The Thistle against the Crown: Chapter 7

The men of the Berwick Company begin training as a real military unit.

29 May 1775

Six Miles outside Berwick

     "Company, take care!" Dougal shouted as they entered a large clearing surrounded by woods. "Halt!"

     The column of seventy-seven men stopped. They had been marching for the past hour and a half and the sun had continued to climb higher in the sky bringing the temperature higher and higher. Many of them were sweating from the ordeal and their shoulders were sore from carrying the muskets that they had been issued before leaving town.

     Behind them were two wagons packed with supplies that the company would need on its campaign and behind the supplies were the women who had signed on to travel with the company. Most of them were complaining about the ordeal of having to walk farther than they had in quite some time. It was only the beginning of the changes that they would all be experiencing having signed on to be in a military unit.

     "Company will go from column into line by sections, by the right wheel!" Dougal issued the preparatory command, "Wheel!"

     The company executed the maneuver that they had practiced just the day before, but it was much slower and sloppier than it had been. Dougal sighed in his disappointment but said nothing as Horatio walked out in front of the company. He was dressed the same as he had been the day before, with the addition of a crimson sash tied around his waist to signify him as an officer.

     "For those who think that this will be like our drills on Sundays, I must tell you it won't be." Horatio said, "You are soldiers now, not citizen militiamen. You will listen for orders. You will obey those orders without question or hesitation. Our practice of holding discussions or debates about aspects of the company ends as of now. I am in command; Sergeant Major Cameron is my second in command. Collum Argyle!"

     "Aye, sir!" The thirty-nine year old veteran said stepping forward from the front rank smartly.

     "You are hereby Sergeant of the company." Horatio announced.

     "Sir!" Argyle returned to his position in line.

     "Alexander Mackenzie!" Horatio shouted.

     "Aye sir." Mackenzie moved through the lines from his place in the second rank and stood at attention with his musket held smartly against his left shoulder.

     "You are hereby promoted to Corporal."

     "Thank you, sir." The man returned to his position in line.

     "There are a couple others within the company who are veterans of the Seven Years war, but not veterans of the English army. We will draw on your experience as well." Horatio said, "The rest of you, learn well! Listen to myself and those I have appointed over you. Their experience and their lessons will serve you well. Failure to obey orders will result in punishment. If you try to leave and are caught you will be treated as a deserter and punished accordingly. Military rule of law now apply to each and every one of you." He took off his bonnet, "For many of you this will be the hardest thing you have ever done. For many of you there will be times when you want to quit and go home, but in those times I urge you to remember why you joined, and what you are fighting for. You're fighting for freedom. The most precious thing of all." He put his bonnet back on, "Sergeant Major." His voice returned to the sharp sound of a military officer, "We will begin by sizing the company, if you please."

     "As you say, sir." Dougal said saluting Horatio before turning back around to face the company, "Sergeant, Corporal, if you please." Argyle and Mackenzie stepped out of their lines and walked over next to Dougal as he began to walk up and down the lines taking a hard look at the men who had joined the unit.

     Horatio walked back to the wagons and the ladies who were still standing, or sitting, where they had stopped. "Bring the wagons over to that area by the maple and please get the fly set up and the table under it. I'll need to do some paperwork later."

     "Yes, sir." Angus Fraser, driving the first wagon, replied.

     "Then grab your musket and join the lines."

     "Sir." Fraser replied before slapping the reigns and the wagon lurched forward, followed by the second one.

     "Ladies, if you wouldn't mind helping the gentlemen with the supplies and then I leave you to discussing cooking arrangements for the men." Horatio said to the ladies. Many of them carried wicker baskets on their backs with clothes, blankets, or other things that they would need for their trip. Not one of them know what to expect from this ordeal but they tried to be as ready as they could.

     "Are we to be saluting you too, then?" Sinéad asked with a half smile as she stood with her hands on her hips looking at Horatio.

     Horatio smiled back, "No, lass. You'll know when I'm giving you and order and when I'm just asking you to do something. But remember, you, too, are now bound by army regulations. That means no uncouth behavior. You will be given rations just like the men. Thievery will be punished as will any other crime against the unit or towns we pass through. This won't be easy for you either, and I'm deeply grateful to you all for volunteering to come with us."

     Horatio smiled and touched his bonnet before walking back over where he saw Dougal, Mackenzie and Argyle moving men around in the line. He stood still for a moment watching as the army veterans went about doing what they had been trained to do and what they knew so well.

     "Shift yourselves you lazy b******s!" Argyle shouted, "Let's go! When the Sergeant Major tells you to move, you move!"

     "I was moving." James Cameron replied.

     "Are you backtalking me boy?" Argyle said walking up right in front of the young man, "I don't care if you're the commander's cousin or not, I'll kick your arse from here to Portsmouth and back if you talk to me like that again! Am I clear?"

     "Yes, sir." Jamie replied sheepishly.

     "I'm not a sir!" Argyle shouted, "Do I look like a bloody officer? It's yes Sergeant!"

     "Yes Sergeant!" Jamie shouted back.

     It went on like this for another fifteen minutes as men shifted around in line. Nothing about this group of men resembled a military unit. They were artisans and frontiersmen, farmers and merchants, long hunters and teachers, but now they would have to become soldiers, and fast. Splitting them up into platoons was one thing, but they would have to become a unit. They would have to move as one man, and fight as a group, relying on the man to their left and to their right in the fires of combat, something that even training couldn't teach them.

     Dougal walked up to Horatio, who had walked around to the front of the formation as the three NCOs had finished reorganizing them. He saluted, "Sir, company has been sized into two platoons."

