The Rangers Are Coming (32 page)

They reached the tents and rushed them.  They were empty.  The order was given to move in open formations into the forest to smoke out the militia that must be hidden there.  As they moved between the trees, men started to disappear.  There were no shouts, no musket fire, nothing, but a steadily shrinking number of soldiers.  When they realized that nearly all of their comrades had vanished, the remainder of the soldiers began to retreat out of the forest.  A total of 16 men made it to the open field and began running across the valley back to the British camp.  They came into the camp, chests heaving, and eyes wild with fright.

“What has happened,” cried their fellow soldiers?

“We don’t know,” the men, cried, “when we entered that forest our lads just began to vanish.”

“I saw Jamie just a few yards to my right,” said one of the men.  “I thought he stumbled or something, because he went down and when I ran over there, he was gone, musket lying on the ground.”

General Sims was confused and irate, “Three companies don’t just disappear, what sorcery is at work here?  He was still talking with his staff when a soldier came running up, “Sir, there are men coming out of the forest and heading across the valley!”

“How many,” demanded the general?

“At least a thousand, they are not in any kind of formation, but they are moving fast.”

“Train the artillery on them!” screamed Sims.

The artillery batteries sprang into action, but before they could load a single round, huge explosions went off all along the artillery line.  In less than a minute two dozen rounds had blown all the artillery and their crews to pieces.

“Companies to the front!” screamed the general.

As he was saying the words, six huge machines came up the slope on the other side of the road and began firing into the camp, blowing whole sections of tents and men to bits.

From the other side, out of the forest came more large machines with green-clad soldiers running beside them.  The machines were firing bursts of rounds into the British ranks, killing them by the hundreds.

As the machines grew closer, three flying machines came over the horizon and began to strafe the British camp with mini-guns, firing 3,000 rounds a minute.  Thousands of British soldiers went down.  The 105s were creeping fire into the camp closer and closer to the central core.

As the confusion was at its height, the Rangers stormed into the camp, assault rifles blazing.  Some of the British were able to fire their muskets at the men, who all had black streaks on their faces.  The muskets did not seem to affect the soldiers at all.  A few staggered, but kept on running and firing.  The Humvees roared through the camp spreading death.

For an hour, the fight raged on, entirely one-sided.  The British retreated to the center of the camp.  Finally, when less than 2,000 soldiers were still fighting, General Sims ordered a white flag to be waved.  The gunfire ceased at once.  A loud voice spoke, “All soldiers drop your weapons and place your hands behind your heads fingers laced.”  The redcoats obeyed in an instant.

General Sims stood at the entry to his tent in shock.  He was so shaken he could hardly speak.  Through the ranks of the massed Rangers who parted as he approached walked General Compton.  He stepped up to Sims, pulled off his gloves and stuck out his hand to Sims.  The general put his hand out weakly.  Compton took it firmly and said, “May the Lord forgive us for this senseless loss of life today.  I offer my humble apologies, general.”

Sims was so surprised he could hardly speak.  Finally, he said, “I don’t know what to say.  You have slaughtered nearly 25,000 British soldiers and yet you offer your apologies?”

“Most humbly and sincerely, sir,” said Compton.  “The fact is you’ve been deceived by your governments, who told you the United States could not withstand the combined might of all the great European powers.  As you can see, we can defend ourselves and we did.

“However,” continued Compton, “we bear you no ill-will.  Your surviving soldiers, along with you and your staff, will be treated with dignity and compassion and returned to your ships in New York to go home.  We will offer aid to your wounded and attempt to save as many lives as we can.  Already our medics are moving through your camp treating your injured.”

“I thank you for your gallantry, sir,” said Sims.

“You should have listened to our little messenger yesterday.  She told you to go home because the Rangers were coming.  We left a similar message this morning, thinking that invading your camp, eliminating your sentries, and leaving another message we were coming, would cause you to withdraw.  Unfortunately, you did not believe us, so we had to attack.  We would not have invaded your country; the United States is strictly neutral.”

“When you get home, please tell the story of what happened here to anyone who will listen.  Then give them this message, the United States is open for business.  We will freely trade with any country who wants trade.  We will also accept immigrants from any country in any numbers who wish to come.  We are a Christian nation and we do not discriminate against anyone by sex, race, or national origins.”

“You knew we were coming?  You knew everything about our campaign?” said Sims.  “How could you know this?”

“You will find when you begin trading, that we possess many advanced products.  Some of that technology was used in our defense.”

“You must have a huge army.”

“Not as big as you might imagine, but my brigade of 3,000 Rangers, was enough to do the job today,” smiled Compton.

The end of the northern battle resulted in 21,500 British dead.  There were 1,500 casualties, of which only 500 elected to return to Britain when given the choice to stay and become citizens of the United States.  General Sims and his staff along with the 2000 soldiers who had surrendered, where taken by wagons back to New York and delivered to their ships with full stomachs, and real respect for their host Rangers.  The British had to abandon most of their troop ships, taking only what they needed to transport the survivors.  The United States had suddenly acquired nearly 300 brand new ships that were sold very cheaply to merchants, who made traders out of them.

31

Charleston, South Carolina

              General Compton radioed the President, Arcadia and the senior government officials about the destruction of the northern army.  He gave the grim figures with no sense of victory.  In fact, the entire campaign had sickened him.

              “Mr. President, what is the current location of the southern army,” asked Compton.

              “They are still about a day away from Charleston,” said Washington, “they had farther to sail.”

              “I’m wondering, Sir, if we can find a way to avoid the bloodbath we have just gone through?”

              “If you have a better idea, now’s the time,” said Washington.

