The Calm Before the Storm

Unconquered by Robert Griffing
(Source)

"The soldier fort has grown, my brother." Red Hand still wore the soldier coat he had taken last summer. That act had earned him a new name as well, growing up he had been called Lone Deer. When he and Sleeping Panther had killed the English scouts, they had taken their coats and their scalps. His tomahawk hand was still dripping with blood when he returned to the war party's temporary camp.

Bull Elk had watched him come into camp, his bloody right hand held high. The war chief had asked, "Who is this man with the red hand who comes into my camp? I remember a boy named Lone Deer, it seems he is no more, Red Hand has taken his place."

Red Hand remembered that day proudly, though many of the warriors had been cut down by the firesticks of les anglais, the tale of his deed had spread up the valley of the Great River. Now he was a war chief in his own right. His eighteenth summer was approaching, he longed to drive les anglais from the lands of the Abenaki. Perhaps this was the year!

Sergeant Josiah Adams had died in agony in late March, just as the geese were returning to the marshlands along the Cannitticutt. Even had a doctor been available, it was unlikely anyone would have known how to treat a ruptured appendix, even in England that surgery was new. Only a small handful of doctors knew of the procedure. Fewer still had performed it.

Adams had been a respected figure among his comrades in the company, fair and even-handed. The men were saddened by his death, but it wasn't an unknown thing out here on the frontier. All too many people died of disease and misadventure in the wilderness.

Corporal Edward Rutland had been performing Adams' job while that man had been laid up. Though new to the army, Rutland seemed to take to soldiering naturally. The officers thought well of him, the Sergeant Major didn't feel the need to check up on him constantly. Most of the men felt that Rutland would not be a corporal for long.

A number of men had been jealous of the attention young Molly Henderson gave to Rutland. He was circumspect about it, but the men could tell that he was rather fond of the lady himself. Fortunately for the company and for the morale in the fort, the two kept their distance and Molly tried not to play favorites with the men.

Sergeant Major Edward Jacobs nodded with satisfaction as the fatigue party completed yet another section of the palisade. The existing wall had been strengthened and a walkway built all the way around the top to replace the smaller platforms which used to top the wall.

A watch tower had also been constructed, visibility from that structure was superb. They could see much farther along the river now in both directions and to the east and west as well. Building the new walls and walkway had also cleared the timber from the outside of the fort. No one could approach the walls now within two hundred yards without being spotted.

The fort had not been completely isolated that winter. Trappers came and went, even a party of settlers had been through. They had been warned to turn back, many raids were expected in the coming months. The Abenaki were restless according to Jefferson's Mohicans, they hungered to drive the English from the Cannitticutt.

Captain Samuel Jenkins advice was ignored. Four days later Jefferson's Mohicans had discovered the bodies of the settlers. All dead, their scalps decorating an Abenaki lodge pole somewhere no doubt.

"Why don't they listen, Sarn't Major?" Jenkins had asked the man he relied on to keep them all alive.

The Sergeant Major paused for a moment, then said, "Land, Sir. A man will do desperate things to acquire and keep a small bit of land for himself and his kin."

Jenkins nodded, it struck him then that that's why the Abenaki fought so fiercely against incursions by the English. It was, after all, their land.

"Tell me my friend, will your Pennacook be happy here in a village of the Missiassik? Your people are few, but proud." Bull Elk asked his friend Grey Raven.

"Yes, we have lost many of our people, our villages taken by les anglais, yet we are still Pennacook. If our Missiassik brothers will accept us, we will live with you until our numbers grow again. Or, until we perish fighting les anglais." Grey Raven answered. He knew that the latter case was more likely. Though it saddened him, he would not make peace with the English.

"War is coming, les français have sent word. Their King fights les anglais in the land of the Europeans, he means to fight them here as well."

So it would be war, regardless of how the Abenaki felt about it.

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