The Thistle against the Crown: Chapter 13

The men of Berwick get a taste of military justice.

31 May 1775

Berwick Company Camp

     "Twenty!" Dougal shouted as Mackenzie swung the leather cat-o-nine tails and it struck the young man's back, which was already covered in welts and blood.

     Young Jamie Cameron whimpered out as he gripped the edge of the wagon wheel he was tied to. He had never experienced this much pain in his life, and he had a hard time believing that this was all because he had fallen asleep on sentry duty. His green eyes shifted up to where his older cousin sat on a brown horse looking every inch the high and mighty officer.

     "Twenty-One!" Dougal shouted and Mackenzie again cracked the leather whip across the young man's back making him cry out more.

     Gathered around the wagon that had been pulled up and Jamie strapped to the wheel, was the entire Berwick Company, and the ladies of the company. They all watched as the first instance of military justice was served upon one of them. Until that moment many of them didn't think of this as a military unit going to join a war, but more like a prolonged hike through nature. Now their eyes were open to the fact that there were rules governing them and more importantly that there were severe repercussions for breaking those rules.

     "Twenty-Two!" Another crack of the whip made Sinéad wince slightly. She'd known Jamie for almost three years and always knew he was a troublemaker, but she cared for him as though he were her own brother. She understood why Horatio was having the young lad whipped, but it didn't make the sound of the whip cracking onto the boy's torn flesh any easier to bear. Still, she stood still, and kept her brown eyes on the sight in front of her, where most women were looking at the ground, or had closed their eyes entirely to be spared the sight of horror.

     "Twenty-Three!" The punishment was nearly done, and the men of Berwick were glad of it. Even though they had trained hard to become soldiers, they hadn't expected the reality of a soldier's life to be so ugly. For so many of the younger men like Stuart Reid and Ebenezer Stewart, this was not what they were expecting at all.

     Stuart Reid lowered his eyes and his breath became shaky as a tear fell from his eye until he was nudged by James Wilson, "Stout heart lad."

     The older man's voice was muffled as to not be heard by any of their NCOs but it was enough to raise Reid's eyes from the ground just as the twenty-fourth lash fell on Jamie Cameron's back.

     Horatio sat on the dark brown horse that he had taken from the British Leftenant the previous day. He watched as his younger cousin was flogged for the crime of falling asleep at his sentry post. It was a bloody business but Horatio had been lenient on him. In the British Army he would have received one-hundred lashes or more for the same offense. As the last few lashes fell across Jamie's back, Horatio's eyes shifted to his men. Many of them tried to look down or away, all the while, trying not to bend their necks or heads. He knew that this was a grim taste of reality for most of them, but it was one they desperately needed.

     "Twenty-Five and all's done sir!" Dougal shouted as Mackenzie wrapped up the cat-o-nine tails and caught his breath.

     Jamie's back was covered in large, red welts from where the whip had struck him. The leather knots that were tied into the instrument had cut into his flesh, causing blood to pour down his back and stained his grey breeches.

     As two men went to untie Jamie, Horatio spoke, "Let this be a hard lesson to all of you. You are now n the army. There are consequences for actions. While sleeping on post seems a minor offense to most of you, consider what could have happened if the enemy had overtaken him and our camp was attacked without warning. By slumbering on duty, Mr. Cameron put this entire camp in jeopardy." Horatio paused and looked at the faces of his men, "I trust none of you will make this error in the future. Today we march to join the regiment forming in New Hampshire. We must show them that even us men from the wilderness can stand and serve and be disciplined. Discipline, gentlemen. Discipline is what it will take to beat the English. If we stand, and show discipline, we will win our freedom." Horatio turned on his horse, "Sergeant Major."

     "Sir!" Dougal snapped as he turned and faced Horatio. Both men had donned the uniform pieces that they had taken from the Marines that the company had ambushed. Dougal wore a red woven sash, a grenadier hanger, and a proper pair of full gaiters that came up to just above his knee.

     "Load Mr. Cameron into the back of the wagon, and then have the company fall out to receive the captured gear." Horatio instructed, "And be quick about it, Sergeant Major. I want to be out of here within the hour. We have a lot of ground to cover."

     "As you say, sir!" Dougal said before turning back to the company to issue the instructions.

