Chapter 31: Surprised

Shortly after that adventure, I had one of my most embarrassing days of the much-too-long war. I was standing guard one early-morning moment and the next thing I knew, Jim was screaming. I awoke with my face in a cold mud puddle, wondering what had happened until I felt the pain begin to swell across the back of my skull. Obviously, I slowly figured out, someone had clubbed me while I was supposed to be guarding our camp and everyone else but Simon and I were asleep. I lifted my head and saw a hand just as Jim yelped again, twice in fact, like somebody was burning him.

The hand was Simon's. He was dead, lying face up in the mud with his chest ripped open I could see some of his ribs. I got to my knees, shook my head and then saw my friend Jim tied to a tree near a campfire. Dawn was coming on pretty fast, and the Redcoats were taking turns deviling Jim with their bayonets and brands from the fire. I squinted and tried to ignore my throbbing head. It looked like one of Jim's ears was about gone and his shoulder was bleeding.

Captain Foster, George, Matthew and two new recruits lay, tied hand and foot, near the fire and five or six Tory soldiers stood or squatted nearby, cooking breakfast and having fun. I slid back out of the view of all of them and vomited in the bushes. Then I felt some better and tried to decide what to do. I was tempted to go for help, but had no idea which way to go. I walked through the woods and found where they had picketed their horses. I counted eight, not very good odds.