Prelude to Glory Vol, 3 Read online

  PRELUDE TO GLORY

  Volume 1: Our Sacred Honor

  Volume 2: The Times That Try Men’s Souls

  Volume 3: To Decide Our Destiny

  Prelude to glory

  VOLUME 3

  To Decide

  Our Destiny

  A NOVEL BY

  RON CARTER

  Copyright © 1999 by Ron Carter

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher, Bookcraft, Inc., 2405 W. Orton Circle, West Valley City, Utah 84119.

  Bookcraft is a registered trademark of Bookcraft, Inc.

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-96498

  ISBN 1-57008-695-8

  First Printing, 1999

  Printed in the United States of America

  This series is dedicated to the common people

  of long ago who paid the price.

  America was discovered, colonized, and made into a great nation so that the Lord would have a proper place both to restore the gospel and from which to send it forth to all other nations. As a prelude to his coming, and so the promised work of restoration would roll forward, the foundations of the American nation were laid.

  —BRUCE R. MCCONKIE

  This volume is dedicated to

  Gary, Eric, Tom, Jeff, John, Kris, Karen,

  Shannon, and Joe. My children.

  To Decide Our Destiny

  “My brave fellows, you have done all I asked you to do, and more than could be reasonably expected; but your country is at stake, your wives, your houses, and all that you hold dear. You have worn yourselves out with fatigues and hardships, but we know not how to spare you. If you will consent to stay only one month longer, you will render that service to the cause of liberty, and to your country, which you probably never can do under any other circumstances. The present is emphatically the crisis which is to decide our destiny.”

  George Washington

  DECEMBER 30, 1776

  ADDRESSING THE SOLDIERS

  WHOSE ENLISTMENT EXPIRED

  DECEMBER 31, 1776

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  PRELUDE TO GLORY

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Dedication

  Excerpt

  PREFACE

  CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS RELATED TO THIS VOLUME

  Part One

  CHAPTER I

  CHAPTER II

  CHAPTER III

  CHAPTER IV

  CHAPTER V

  CHAPTER VI

  CHAPTER VII

  CHAPTER VIII

  Part Two

  CHAPTER IX

  CHAPTER X

  CHAPTER XI

  CHAPTER XII

  CHAPTER XIII

  CHAPTER XIV

  CHAPTER XV

  CHAPTER XVI

  CHAPTER XVII

  CHAPTER XVIII

  CHAPTER XIX

  SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  PREFACE

  The reader will be greatly assisted in following the Prelude to Glory series if the author’s overall approach is understood.

  The volumes do not present the critical events of the Revolutionary War in chronological, month-by-month, year-by-year order. The reason is simple. At all times during the eight years of the conflict, the tremendous events that shaped the war and decided the final result were happening in two, and sometimes three, different geographical areas at the same time. This being true, it became obvious that moving back and forth, from one battle front to another, would be extremely confusing.

  Thus, the decision was made to follow each major event through to its conclusion, as seen through the eyes of selected characters, and then go back and pick up the thread of other great events that were happening at the same time in other geographical areas, as seen through the eyes of the characters caught up in those events.

  The reader will recall that volume I, Our Sacred Honor, followed the fictional family of John Phelps Dunson from the beginning of hostilities between the British and the Americans in April, 1775, through the Lexington and Concord battles, and then moved into the experiences of Matthew Dunson, John’s eldest son, who was a navigator in the sea battles later in the war. In volume II, The Times That Try Men’s Souls, Billy Weems, Matthew’s dearest friend who was nearly killed at the Lexington battle, experienced the terrible defeats and the misery of the Americans as they lost battle after battle in and around New York before the army ultimately retreated in the early winter of 1776 to the frozen banks of the Delaware River in Pennsylvania.

  Now, in volume III, To Decide Our Destiny, Billy Weems and his friend Eli Stroud suffer alongside their fellow soldiers as they struggle to survive the bitter winter and the even more bitter realization that the Revolution itself is in jeopardy. They watch as General George Washington rises to the challenge and takes the initiative. Billy and Eli willingly follow his heroic leadership across the Delaware River in a terrible storm on Christmas night, and then into battle at Trenton and again at Princeton. These two battles are hailed by historians and military experts as being important turning points of the war and classic examples of Washington’s military genius and strength of character.

  Volume IV will continue the events of 1777 as the British prepare for the battle of Saratoga under the leadership of General John Burgoyne. Subsequent volumes will follow the campaign in the Southern states, the Constitutional Convention, the drafting of our Constitution, and beyond.

  And again, rest assured those two sweet youngsters, Matthew and Kathleen are doing well and the conclusion of their story is coming soon. Also, Eli Stroud and Mary Flint are facing surprises, as are Billy Weems and Brigitte Dunson.

