Corporal 'Lige's Recruit: A Story of Crown Point and Ticonderoga

“No; I don’t reckon I would, though that’s what ought to be done with ’em. It’s plain you an’ I can’t lug the two a matter of a mile or more, so one must stand guard over ’em while the other goes back to the camp. I’m leavin’ it to you to say which service you’ll perform, for after this night’s work I’m willin’ to admit that my recruit has in him the makin’s of a better soldier than I can ever hope to be.”

The boy gave no heed to this praise at the time, although later he remembered the words with pleasure.

Now there was in his mind a fear lest the corporal should desire him to guard the prisoners, and, the more imminent danger over, he was growing exceedingly timorous.

“I’ll go back to the encampment if it so please you, Corporal ’Lige, because I can run faster than you.”

“As you will, lad, as you will. Explain to Colonel Ethan Allen what has happened here and let him say how these venomous snakes are to be treated.”

During this conversation neither of the wounded men had spoken; but now, as the boy was about to set out for the encampment, he who had evidently acted as the leader cried sharply:

“Hold on a bit! What is the sense of sending us into your camp when we are like to die? Why not give us a show for our lives?”

“In what way?” Corporal ’Lige asked sternly.

“By allowing us to go to our homes.”

“That will do,” the old soldier said angrily. “After your attempt to kill me I’m not such a simple as to let you go scot free. Get you gone, lad, and make the report to Colonel Allen as soon as may be.”

The wounded Tory continued to plead with the corporal; but Isaac did not wait to hear anything more.

He set out at full speed down the road in the direction where the troops were encamped, running at his best pace, and fearing each instant lest that Tory who had made his escape should suddenly come upon him.

CHAPTER IV. THE LETTER

When Isaac was come within hailing distance of the few sentinels who had been posted to guard against a surprise, he was astonished at being halted after having announced who he was, and the laxness of military discipline can be understood when it is said that, after being recognized by the recruit at that particular post, the boy was allowed to enter the encampment without further question.

Colonel Allen was not better lodged than his men. A lean-to formed of a few boughs was the only shelter he had, and Isaac was forced to search among the sleeping soldiers several moments before discovering the whereabouts of the commander.

Once this had been done it was but the work of a few seconds to acquaint the officer with what had occurred, and at this evidence that the Tories were dogging the little army, more than one recruit who had boasted the loudest as to what he would do when the time for fighting should come, turned suspiciously pale as he approached to hear all Isaac was saying.

“Why did Corporal Watkins camp by himself?” Colonel Allen asked when the boy concluded his report.

“Because some of the men poke fun at him, allowin’ that he’s too old to be of service, an’ far too crochety to make any fist at bein’ a soldier,” Isaac replied promptly.

“I wish from the bottom of my heart that I had one hundred men like him, rather than some of the braggarts who do not know there is such a work as the manual of arms,” the colonel said in a loud voice, as if desirous that all should hear. “Tell the corporal that he will camp with this force in the future, and I shall make it my especial business to learn who it is that dares make matters uncomfortable for him.”

Then, to the captain of the company to which Corporal ’Lige was attached, an order was given that a squad of men be sent forward to bring in the prisoners, and when this had been obeyed the old soldier, as a matter of course, returned with them.

From that night Isaac heard nothing more regarding the wounded Tories. It was said they had been sent back to Pittsfield under a strong guard, and certain it is they disappeared from the encampment before daybreak, but neither the boy nor the corporal could find a single man who had seen them depart.

This incident, and it was hardly to be spoken of as anything of importance, together with Colonel Allen’s remark, served to render Corporal ’Lige’s life more pleasant, for those who had used him as the butt of their mirth began to understand that he was superior to themselves, in a soldierly way, and more than one sought his advice on various occasions.

At sunset on the seventh day of May the raw recruits had arrived at Castleton, fourteen miles east of Skenesborough, and Isaac himself has given the details of that straggling march through the country, in the first letter written to his mother after setting out as a soldier:

    “May the Eighth, 1775.

“My Dear Mother, Father, and Children:

“We have been camping here in this thicket since last night, and if there is anybody in all the company more tired of soldiering than I am, I would like to meet him. I wore a hole in the heel of my stocking on the second day, and got such a blister because of it that I’ve been obliged to go barefoot ever since.

“We have had plenty to eat, for the folks along the road were most kind; but it’s sleeping that has been the worst on me, though the corporal says I never can hope to be a soldier till I’m able to lay down in three or four inches of water and get as much rest as I would at home in bed. I tell him I don’t hope to be one any more, for I’ve had about enough of it, though of course I shall stick by the company till we’ve taken the fort, and it’s pretty certain we shall do that, because now there are two hundred and seventy men in the ranks.

“Colonel Easton enlisted thirty-nine of his militia before we got to Bennington, and there we were joined by the Green Mountain Boys under the command of Colonel Ethan Allen.

“It surprised me to find that a good many of the people don’t believe we are doing right in trying to take away the fort from the king’s troops, and the corporal says that unless this thing is a success we are all like to be hanged for traitors, because his majesty will make an example of them who are foremost in the work – which means us.

“Two hours after we halted last night Colonel Benedict Arnold, who is said to have gone from New Haven as captain of a company, to Cambridge, arrived here with a few men and a large amount – so it seems to me – of military supplies.

