“I am Captain Alex Mackenzie,” said Alex. “Who is in charge here?”
“Colonel Russell is our commander,” volunteered one of the men.
“Please take me to him,” said Alex, who walked through the gate and into the fort with Martha and the rest of his party.
They were led into the office of the fort commandant, who was waiting for them.
“I am Captain Alex Mackenzie. Are you Colonel Russell?” asked Alex.
“That I am, lad,” replied the colonel, standing up to shake hands with Alex. “Are you the one who is responsible for driving off the Cherokees?”
“We set the fires that drove off the warriors,” replied Alex, gesturing to his wife, brothers and friends who were standing with him in front of the colonel.
“Well, we are indeed grateful for you and your friends. We owe you a great debt.”
“Don’t thank me too quickly; the Cherokees may come back.”
“I don’t think that they will. Your fire and smoke seems to have broken their spirit and their will to fight, for now anyway. I have men out following them, and if they do decide to come back, we’ll be ready for them.”
“Sir, I am here to report that Fort Watauga is under siege right now by the Cherokee also, and we need your help.”
“I thought that might be the case. Are you all from Fort Watauga?”
“Yes, sir, we are,” answered Alex.
“How can I help you?”
“How many men can you spare?”
“I can give you twenty-five right now and more if Dragging Canoe and his band don’t come back, which I doubt they will.”
“Twenty-five should be enough. There are far fewer warriors at Fort Watauga than there were here, but I don’t think I can use the fire and smoke trick down there. I will have to come up with another idea,” said Alex.
“Dinna fash yersel, lad, we’ll come up with something,” said Hugh who was standing behind Alex listening to the conversation.
Robert just shook his head, looked down, and then glanced at Alex. Alex smiled at him in return.
* * * *
The Raven
“We’ve burned all the cabins and farms in this valley. The only thing left is this fort. We need to burn it also,” said the Raven to his war council.
“How are we going to do that?” asked one of the warriors.
“The sly white man has given me an idea. Let us shoot fire arrows at the fort like the one that the white man used to signal the men in the fort when they tricked us and rescued the white woman,” said the Raven.
“We can fire flaming arrows at the fort into places where they cannot easily put out the fires. Perhaps we can burn enough of it so that we can get inside it and burn the rest to the ground. If we can get inside, we can also kill all the invaders.”
The warriors all agreed with the plan and decided to execute it after the sun had set, when there would be less chance of being shot by the men in the fort.
The Raven’s braves spent the day making fire arrows for the nighttime assault on Fort Watauga.
* * * *
Alex
After spending the night at Forth Patrick Henry, all the men were ready to go, including the twenty-five men that Colonel Russell had assigned to go with Alex. Alex had persuaded Martha to remain at Fort Patrick Henry as the guest of Colonel Russell, who had insisted that she stay. The colonel was extremely grateful to Alex for saving the fort and was very happy to oblige. He had helped Alex persuade her to stay at the fort, which turned out to be a difficult task. She put up a fight, but in the end they convinced her to remain behind.
“The shortest route to Fort Watauga is to follow the river valley of the south fork of the Holston and the Watauga Rivers. It is about twenty-five miles due southeast of here as the crow flies, but the river meanders a bit. So, it will be more like thirty-five miles of hiking. We should be there before nightfall if we move fast,” said Alex.
The men left the fort on foot, moving at a ground-eating trot, since there were not enough horses for everyone to ride. They would alternate between trotting and walking depending on the trail and the terrain as the day wore on.
The strong south wind of the previous day that had stoked and pushed the grass fire toward the Cherokees just outside Fort Patrick Henry was ushering in a strong weather front from the northwest. Robert and Hugh collected their horses when they got to the place where they had left them hobbled the previous day. The plan that Alex had developed was for the Longhunter and Hugh to ride ahead of the group toward Fort Watauga. By the time the men had traveled most of the distance to Fort Watauga, the wind had shifted around to the west and dark low clouds were beginning to appear on the western horizon as the sun was just beginning to sink behind the clouds.