  CHRONOLOGY OF IMPORTANT EVENTS

  RELATED TO THIS VOLUME

  1775

  April 19. The first shot is fired at Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Revolutionary War begins. (See volume 1)

  June 15. The Continental Congress appoints George Washington of Virginia to be commander in chief of the Continental army.

  June 17. The battle of Bunker Hill and Breed’s Hill is fought, which the British win at great cost, suffering numerous casualties before the colonial forces abandon the hills due to lack of ammunition. (See volume 1)

  1776

  February—March. Commodore Esek Hopkins leads eight small colonial ships to the Bahamas to obtain munitions from two British forts, Nassau and Montague. (See volume 1)

  March 17. General Sir William Howe evacuates his British command from Boston. (See volume 1)

  July 9. On orders of General Washington, the Declaration of Independence (adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4) is read publicly to the entire American command in the New York area, as well as to the citizens. (See volume 2)

  Late August—Early December. The British and American armies clash in a series of battles at Long Island, Kip’s Bay, Harlem Heights, White Plains, and Fort Washington. Though the Americans make occasional gains in the battles, the British effectively decimate the Continental army to the point that Washington has no choice but to begin a retreat across the length of New Jersey. He crosses the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and establishes a camp at McKonkey’s Ferry, nine miles north of Trenton. (See volume 2)

  September 21. An accidental fire burns about one-fourth of New York City. (See volume 2)

  October 11. General Benedict Arnold leads a tiny fleet of fifteen hastily constructed ships to stall the British fleet of twenty-five ships on Lake Champlain. Arnold delays the movement of thirteen thousand British troops from moving south until the spring of 1777 and essentially
saves George Washington’s Continental army. (See volume 1)

  December 10. Benjamin Franklin travels to France to persuade the French government to support America in the Revolution.

  December 14. General William Howe closes the winter campaign, and the British troops retire into winter quarters. Howe stations General James Grant at Princeton with a small force of British soldiers. Colonel Carl Emil Kurt von Donop is given command of three thousand Hessians along the Delaware River opposite the American camp, and he quarters fourteen hundred of his men in Trenton under the command of Colonel Johann Gottlieb Rall.

  December 22. John Honeyman, an American spy posing as a British Loyalist, is under orders from General Washington and makes a reconnaissance journey to Trenton, is later “captured” by the Americans, and reports his findings to Washington directly.

  December 25. Washington’s three-point attack of Trenton begins as he and his army cross the Delaware River at McKonkey’s Ferry at night and during a raging blizzard. General James Ewing attempts a crossing at the Trenton Ferry, and General John Cadwalader moves into position at Dunk’s Ferry.

  December 26. The battle of Trenton is fought to a dramatic conclusion.

  December 29. Benjamin Franklin meets with Comte de Vergennes to discuss French aid for the Americans.

  December 31. Enlistments for the majority of soldiers in the Continental army are due to expire at midnight.

  1777

  January 2. General Charles Cornwallis leads a British force of 8,000 men out of Princeton with orders to destroy what is left of Washington’s army. Colonel Edward Hand and a small force of 600 Pennsylvanian riflemen are dispatched to stop the British before they can reach Trenton.

  January 3. Washington and his army of over four thousand men endure a midnight march out of Trenton and into Princeton, where they surprise British colonel Charles Mawhood’s command shortly after sunrise. The battle of Princeton is fought with surprising results.

  January 7. The Continental army establishes winter quarters in Morristown, New Jersey.

  February 25. As the political relationships between England, France, and America tighten, Comte de Vergennes receives news regarding the outcome of the battles of Trenton and Princeton and plans a course of action for France.

  May 6. British general John Burgoyne arrives in Canada to begin his campaign down the Champlain-Hudson region.

  1779

  September 23. Commodore John Paul Jones, aboard the Bonhomme Richard, engages the larger British man-of-war Serapis off the east coast of England in the much-celebrated night battle in which Jones utters the nowfamous cry, “I have not yet begun to fight!” (See volume 1)

  Part One

  The Delaware River, Trenton, New Jersey

  December 7, 1776

  CHAPTER I

  They came streaming from the east on the ice-covered roads or through snow-choked fields and orchards, freezing in rags and tatters, feet wrapped in strips of raw beefhide or tarp or ancient threadbare blankets that left blood on the frozen snow and ice. Their eyes were sunken, cheeks hollow, beards clogged with matter from sores that would not heal. Most of them walked hunched over from starvation cramps in their empty bellies, and from dysentery and fever and battle wounds. No longer were their drums banging and fifes shrilling proudly as they plodded on wordlessly with but one thought.

  Run. Run.