“Although knowing that Colonel Allen is in charge of this force, he claimed the right to take command, and, so the corporal says, made display of a commission signed by the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, declaring that it entitled him to take charge of all the troops. Now, although I’m not a soldier – the corporal says I never will be – I’ve got sense enough to understand that if I enlisted under Colonel Easton, and was willing he should give way to Colonel Allen so we might have the Green Mountain Boys with us, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety have got nothing to do with saying who shall lead in the battle – though I hope to goodness we shan’t see one.

“The corporal says that no committee is going to scare Ethan Allen, and it’s certain, so those of the Green Mountain Boys with whom I’ve talked say, that this stranger won’t get himself into command of the company, even though, as is said, he brings one hundred pounds in money, two hundred pounds’ weight of gunpowder, the same of leaden balls, and one thousand flints, to carry all of which, and himself, he has ten horses.

“Now, the corporal claims that these things, including the money, are munitions of war, and that if Colonel Arnold doesn’t deliver them over to Colonel Allen, they will be taken from him, and he, Corporal ’Lige, I mean, went early this morning to Master Phelps, offering to see to it that this property was delivered up to us; but for some reason or other – neither the corporal nor I can understand what – his offer was not accepted.

“I have heard it said, and the corporal is of the opinion it is true, that when the council of war was held last night before this gentleman from New Haven arrived, Colonel Allen was chosen commander of the whole expedition, Colonel Easton second in command, and Seth Warner third. It was decided that the greater number of us, with the principal officers, would march from here to Shoreham – which you know is opposite Ticonderoga – and Captain Herrick with thirty men would at the same time go to Skenesborough to capture young Major Skene, whose father, the governor, is now in England; seize all the boats they can find, and join us at Shoreham. Captain Douglas is to go to Panton with a small troop, and get whatever craft is in the water roundabout. The corporal says he shall be quite well satisfied with this arrangement, providing the remainder of the plan is mapped out as he thinks right.

“However, nobody seems to know whether Colonel Arnold will manage to get his commission from the Massachusetts Committee of Safety recognized as good and sufficient authority for him to lord it over our people, and we ask each other what will become of his munitions of war in case he doesn’t, or how may the plans be changed if he does?”

“What I can’t understand in this whole business is why the corporal shouldn’t be the third officer in command, instead of Master Warner, who I have no doubt is a very worthy gentleman; but of course cannot claim to be any such soldier as Corporal ’Lige. He says there’s always a lot of jealousy among officers in the army, and that’s why he isn’t to be given a chance to show how much he can do.”

“The food I brought from home was used up the second day – the corporal had what he called a ‘coming appetite’ – and perhaps it was just as well, for I had all the load any fellow could want to carry. I never believed before leaving home that father’s musket was so heavy; I held it over my shoulder until it seemed as if the flesh was worn right down to the bone; then lugged it in my hand till my arm ached as if it was going to drop off, and I verily believe I would have thrown the thing away but that Corporal ’Lige said a soldier didn’t amount to very much unless he had a weapon of some kind.”

“The corporal says I am to give you his dutiful compliments, and to say that if his life is spared, by the blessing of God, he will capture Ticonderoga before we come back.

“As for me, I wish I was at home now, though it will be a fine thing if we do what the old man says is our duty in these times, without being hanged.

“I haven’t yet found out why people think there is so much honor to be gained in being a soldier. To my mind it’s much like any other way of running around the country; but the corporal says if he had the management of affairs things would be different, because he’d keep the men right up to their work, though I don’t see how it could well be done. For my part, I shouldn’t carry a musket over my shoulder when I was lame and tired just because any man said so. It would be as well whatever fashion I lugged it, providing the labor was lessened; but the corporal says it would make all the difference in the world if we marched the same as we would at a muster.

“I love you all very much, and shall be precious glad to find myself at home again.

“From your obedient and dutiful son,

    “Isaac Rice.”

In this letter the young recruit, who although having enjoyed the teachings of Corporal ’Lige, was certainly not a soldier at heart, has told the main facts in the case regarding the halt of the militia at Castleton; but it will be observed that his modesty was too great to permit of his mentioning the brave part he played in the rescue of Corporal ’Lige from the Tories.

He has failed, however, most probably through ignorance, in giving Colonel Arnold’s authority for claiming his right to lead the expedition.

That officer had brought to Cambridge from New Haven a company of which he was the captain, and upon arriving there at once reported to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety that it would be possible, before the forts had been reinforced, to seize the works at Ticonderoga and Crown Point with a comparatively small body of men.

He proceeded to organize an expedition for such a purpose, and to this end was supplied with the money and munitions of war mentioned by Isaac, together with a colonel’s commission, which gave him the chief command of troops, not exceeding four hundred in number, which he might raise to accompany him against the lake fortresses.

Upon arriving at Stockbridge, in the province of Massachusetts, he learned that another expedition had set out – that is to say the same one Corporal ’Lige and Isaac accompanied – and after engaging officers and men to the number of fourteen he hastened onward, overtaking the militia as Isaac has said.

In this camp where military discipline was conspicuous by its absence, the recruits, who had learned within the hour what had been decided upon the night previous by the council of war, soon ascertained the position which the officer from New Haven claimed, and knew exactly what he proposed to do by virtue of his commission.

Even though the men had not learned such facts from their officers, those recruits who accompanied Colonel Arnold would have at once made the matter public.