When the Longhunter and Hugh arrived near Fort Watauga on horseback, the Longhunter took off on a side trail as planned and circled the fort through the trees. He worked his way around behind the fort, dismounted, and then ran straight toward it. He hailed the fort as soon as he was under the pickets. It wasn’t long before a rope dropped over the side, and he climbed up the fort’s wall. As soon as he was in the fort, he reported to Colonel Tipton and then gathered Alex’s men, who were still inside defending the fort. The Longhunter told them the plan Alex had devised and prepared them to execute it.
Hugh dismounted at a location behind the Cherokees to survey the situation while waiting for Alex and the rest of the men to arrive.
As Alex and the men from Fort Patrick Henry approached the fort, the Cherokees, led by the Raven, were on the move toward the fort also. The sky was darkening, and the Raven thought that the musket fire from the fort would be less accurate in the dark conditions. The warriors lit a fire in a small hollow about one hundred yards from the fort, just at the extreme limit of musket range, where they had staged some fuel and tinder. They used the fire to light the flaming arrows they had previously prepared. Then they shot them in high arcs at the fort, trying to land the fiery arrows in places where the settlers could not reach them, such as the roofs of the buildings inside the fort.
By the time Alex and his men arrived in the trees behind them to join Hugh, the warriors already had several fires burning at the fort, and the men inside were having a difficult time putting them out. Some of the roofs were fairly well engulfed in flames.
The gist of Alex’s plan was to first kill the Raven, which he felt would be like cutting off the head of a snake. As soon as the Raven was dead, Robert and Hugh would signal the Longhunter in the fort to sally forth with Alex’s men. Then Alex and the twenty-five men from Fort Patrick Henry would attack the warriors from the rear. Alex thought that the attack on two fronts would confuse the Cherokees and make them look to the Raven for guidance. If the Raven was dead, there was a good chance that the warriors would flee rather than fight.
Alex spotted the Raven just after he had fired a flaming arrow toward the fort and run back to prepare another fiery arrow to shoot at the fort. Alex did not want to use his musket because he knew that he would need it for the attack on the warriors, and he might not have time to reload it. So he pulled his longbow off his shoulder and strung the bow string. He notched an arrow into the center of bow string, drew it back, and took aim at the Raven. He let the arrow fly just as the Raven bent over to light another arrow in the fire. Alex’s arrow flight was a bit too high. As it passed just over the Raven’s back, it was close enough that the sound and wind of its passage alerted the Raven. The Raven suddenly looked up, aware of the danger he was in. As he gazed around to seek out the source of the danger, he spied Alex with the longbow and realized that Alex had fired an arrow at him.
“A da-his-di ni-hi!” yelled the Raven running straight at Alex.
Alex didn’t understand Cherokee, but he suspected that the Raven had yelled, “I am going to kill you,” or something close to that. Alex was correct. As the Raven approached him, still running straight at him, Alex had no choice but to risk a pistol shot and perhaps spoil
his plan, so he pulled his pistol from his belt, cocked the flintlock, and took deadly aim at the Raven. At this range, there was no way he could miss killing the Raven.
But the weather front had moved closer to Fort Watauga, and it had spawned a wall cloud that was moving in from the northwest. Lightning lit up the sky, and the sound of thunder masked the war whoops of the braves. The first few drops of rain were just beginning to come down ahead of the wall cloud.
Luck was not with Alex, because just as he pulled the trigger, a drop of rain landed in the pistol’s pan, instantly wetting the dash of gunpowder in it. The sparks from the flint and steel flintlock fell harmlessly on the wet gunpowder, causing the pistol to misfire. Alex re-cocked the flintlock and pulled the trigger a second time, but the results were the same. The sparks from the flint would not ignite the wet gunpowder.