     "Very good, Sergeant Major. Split the men up, have the Corporal take one platoon, and the Sergeant take the other. Stack arms and begin training on basic movement." Horatio replied returning Dougal's salute.

     "Aye, sir." Dougal said before turning around and walking back to Mackenzie and Argyle and relaying the orders.

     Horatio turned and walked from where the men were being split up to where his small canvas canopy had been erected. He ducked as he walked in and used the ramrod of his fusie to secure it to one of the tent ropes. He opened the lap secretary and pulled out the volunteer roster and two other sheets of paper before sitting down on a three-legged stool and began to rewrite the list into a proper military roster.

     "Right, now!" Argyle began to instruct his platoon, "When you march you always start with your left foot. This keeps everyone in step." He knew from their militia drills that the men knew how to march forward and even basic turning movements like wheeling and facing, but there was much more to being a professional military unit than just moving one direction and then back in the opposite direction. "To the front, March!" He shouted and the men began to move forward. Only about half of them started on their left foot, which made the group appear unorganized. "Stop!" He shouted, "Stop you bloody heathens!" He walked up to one of the younger men, "Do you not know your left from your right boy!?"

     "No.. no Sergeant." The man replied.

     "Christ have mercy." Argyle mumbled, "Which of you does not know left from right?" He asked the platoon. He looked as over half raised their hand before looking back at the young man in front of him and slapping him on the chest, "This is your front!" he slapped him on the back, "This is your rear." He stomped on the man's right foot, "This is your right." He stomped on the man's left foot, "This is your left!" He looked back at the rest of the company, "Are there any questions?!" No one said a word, though only about a quarter of them had seen his demonstration, "Try it again! To the front, march!" This time nearly all of them started on their left foot and surprisingly they kept their alignment and their cover, moving much more smoothly.

     Mackenzie's platoon was having much better luck with the basic movements. He had not been slowed by the left and right problem, but keeping the men aligned in their own files had proven difficult. Many men got yelled at for moving too fast or too slow.

     "Take care, halt!" Mackenzie shouted and the group stopped, only a few moved to adjust themselves on their file partners. One of the men wiped his brow and looked around for a moment, and Mackenzie moved up to right in front of him, "Is this tiring to you?"

     "No Corporal." The man replied.

     "Am I working you too hard?"

     "No Corporal."

     "Then why the bloody hell are you looking around you piece of rat filth?! Keep your damned head and eyes to the front, am I understood?!" Mackenzie shouted in his face.

     "Yes Corporal!" The man shouted back.

     "Right! Now, by the right about wheel, march!" Mackenzie shouted and the men began moving forward again only this time they immediately wheeled, line by line, around to the right until they were moving in the opposite direction they had started in. It was sloppy but Mackenzie was impressed that they were able to do it with any semblance of order.

     The next several hours passed like this, while Horatio and Dougal continued to fill out paperwork and ensure that the company and platoon rosters were correct. The ladies got fires started and began making two kettles of soup for when the men were finished drilling. They knew that the work in the hot sun would give the men an appetite, but they also knew that they needed to conserve supplies and resources for the rest of their trip.

     "Seventy-seven isn't bad, sir." Dougal said smiling as he and Horatio sat under the fly watching the platoons drill.

     "It's damned impressive, but I think we can do better." Horatio replied.

     "How do we do that, sir? You know that Berwick has no one left to offer us."

     "No, but I'll lay money that Kittery does."

     "Kittery port? That's a dangerous plan, sir. The English use that as a stopping point for many of their ships coming down from Nova Scotia, or across from England." Dougal warned, "There's a good chance that place will be crawling with Redcoats.

     "Aye, but we know a great many people there, they can point us in the right direction, and we might be able to learn a thing or two about what the army's doing, where they are sending their troops." Horatio replied.

     "Aye. I just don't see how you're going to explain an entire company of men moving into town."

     "I'm not talking about moving the entire company." Horatio replied, "We leave the men here with Mackenzie and Argyle to train, and you and I go and see what information we can learn from the town. We take a couple of the horses and go as travelers. We know enough about the frontier to the north to pass as land speculators."

     Dougal sat and thought for a moment or two before nodding, "It's bold, but it could work. Might get us a few more people."

     "And I'm sure those boys from New Hampshire will be happier with us if we bring them enough for a full company, wouldn't you agree?" Horatio said.

     "Aye." Dougal said knowing that Horatio's mind was already made up.

     The two men sat in silence as they watched the rest of the company continue training. The platoons had moved on from basic movements to more complicated ones like how to move from platoon elements back to a company-sized unit. They were progressing well, but it was a very slow and grueling process that would have to be gone over again and again as the days went on, but Horatio knew that the regiment in Exeter wouldn't be there forever and he didn't want to have to chase them to Boston. They would have to move, and soon.

     "Have them break for lunch. After lunch we will start putting them through their manual of arms." Horatio instructed.

     "Aye, sir." Dougal stood and saluted before walking out and instructing the Sergeant and Corporal to dismiss the men for their mid-day meal.

     Horatio watched as the men began milling about, breaking off into small groups of friends and families. Fathers and sons had joined the company together, as well as brothers, and cousins. What they didn't yet understand was that they would need to come to see the entire company as their brothers. Brothers-in-arms, a bond that was only forged in the fires of war, fires that these men had not yet tasted but was soon to come.

Author's Note

Situations like this were unfolding all over the New England colonies at the time. Men from New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts were already camped outside of Boston, and there would be more coming. I hope this chapter can come across as a glimpse of what everyone was doing at this time.
As usual it has only been basically edited. I plan to go back and make many revisions, but for now I hope it helps move the story along.