Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker: Sometime Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the Staff of his Excellency General WashingtonMitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
History
Hugh Wynne, Free Quaker: Sometime Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel on the Staff of his Excellency General Washington
Mitchell, S. Weir (Silas Weir)
Quakers -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
He made no comment, but turning to McLane, said, “Captain McLane, you
will care for this gentleman. I trust occasion may serve, Mr. Wynne,
to enable me to offer Mistress Wynne my thanks. When you desire a
commission, Mr. Hamilton will kindly remind me of the service you have
done your country to-day. You have acted with your usual discretion,
Captain McLane. Good-night, gentlemen.” We bowed and went out.
On our way back we rode a footpace, while the captain, now ready enough
to talk, answered my many questions. “Yes; the general was a reserved,
tranquil man, with a chained-up devil inside of him; could lay a whip
over a black fellow’s back if a horse were ill groomed, or call a
man--and he a general--a d---- drunkard; but that would be in the heat
of a fight. An archbishop would learn to swear in the army, and the
general had no more piety than was good for men who were here to commit
murder.”
The next day I set out afoot, as I preferred, to look for Jack, and a
nice business I found it. The army was moving down the Skippack road
to Worcester township, and the whole march seemed, to me at least, one
great bewildering confusion of dust, artillery, or waggons stalled,
profane aides going hither and thither, broken fences, women standing at
farm-house doors, white and crying, as the long line of our foot passed;
and over all rang sharp the clink and rattle of flanking cavalry as the
horse streamed by, trampling the ruddy buckwheat-fields, and through
ravaged orchards and broken gardens. Overhead, in a great cloud high
in air, the fine dust was blown down the line by the east wind. It was
thick and oppressive, choking man and horse with an exacting thirst,
mocked by empty wells and defiled brooks. No one knew where any one else
was, and in all my life, save on one memorable evening, I never heard as
great a variety of abominable language.
I had done my best, by some change of underclothes and the industrious
use of soap and water, to make my appearance less noticeable; but it
was still bad enough, because I had no outer garments except those I
was wearing. Had I been better dressed, I had fared better; for in those
days clothes were considered, and you might easily tell by his costume
if a man were a mechanic, a farmer, a small trader, or a gentleman.
I fell at last upon an officer who was endeavouring to get his horse a
share of wayside ditch water. I said to him, seeing my chance, that his
horse had picked up a stone; if he would wait a moment I would knock
it out. On this, and upon his thanking me, I asked where I might find
Wayne’s brigade, for in it, as I knew, was my captain of the Third
Pennsylvania Continental foot. He told me it was a mile ahead. Comforted
by this news, I walked on, keeping chiefly in the fields, for there
alone was it possible to get past the marching columns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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