              “The British commander, General Sims, was caught completely unaware of the trap into which he was marching.  He was led to believe that his offensive would be an easy one.  The commander in the south, no doubt, believes the same.  I wonder if we might be able to head off this sure slaughter, by negotiating with the commander of the southern army.”

              “How would you do that,” asked Arcadia?

              “I spent some time with General Sims and found him to be a smart and reasonable man,” said Compton.  “What if we were to transport him and some of his senior staff to Charleston and let him warn his counterpart what’s waiting for him?”

              “That might work,” said Arcadia, “particularly if we could catch them before they were able to off load any soldiers and draw them into a parley.  If it’s safe, you could go yourself, Mr. President, and lay the foundation for the next part of our plan of being a big, friendly, neutral trading partner.”

              “I think we should at least try that approach,” said Washington.  “If it fails, we do have the alternative.  Why don’t you contact General Sims and see if he would be willing?”

              “I’ll do that, and call you back.”

              Compton immediately called his Chief of Staff, “Cal, where are you in getting the British back on their ships?”

              “We just got to New York yesterday.  We only have a few ships loaded with troops.”

              “Is General Sims aboard his flagship?”

              “Yeah, he went aboard this morning.  You never saw such as unhappy man.”

              “Can you go aboard that ship and have a private talk with Sims?

              “Probably.”

              “Then do it and here’s what I want you to say.”  Compton laid out the plan for saving the lives of all the soldiers in the southern army, and the part that Sims could play in it

              “Sounds like a good plan to me,” said the Chief, “I’ll go ask him if he would be willing.  I think he might be.  He is truly grieving over all those dead men.”

              Compton hung around the radio for an hour before his Chief of Staff called him back.  “General Sims is very eager to keep the southern army from being wiped out.  He’s quite angry with the bugle oil his superiors told him about the big, bad United States.  What do we do now?”

              “Have him and his senior staff get off the ship and take them out to where we can land a Chinook.  We’ll fly them to Charleston.”

              General Sims informed his staff of the intervention that was planned and asked if any one of them had any objections.  None did.  “If that is the case, gentlemen, let us see if we can’t save a lot of men.  Remember we have a whole regiment of our countrymen in the force in the south.”

              The Chief of Staff got hold of three big carriages and loaded the British.  They drove out of town just a couple of miles and turned into a field where a big Chinook was waiting for them.  General Compton stepped out of the ship and went to greet Sims.  “Good morning, General Sims,” said Compton shaking hands with Sims.  This time there was a smile on Sims’ face and his handshake was warm and firm.

              “I imagine this is going to be quite an experience for you,” said Compton.  “We don’t have the time to drive to Charleston, so we are going to fly in this.”

              “I have stopped trying to understand the wonders of your military,” said Sims.

              “If you’ll just get aboard, we will get underway.”

              Sims and his staff walked up the rear ramp of the Chinook, looking all around as they went aboard.  Ranger crewmen sat the men down in seats and showed the British how to fasten their seat belts.  They explained some people got airsick and handed them all plastic bags for an emergency.

              The engines of the helicopter roared to life and the whirl of the rotors grew louder and louder.  Suddenly, the ship lifted off and every one of the British officers turned to look out the windows in wonder as the helicopter gained altitude.

              The Rangers were smiling and polite.  They were still wearing their outlandish uniforms of green, but they didn’t have on body armor and had substituted their helmets for berets.  They passed out big bars of chocolate and bottles of water to all the British.  Sims sat next to Compton and found they could carry on a conversation as the Chinook slipped into a steady course.

              “Have you started writing your report,” asked Compton?

              “I’ve started several drafts and tore them up because I found myself getting so angry,” grumbled Sims.

              “Can’t say as I blame you,” said Compton, “if I’d been hoodwinked like you were.  You had no idea what kind of a trap you were walking into.”

              “Is it really true you did all the damage you did with a single brigade?”

              “Yep, 3,256 men and women to be exact.”

              “You have women in your army?”

              “Sure do, we also have blacks, Native Americans, and some Mayans from Mexico.”

              “How do you keep order with such a collection of people.”

              “It’s easy,” said Compton, “we all surrender our wills to the love of Jesus Christ, who’s Holy Spirit lives in each of us and guides our lives.  For us, God comes first.  We seek to do His will to the best of our ability and know that our sins have been washed clean by the sacrifice of Jesus in our place.”

              “Astonishing,” said Sims, “yet you fight as none I’ve ever seen.”

              “Did not King Solomon, subdue and conquer all his enemies during his reign?  But when his land was secure, he made peace with those nations around him and grew rich with prosperous trade and commerce.  Remember, we did not bring this war to you, you brought it to us.”

              Changing the subject, Sims asked, “When we get to Charleston, what is your plan?”

              “First we’re going to try and keep Charleston from being reduced to rubble by cannon fire from the big warship that will lead the way into the harbor.  We intend to fly white flags of surrender from every building.  Then, when the ships dock at the harbor, we intend to walk out on the wharf, under a flag of truce and speak to their commanding General.”

              “What makes you think he will talk with you,” asked Sims?

              “Because you and your staff plus me and my staff will be standing there to welcome him.  Don’t worry.  We’ll have snipers all over the place.  If anyone wants to cause trouble, they won’t get a shot off.”

              “Then what?”

              “Why, then we go to a big hall and sit down to talk.  You explain the reason why you’re there, tell the exact story of your experience with your army, and say the reason you are there is to prevent the same tragedy from happening to the army waiting on the ships in Charleston harbor.  The fact your entire staff confirms all you say, will give their General pause for thought.  He may not believe you, but he will hesitate to go further until he has more proof and information.”