  This was the Continental army that had caught the British by surprise at Lexington and Concord in April of 1775, and again at Bunker Hill in June, and had beaten them, humiliated them, and then put Boston under siege to drive them out, southwest to New York. Jubilant, heady with their spectacular victories, they had gathered at Long Island in June of 1776 to finish their annihilation of the British army. None brought winter clothing—there was no need. They would drive the redcoats back into the sea and then return to their farms and ships and businesses and homes in time for the fall harvest, well before the storms and snows of winter would require warm clothing.

  They were more than twenty thousand gathered around New York under the command of General George Washington. He dug in part of them on the high ground of Long Island and faced General William Howe as he led his British and Hessian army against them in the sweltering heat of August, but none of the Americans had been prepared for the holocaust that followed. Five times the British wreaked Armageddon on them—Long Island, Manhattan Island, White Plains, Fort Washington, Fort Lee—and five times the Continental army ran in a blind panic to save itself. In the wild retreat they had abandoned most of their gunpowder, muskets, cannon, blankets, food, tents, cartridges, medicine, and wounded.

  No one knew the number of men remaining. All they knew was the entire Continental army was fragmented under a divided command, scattered, shamed, emaciated, sick, strung out across the state of New Jersey from the Hudson River to the farmlands southwest of the village of Princeton, where General Washington had led scarcely six thousand of them. Of those missing, no one knew how many had been killed or taken prisoner in the nightmare of battles or abandoned when sickness or their wounds would not let them run. Nor did anyone know how many had crept away in the night to become deserters—sometimes entire regiments—rather than face one more day of the unending torture.

  Officers and soldiers on the outer edges of the moving mass paused at the neat farmyards to seize hastily what they could of anything in the granaries or barns or root cellars that could be eaten. They dumped it—grain, turnips, cabbages, pigs, chickens—into their moving wagons and gave the sullen farmers Continental scrip or scrawled promissory notes or anything they had in exchange. If they had nothing to give, they took it at bayonet point and moved on, constantly glancing over their shoulders at the skyline, never stopping, afraid to linger for fear of the British somewhere behind. What they got from the farms was gone within minutes—never enough, never enough.

  “Move on, keep moving,” General Washington had urged as he rode among them on his big bay gelding. “Trenton is over the next rise and the Delaware River just beyond. Boats are waiting. We’ll be safe when we’ve crossed into Pennsylvania. Keep moving.”

  They heard his brave words, but in their hearts they knew. The British were just hours behind them, and crossing the Delaware was their last desperate hope to hide behind something, anything, that would halt the relentless pursuit by the redcoats. If the half-frozen river did not stop the redcoats—if General Howe or General Cornwallis followed them across the Delaware—there would be nothing standing between the British army and the Second Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia forty miles south, least of all the shambles of the Continental army.

  The Marblehead Massachusetts Regiment under Colonel John Glover led the army west towards Trenton on the old Princeton Road, and crested the gentle rise with the mid-afternoon wintry sun in their faces. Glover, a scant five feet four inches, stout, sandy-colored hair, finely-chiseled features, fearless, was respected and beloved by his Marblehead Regiment as no other. Corporal Billy Weems of Company Nine of the scattered Boston Regiment, who had survived the horror of the bloody, catastrophic defeats, marched stoically in the front ranks of Glover’s men. Barrel-chested, thick legged and armed, strong, plain face, bearded, it was Billy who turned from time to time to raise a beckoning arm and call to those plodding behind him. “Keep up the pace! Keep up! The river’s just ahead.”

  They squinted to point at the white church steeple in the distance, rising above the barren oak and maple trees that lined the streets of the village on the banks of the Delaware, and raised their arms to beckon to those behind as they trudged on. They descended the gentle incline past the apple orchard on the left, to the junction of Princeton Road with the three major streets at the north end, and the leaders paused a moment in surprise. Every door, every window was closed. Smoke rose from chimneys, but the streets were vacant. No living thing moved except for the black ravens that perched on the lifeless tree branches to study the intruders and squawk their protest as the incoming soldiers sw
ung their muskets from their shoulders and checked the powder pans, ready, and started south through the town.

  Billy led twenty men down the street furthest west. They walked warily in the eerie quiet, eyes constantly moving, searching every home, barn, building, and window for a musket barrel or a cannon muzzle that might mean ambush. Curtains moved, and faces disappeared from windows, but no door opened, and no one called or challenged. They passed the square white church and turned east at the big, stone Old Barracks building, cold, empty, to meet with those who had come down the other two streets. They gathered at the south end of the village to cross the bridge that spanned the frozen Assunpink Creek three hundred yards from where it emptied into the great Delaware River. Across the creek they followed the road six hundred yards further south to the cutoff that led west, over a small rise, then down to the crusted snow on the open, frozen ground east of the Trenton Ferry, with the army gathering behind them.