Best Little Stories from the American Revolution by C. Brian Kelly

Author:C. Brian Kelly [Kelly, Brian. C]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781402261800
Publisher: Sourcebooks

Murder Most Foul

SHE WAS YOUNG AND OH, SO FAIR, WITH LONG, AUBURN HAIR, BLUE EYES, AND A creamy white complexion. And she was in love with a young Loyalist serving, in 1777, with British General John Burgoyne’s army coming down from Canada into upper New York.

It was a different time, so long ago, a time of war, but even then, human society was occasionally plagued by random, senseless, unplanned acts of violence.

Poor Jane McRae. How, even at a time of war, caught between clashing armies, could she ever have anticipated the events yet to come? And wearing her wedding dress, too!

Before the Revolutionary War erupted, she had lived with her brother John McRae, a pioneer farmer who tilled the rich soil beside the Hudson River, south of Fort Edward. Nearby was the neighboring Jones family, and all of them recent émigrés from New Jersey where Jane McRae and the Jones boy, David, had been childhood friends. Now, some years later and all grown up, they no longer were mere friends—they were in love.

The war did intervene, to be sure. With revolution came a parting of the ways for the two families. John became a colonel in the rebel militia of their shared New York community. David, though, felt that his allegiance had to be with England. He soon was a lieutenant with Peter’s Provincial Rangers, assigned to General Simon Fraser’s corps, which in July 1777 was at the very spearhead of Burgoyne’s army as it moved south, aiming, it appeared, right at Fort Edward itself.

Much larger Albany, of course, was a more important British objective. The overall plan was to split the northern colonies by seizing the entire Lake Champlain–Hudson River corridor, a vital transportation network.

David and Jane had made certain plans despite the uncontrollable tides buffeting their shared homeland. For the moment, it appeared they could benefit from one minor eddy gently carrying them into a small and quiet cove. They could marry! Quickly, quietly…even safely.

Accounts vary and the facts slip and slide. It may have been the sudden notice from David telling Jane that he was so close by. It may have been a plan of longer moment. After all, they had been in correspondence, ever since David went off to join the British in Canada. No one knows for sure. Only the principals themselves knew the details.

In any case, it seems safe to say that Jane, in response to notice from David, left her brother’s farm to stay with a Mrs. McNeil, a widow who was related to David’s superior officer, General Fraser. As the British force edged ever closer to Fort Edward, Jane was to await the most important message of all: that David soon would be close enough to send for her. She would then rush to his side, and they would marry!

And the message did arrive. Saturday, July 26, was to be the day.

Breathless with excitement, she donned her wedding dress. David would be waiting for her in his army camp with a chaplain standing by, ready to marry them.

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