Morristown by William Hazelgrove

Author:William Hazelgrove [Hazelgrove, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493056620
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2021-07-06T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The Diversion

February 11, 1780

THE QUEEN’S RANGERS WAITED ON THE HUDSON RIVER WITH THEIR horses breathing steam while the men kept their hands together and hunched down in their collars to conserve heat, but their mustaches already were icy from their breath. The horses shifted about, anticipating they were about to set off on the white and blue expanse of ice, and like the men, they wanted to get to it. No one was more anxious than Lieutenant Colonel Simcoe, who had been quietly biding his time, waiting until General Knyphausen gave the approval to launch the mission to kidnap George Washington.

Colonel Simcoe kept a tight rein on his horse, breathing the super cold air of the blue night. The Hudson glittered before him as an unbroken expanse of snow and ice, and beyond were the frosted trees of New Jersey and beyond that was Morristown, where George Washington slept on the second floor of the Ford Mansion. Simcoe was impatient. He had watched the 300 cavalrymen of the strike led by Colonel Samuel Birch of the 17th Dragoons along with a regiment of infantry cross the river in a hail of snow dust and marching men. Simcoe looked at his watch; it was one a.m. It was time.

He raised his sword and dug his heels into his horse. The Queen’s Rangers all entered the ice road as one and galloped across the white expanse. Simcoe’s eyes watered as he hunched over his horse with his sword slapping his thigh. His role was diversionary, and he still chafed at being given a supporting role rather than being part of the actual force that would go to Morristown and kidnap the unsuspecting Washington. But as he rode, he felt a solace that the plan he had thought of so long ago was going forward, even if it had been altered and other men were leading the way. Still, his role was an important one: The diversions would pull away the Americans and give the strike force the needed time to get Washington and then be away before the main body of the Continental Army could be alerted. And after all, Simcoe was a soldier in the British army, and soldiers above all else followed orders. And his orders from General Stirling were to attack the American posts at Woodbridge and give “a general alarm.”

After reaching the Jersey shore and following the snowy road some distance, Simcoe set up covering his return by leaving Major Richard Armstrong with some infantry and cavalry and a few cannons on the heights above the Old Blazing Star Ferry. He was in enemy territory, and once he aroused the enemy, then it would be a race to get back across the frozen Hudson before being cut off. Simcoe had been an American prisoner once, and damned if he was going to let himself get captured again. After securing his covering force, Simcoe and the Rangers took off at a dead gallop toward Woodbridge.

The moon was out,

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