Alex tossed the pistol aside as the Raven neared him. The Raven didn’t hesitate, and when he was just a few steps away, leaped straight at Alex in a flying dive just like the one he had performed at the Watauga River bank. Alex grabbed the Raven by the front of his buckskin tunic and rolled down to the ground on his back, throwing the Raven over the top of him and pulling down on him at the same time. The Raven flew right over the top of Alex and then stopped, lying on the ground on his back. Alex held on to the Raven’s buckskin tunic and rolled backwards, coming up on top of the Raven. Alex pulled his knife out of his boot and pressed it to the Raven’s throat. Anger flashed in the Raven’s eyes as he glanced down at the knife at this throat. The wall cloud had passed over them, and they were drenched as the pouring rain suddenly engulfed them.
* * * *
Robert and Hugh
“Where did Alex get off to?” asked Hugh.
“He fired his longbow and after that I lost track of him. That wall of rain that opened up from the sky and moved across the plain has obscured everything,” replied Robert.
It was now raining as hard as they had ever seen it since they had lived on the frontier. The clouds had opened up and poured torrents of water from the sky as only an Appalachian thunderstorm can. They were all instantly soaked to the skin, and their hair was plastered against their heads.
“Let’s signal the fort and stick with the plan. We’ll find Alex later. The thunderstorm has put out all the fires at the fort, along with the camp fire the Cherokees were using to light the fire arrows. There’s no more fire threat to the fort,” continued Robert.
“Aye, I’ll get it done,” said Hugh as he ran toward the fort, avoiding the attacking warriors, and hailed the Longhunter.
“Lead out the men, Alexander!” yelled Hugh.
“Aye,” answered the Longhunter, as the Fort Watauga gates opened and the men came streaming out to attack the Cherokees.
When Robert saw the fort gates open and the men inside the fort come out, he rallied the twenty-five men that had come with them from Fort Patrick Henry and simultaneously attacked the warriors from the rear. The Cherokees were caught in a no man’s land between two attacking forces. Their fire arrow assault on the fort had failed, and they were trying to determine what to do next. They looked for the Raven for orders, and when they couldn’t locate him, they decided to flee into the trees to escape the attacks coming from both sides, just as Alex had predicted.
* * * *
Alex
Alex didn’t feel right just slitting the Raven’s throat, butchering him while he was down, even though he could have if he had wanted to. He knew that he should, and that the Raven must die. But Alex also felt that the Raven deserved a chance to fight like a man. So Alex released his grip, rose to his feet, and allowed the Raven to do the same. If he had to kill the Raven, he wanted it to be in a fair fight.
The sudden rain storm had reduced his visibility to a few yards. He didn’t know if his plan to save the fort was working or not. As far as he knew, it was only him and the Raven, locked in mortal combat, and nothing else in the world existed.
“You should have killed me when you had the chance,” said the Raven in passable English as he drew his knife from his belt sheath.
“You speak our language,” said the surprised Alex as the two men circled each other.
“I learned it from our captives,” said the Raven, lunging and making a wicked slash at Alex, a move Alex easily evaded. “You should have killed me when you found me in the cave,” continued the Raven.
“Why did you let us fix your leg and then accept our hospitality while you healed?” asked Alex
“I had no choice,” replied the Raven. “When I left your cabin, I left you and your woman in peace and did not kill you and her as a payment for fixing my leg. Now we are even and my debt to you is no more.”
“Why don’t you just take your warriors and leave?”
“We will never leave while you invaders are here.”
“Why are you so determined to die?”
Alex knew from the Raven’s feints and from the way that he fought that he was not in the same league that Alex was as a knife fighter.
“Living with invaders on our land is not acceptable or honorable,” said the Raven, making another swipe at Alex, who backed away from it easily.
