American Made: Rise of a Rebellion

Chapter Six

After winning that little skirmish in Lexington, the British military was in high hopes. Never did Spears think they would try to stand up against them in that small town, but they did. Heaven only knows what started it, but the men of his regiment finished the fight like it should have been. He wouldn't say he was afraid at first but when the shooting began, he handled it like he was supposed to. Take all of your feelings out of the picture, that's what makes a good soldier. It is hard to do sometimes, but that is part of the job.

"We showed those bastards how it is done." Evans praised, spitting on the dirt road, as they left the small town behind them.

"Those weren't true soldiers. They broke too easy." Spears replied. He finally decided that he didn't like what happened there. The people in that town could have been his neighbors when he stayed here. Not now though, he wouldn't be able to look at the men of Lexington the same way. He couldn't get the image of the Lexington's leader holding the dead man in his arms. It pulled at Spear's heart somewhat. Their high command handled that poorly, he thought. Smith could have been a little warmer.

When they arrived at Concord, it was mostly a ghost town. It mostly looked the same as Lexington but unlike the former, this town was all closed up. Spears was about to mention it to Evans when one of the other soldiers shouted something about seeing the militia gathered north of the river. Spears looked that way and saw them gathering atop of a hill that overlooked the town. His eyes weren't the best, but he thought it was only the men of the town up there.

"They must be too scared to come down here and fight us." Evans points out.

Spears shakes his head. "I don't think so. They must be waiting for something."

"I want men over by the bridge to keep guard from those men, and the rest of you lot start searching these houses one by one until we find the munitions!" Smith orders from his horse. "I also want half of the regiments to go to the rebel leader's farm where most of the contraband is being held."

Pitcairn listed off some regiments to go, and Spears' 4th regiment was one of them.

"Looks like we are marching again." Evans jokes as he swings his sack over his shoulder.

Spears nods in agreement. He hoped that it wasn't too far from town since his feet haven't stopped aching from the march to here. As they leave Spears noticed that the women and kids were still in town. The army that was staying behind began going into houses and pulling them out. He hoped that happened in Lexington won't happen again here for the sake of the civilians but talking with some other guys, Spears found out that some of them are hot-headed.

When they got to the small farmhouse, it appeared to Spears that no one was here, just like in town. He noticed though that the field was just recently plowed, which was odd since they have done it weeks ago. Whoever their leader was must have been too busy to worry about his farm. He put that in the back of his mind since he thought it was just an odd fact that he's too busy to think about himself.

Pitcairn went to the front of the house and shouted to see if anyone would reply. He waited a second before yelling again. Still, no answer so he began ordering the men to search the house and the surrounding buildings. Spears and Evans were lucky enough to be the ones assigned to the barn.

"Lucky us, I'd rather stand around on guard." Evans sighed while they head to it.

"I can't understand how lazy you are." Spears laughs as he heads to slide open the door. He grips the door panel, readying himself, while Evans raised his musket just in case of the unexpected. Evans gave Spears the go-ahead to slide the door open. Spears does so while trying to stay out of the way for the possible incoming musket ball. Evans frowns as he lowers his arms. Spears, seeing his friend's reaction, turns to peer inside. The light shined through the planks on that make up the sides of the barn, giving enough light to see inside. It looked like just any other barn on the inside, nothing out of the ordinary at first glance. Spears was hoping to be the one to find the arms they were sent out to find. Their might even be a medal for the one who was lucky enough.

"Damn, nothing," Evans said when he noticed the same thing, stepping in with him.

Spears goes over and kicks through a small pile of wood. "Their still can be something in here, go over to the hay pile and check over there while I check this site," Spears said. The two separated to their sides to look through the things cluttered around. Spears went through the containers and cabinets while Evans was lazily stabbing through the hay with his bayonet.

It didn't take them very long to search the barn. When they came up empty-handed they both went outside. Evans takes the top off his canteen and downed some of it then offered some to Spears. Spears waved it away. "Don't worry. I got some left."

Evans offered it to him again. "No, you don't. I put some rum in this one."

Spears hesitantly obliges and takes a swig from the canteen. Spears isn't much of a drinker but not finding anything lowered his moral a bit so hopefully, it gave him a bit of a pick-me-up. When done, Spears tried to hand it back, but something had caught Evan's eye. Spears follows the direction where he was staring to see what it was when he noticed a column of men marching just north of the farm. They didn't look like the other colonist farmers that were just dressed up playing soldier. These men, on the other hand, seemed to Spears that they knew their way around a musket. People that serve in the army can tell each other apart even if they weren't in their uniform. They were not wearing a uniform, but they all were dressed in their best with nothing out of place with a well-powdered wig under their cocked hats. Deep down in Spears' gut, he knew he didn't want to face these men, even though there were so few.

Some of them glanced in the farm's direction where all the British soldiers were standing but none of them stopped to engage them, neither did his own. It was such a surreal moment in time. These two groups may end up fighting one another, but no one moved. They just kept on moving down the road without being harassed. Spears just stood there frozen. After they were finally out of sight it was funny to think about now since they at least doubled that militia's numbers. They could have taken them, no problem.

"Their's got to be nearly forty of them." Evans noticed.

Spears nods in agreement. "They must be heading to meet the other ones back near town."

"Those bastards look like the real deal. I didn't know anyone on this side of the world could look like that." Evans acknowledged while he grabbed his canteen from Spears to take another long swig.

"Did you men find anything in the barn?" Pitcairn barked at them, snapping the two back to the task at hand.

"Nothing but hay and farming tools, sir," Evans replied, saluting his higher up. Evans may be lazy, but he knows how to show some respect.

"Damn," Pitcairn says to himself as he rubs his chin. "No one else found anything as well."

"Did you see the militia, Sir?" Spears asked, already knowing the answer but still stupidly asked.

"Yes, I did, Spears," Pitcairn answered. "We are about to head back to town to help reinforce it. Word came that they have at least doubled in size since we left. I pray that we find those cannons before they are able to use it against us." Spears never thought about the possibilities of them having heavy artillery like cannons. Now he wished he, or anyone, had found something here at the farm.

"Yes, sir," they both replied, again saluting him with respect.

When the Major was out of earshot, Evan whistles, "Bloody hell, those bastards have cannons. I bet you that that's what they are doing up on that hill, getting them things ready."

Spears shakes his head. "I doubt that. I don't see them firing them on their town."

"You think not? They would rebel against their king but not fire upon a town only filled with his soldiers." Evans remarked as he picks up his musket.

Spears joins him as the head to column forming, "I just don't see it."

The regiments quickly lined up on the road that not that long ago the militia was marching on and headed back to Concord.