     Horatio rode off a few yards and dismounted from his horse and pulled out a map that he had sketched out their route on. He felt more like an officer than he had before, but he was sure that it was distancing him from those men he had once considered friends. But they were his men now, not his friends. Horatio had taken a pair of black riding boots with brown turndowns from the British Leftenant, as well as his sword, crimson sash, and silver epaulet. He had retained his own belly box and dirk, and still carried his fowling piece, but he knew that if he wanted to be accepted as an officer by the New Hampshire Regiment, he would have to look the part.  

     "I've never seen that much blood from a man before." Seventeen year old Stuart Reid commented as he waited in line with the rest of Argyle's platoon to receive his new pieces of gear.

     "Oh you'll be seein' more than that before this is over lad, so I'd strengthen your stomach if I were you." O'Sullivan said from his place in line behind him.

     "But how is it humane to treat a man like that?" Reid struggled with the ordeal.

     "This is war." O'Sullivan said gruffly, "There's nothing humane about it. You need to pop your mum's teat out of your mouth and grow up some if you're gonna survive lad."

     Reid looked slightly mortified at the gruff way that O'Sullivan had spoken to him. He didn't know how to respond. Luckily he wouldn't have to as Christian Reid, Stuart's older brother, spoke up, "It'll be alright, Stuart. Keep your nose clean, and remember that young Jamie made a mistake. He paid for it, and he hopefully learned from it."

     Stuart Reid nodded and walked forward to get his new cartridge box, gaiters haversack and canteen. The company had replacement shirts, breeches, and waistcoats for the men, but they had to be washed before they could be issued to get the stench of their previous owners off of them.

     "You keep babying him, and the lad will s**t himself in his first action." O'Sullivan said, looking at Christian Reid.

     "They're all going to s**t themselves in their first action." Reid replied without looking at O'Sullivan's hard face. Even clean-shaven there was something in O'Sullivan's appearance that made everyone think that he was completely crazy. Perhaps it was something about the fact that the man spent most of his time in the wilderness, alone, or perhaps it was the fact that his sense of humor was much more eccentric than was typically acceptable by most of society. Whatever it was, it was unsettling to say the least.

     "Maybe, but sheltering the lad from the harsh realities of it, won't save him." O'Sullivan replied, "The lad needs to become a man, and I'd say it's better to do it before the battle, then during." O'Sullivan stepped forward and received his new gear. He looked at it strangely before looking back up at Mackenzie, "And just what am I supposed to do with this?" He held up the cartridge box, "Damn thing will make so much noise they'll hear us coming fifty miles away!"

     "It's not meant for stealth, O'Sullivan." Dougal replied, "The Captain wants us to start looking like a unified military unit. When we start looking like soldiers, we'll start acting like soldiers and then we'll have a much better chance of defeating the English."

     "We did a grand job of it yesterday! From the safety of distance and from behind trees." O'Sullivan replied, "Not prancing around trying to beat the Redcoats at their own game."

     By this point everyone within earshot of the conversation was listening. Dougal nodded, "Aye, you did. I'll grant you that, but that was just a small force. If we want to defeat them, we have to fight them and beat them in their fashion. They'll never respect us otherwise. Our knowledge of the frontier and our fortitude to it's harsh climate, will prove useful, I'm sure. But we need to be able to fight in both styles."

     O'Sullivan grunted, "Sounds like a lot of f****n' prancin' around like fancy folk to me." O'Sullivan walked off to start replacing his wool leggings with gaiters.

     Dougal continued to watch as the men proceeded through the line, and received the supplies. He heard several of them mumble in much the same way as O'Sullivan had, but they kept their mouths shut for the most part. In the British Army, men would have been hit for talking in the ranks, but Dougal and Horatio weren't running this quite as tight as the British Army they were so familiar with, at least for now.

     Forty-minutes had passed since the men had started getting their new supplies, and they were finally finished, dressed, and formed back into formation. They looked much more like soldiers now. All of them had the same cartridge boxes, all of them wore the black, knee-high gaiters, all of them had white haversacks, and metal canteens. Most of them all had the long-land pattern Brown Bess musket, and those who didn't were issued the shorter ship's carbine that were taken off of the dead Marines. They were at last ready to march to Exeter.

Author's Note

The journey is about to speed up for our heroes. Soon they will be fully engrossed in the American Revolution. I'm really excited for this story, I think it's going to be amazing, and I'm already buzzing with ideas for the sequel. As always this is a DRAFT that will go through many, MANY editing processes. I thank you all for your patience with this, I had to do quite a bit of research to continue with this, but I'm really happy to be getting back into it.