The Minute Boys of York Town

L. J. BRIDGMAN

BOSTON
DANA ESTES & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
Copyright, 1912
By Dana Estes & Company
All rights reserved
PRESS OF
THE VAIL-BALLOU CO.
Binghamton, N. Y.

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Two Young Virginians 11
II. Silver Heels 30
III. Uncle 'Rasmus's Advice 49
IV. The Town of York 70
V. Our Prisoner 89
VI. A Disagreeable Surprise 109
VII. Morgan, the Spy 128
VIII. The Disappearance of Saul 147
IX. Suspense 166
X. News of Saul 185
XI. A Desperate Venture 205
XII. Saul's Opportunity 223
XIII. The Siege 240
XIV. An Ugly Situation 258
XV. Foraging 276
XVI. Preparations for Flight 294
XVII. Our Blunder 310
XVIII. Trapped 329

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
"It was a sight well calculated to stir the blood of a boy from Virginia" (Page 227) Frontispiece
"That we might peer between the leaves" 26
"He ... touched his hat in regular military salute" 76
"I sprang forward" 90
"Without the slightest warning I found myself in the clutches of a man" 119
"Halt, or I'll fire!" 138
The Release of Saul Ogden 233
"A general discharge ... was commenced by the Americans" 289

[Pg 11]

CHAPTER I

TWO YOUNG VIRGINIANS

When Uncle 'Rasmus loses his temper because of some prank which we lads of James Town may have played upon him, he always says that no good can ever come of that in which "chillun an' women are mixed."

It had never entered my mind that there was in such a remark any cause for anger on my part, until that day when Saul Ogden repeated it, shaking his head dolefully as Uncle 'Rasmus always did, and speaking in the negro dialect so faithfully that one, not seeing him, might well have supposed his skin was black.

Of course you remember the engagement at Spencer's Ordinary, which place is the same as if I had said Spencer's Tavern, on the 26th of June in the year of Grace 1781, when Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe of the Queen's Rangers, and Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton with his Legion of Horse, began to "prance" around here, as Uncle 'Rasmus would put it, and we Virginians were disturbed in more ways than one.

There were a number of our people who would[Pg 12] have been loyal to the king if Governor Dunmore had not written himself down such a consummate ass, and many even at this time whose sympathies were all with the struggling colonists, but who yet hoped matters could be settled without loss of honor to either side, meaning that the so-called rebels and his majesty might come together in friendship once more.

But when this "prancing" began; when Colonel Tarleton rode rough-shod over our people of Virginia without seeming to understand the meaning of the word "humanity," then it was that even those who had hoped against hope that the colonies might remain in peace and harmony with the mother country, began to realize it was no longer possible.

It had required five long, weary years, during which our Americans in the North had borne nearly all the brunt of this struggle against the king, and I dare not say how much of friendship, to persuade those few in Virginia who strove to hold some shred of loyalty to the king, that the time had come when they must take sides with those who had the best interests of the country at heart, no longer looking to royalty for relief.

Saul Ogden is my cousin, being but three days younger than I, who was, in August of 1781, just turned fifteen, and although it may seem strange to the lads of New England that we two Virginians knew so little concerning what was being done in this America of ours, it is true that until the engagement at Spencer's Ordinary there had never been a thought in our minds that we might be called upon, or that it would be possible for us to take any part in the bloody struggle which had been prolonged until it seemed of a verity that the people of New[Pg 13] York and Boston must have come to an end of all their resources, so far as struggling against the king's soldiers was concerned.