The pouring rain had made the ground muddy and slippery where Alex and the Raven circled each other near a small stream that eventually fed into the Watauga River. The Raven could also tell that he was outmatched in the hand-to-hand knife fight with Alex, so he did the only thing he could. He feinted with his knife and when Alex easily backed away again, the Raven followed him closely and shoved him toward the small stream. Alex slipped on the muddy ground, stumbled backward, and lost his balance, flopping on his back into the middle of the water. The Raven was on top of him instantly, holding Alex’s head underwater with one hand and attempting to stab him with the knife in his other hand.
* * * *
Robert and Hugh
“Hi ho, the warriors appear tae be gang. Do ye think we should go after them?” asked Hugh.
“Nae, let them go,” replied Robert. “Let’s find Alex.”
Robert and Hugh left, with the Longhunter and Jonas in tow, running in the direction that they had last seen Alex. The four men spread out into a line while keeping as much distance between them as they could in the low visibility and still maintain contact with each other. Soon they walked past the last place that they had seen Alex.
Suddenly a rifle shot rang out, causing the men to stop in their tracks. They all looked at the Longhunter, who had fired the shot, and went running over to him. As the Longhunter lowered his rifle, they all turned and looked in the direction of his shot. They saw the Raven slowly stand up in the small creek and then walk toward the creek bank holding his knife. Just as the Raven reached the bank, he collapsed like a sawn down tree, into the mud, face first.
As soon as the Raven had stood up in the creek and stepped off of him, Alex had raised up from under water, sputtering and coughing as he expelled water from his lungs. Hugh ran into the creek and reached down to help Alex stand up in the stream. The Longhunter’s musket ball had entered the Raven’s side and punctured both lungs and the arteries that led to his heart as it passed through his body. He was dead when he fell into the muddy bank. Hugh helped Alex walk to the bank where the Raven had fallen, where they joined Robert, the Longhunter and Jonas standing over the Raven’s body.
“You saved my life,” said Alex to the Longhunter, offering him his hand to shake hands with him.
“I owed ye one from back at the Watkins Ferry. Not that anyone is keeping score,” replied the smiling Longhunter shaking hands with Alex.
“How did ye let the Raven get on top of ye Alex?” asked Hugh.
“By acting like an idiot,” answered Alex. “It won’t happen again.”
* * * *
Kings Pinnacle Part 6
Major Ferguson
“Congratulations, Major Ferguson. Charleston has fallen. You and your men fought well during the battle. I am sailing back to New York in order to more effectivel
y direct the overall strategy of the war. I want you to stay here in the southern colonies. I am reassigning the men in your command and appointing you as Inspector of Militia to recruit and train local Loyalists to fight the rebels,” said General Clinton.
“Sir, I would be pleased to perform that task for you. I have adopted a new training technique that I am anxious to try out on the new recruits. I think it will be very useful in bringing them up to speed most expeditiously,” replied Major Ferguson.
“Very well. Do whatever you think best. I am assigning your base of operations to be Fort Ninety-Six in western South Carolina. You will recruit Loyalists from the area around that frontier area and train them at the fort. I must be on my way immediately. Good luck to you, sir,” concluded General Clinton.
Major Ferguson bowed as General Clinton left the office and smiled to himself at his new opportunity.
It was late May, 1780. A little over two years had passed since Alex had left Valley Forge and a little over a month had passed since the Longhunter killed the Raven outside Fort Watauga. And the British had just taken Charleston.
* * * *
Alex
“Since the British took Charleston, they have expanded their theater of operations into the western regions of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia,” said Colonel Tipton.
“They have been raiding the patriots’ farms and businesses all along the frontier just east of the Appalachians. They have also captured and cut off one of our main grain sources at Musgrove Mill in western South Carolina. And they have taken control of the ford at the Enoree River near there. There are only about two hundred Loyalist men holding the mill and ford. We need to send about an equal number of troops over the Appalachian Mountains to run them out of there.”
“Yes, sir, how can I help?” asked Alex standing in Colonel Tipton’s office inside Fort Watauga. Several months had passed since the fall of Charleston. It had been a busy time for the men stationed at the fort.