the kids could make the trip, so Wildflower an' Holley stayed behind ta look after them. I left four dogs with them fer protection.

Salome an' Sheba had each dropped a litter, so I had trained 11 new dogs as war dogs. I wanted ta sell some of them because we really didn't need that many, so we took 15 dogs with us on the trip. That's a hell of a lot of dogs, but I wanted ta let it be known what I had fer sale an' how many there wuz. Ifen I wuz lucky, I hoped ta sell some of them durin' this trip. One thin' I didn't have ta worry 'bout—the dogs could feed themselves on the trip.

We figured on a three-day trip: one day ta git there, one day ta bargain an' buy, an' one day ta git home with our new wagon. Ta be on the safe side, Sarah, Elizabeth, an' I all carried muskets. Lord knows, we had plenty enough fer that. The women took turns ridin' Mable, but I wuz used ta long walks while huntin', so I didn't need ta ride. We left after breakfast, ate a picnic lunch, an' still made it ta the tavern in plenty of time fer supper. We spent the night in a room in the tavern while Mable an' the dogs waited out back.

The dogs had been ordered ta guard Mable. It's quite probable that Mable could take care of herself, but it gave the dogs sumpthin' ta do an' made shore that they would not wander off an' git inta mischief.

Well, I guess everywhere you go, you are bound ta run inta fools. Sometime after midnight, when honest people wuz in bed asleep, two idiots decided that they would steal Mable. The first I knew 'bout it wuz from the ruckus behind the tavern. I heard barkin' an' brayin', followed shortly by screams of pain.

Without even considerin' the fact that I wuz naked, I grabbed my tomahawk an' jumped out the window, all in the interest of speed. I only had a few feet ta run, but both fools wuz dead by the time I got there. Once the dogs wuz shore that the thieves wuz dead, they had backed off an' resumed their guard over Mable.

There really wuzn't much left of the two thieves. Their throats wuz torn out, they wuz gutted, an' each one had at least one missin' arm. Other people started showin' up ta see what had happened, an' that's when I found out that I wuz naked. Sarah showed up in her dress, an' she sent me back ta the room ta put on some clothes.

Some fool had brought his musket ta the scene, an' he wuz raisin' it ta shoot one of the dogs fer bein' "man killers" when Sarah warned him ta put the gun down afore she set the dogs on him. He got a stupid look on his face, but backed down when Lucifer started growlin'. Everybody around him started laughin', an' that's when he left the crowd.

Elizabeth an' I came back along with the innkeeper. He recognized the two dead men as neer-do-wells an' trouble makers who would not be missed by the community. In fact, he thanked me fer gettin' rid of them. I suggested that the bodies be left where they wuz until mornin', since the dogs would keep an eye on them. I also announced that some of the dogs wuz fer sale, an' I would be available after breakfast ifen anybody wuz interested. After that, the crowd broke up, an' we all went back ta bed.

The next mornin', while we wuz eatin' breakfast, a man came runnin' inta the tavern ta report that a troop of British soldiers wuz on the road headed our way, an' they had two cannon with them. The man said that there wuz 'bout 40 infantry an' eight men with the cannon. Damn! That wuz enough ta wipe us out ifen they really had a mind ta do it.

The innkeeper wuz a kind of unofficial mayor of the community, an' he called fer an assembly of the militia. That wuz sumpthin' of a joke, since there wuz 10 men in the militia, an' they only trained one day a month. Nevertheless, the militia assembled an' marched out ta face the invadin' British.

Not bein' in the militia, I wuz not formally required ta go, but I knew that I had ta he'p—it wuz just the right thin' ta do. Ma had always 'pressed on me that I always had ta do the "right thin'." I told Sarah an' Elizabeth what I had in mind, an' they insisted in comin' along. Fer our trip, they had worn some of my trousers under their dresses fer warmth, so they had with them the clothes that they would need. I knew better than ta argue over sumpthin' I wuz gonna lose, so I just said fer them ta come on.

We took our muskets an' went ta git the dogs. We left Mable where she wuz. I wuz goin' after them cannon, they wuz the real danger. We stood no chance against regular Army troops when they had cannon, while me might git by ifen I could stop the cannon.

The cannon wuz gonna stick ta the road, so we knew where they could be found. Around here, the countryside wuz littered with small streams an' creeks, an' none of them wuz bridged. We moved as quickly as we could ta the road ta the rear of the British. What we wanted wuz a place where the road crossed a stream. That wuz bound ta slow down the cannon causin' a slight separation between the artillery an' the infantry. We wuz gonna make use of that little fact.

We got real lucky. The officer in charge of the infantry caught sight of the local militia approachin', so he ordered the infantry ta hurry ta form a roadblock or maybe an ambush. It didn't make any difference what he had in mind, but it happened just as the artillery wuz crossin' a creek with a deep sand bed. Naturally, the heavy cannon bogged down in that sand, an' the men wuz sweatin' ta git the cannon moved ahead ta the fight.

I ordered the dogs ta attack the men tryin' ta move the cannon, an' the attention of the men wuz so fixed on the stuck cannon that they never saw the dogs comin'. The eight men with the cannon wuz eliminated in short order. They really didn't stand a chance against that many dogs, an' the water of the creek ran red in only a few moments. Once the artillery wuz accounted fer, we focused our attention on the infantry.

They, too, wuz sittin' ducks. They had not heard the noise of the attack on the artillery because they wuz concentratin' on the orders from their officer an' sergeants. They wuz all facin' away from us, an' the dogs wuz a total surprise. The British wuz arranged in the standard stance of the European battlefield, with three ranks of men. The idea wuz fer the front row ta fire, step back ta the rear ta reload while the next rank fired. That rank repeated the maneuver, an' the third rank fired. By this time the first rank had reloaded an' wuz ready ta shoot. Thus, they could keep up a rain of bullets with only a few seconds delay between volleys.