To Try Men's Souls - George Washington 1 by William R. Forstchen, Newt Gingrich, Albert S. Hanser Read Free Book Online Page A

a farmhouse a hundred yards north of the village could be seen, windows illuminated. A musket flashed within.
    “Comrades!” Metzger shouted. “Comrades!”
    Several more flashes from outside the house, the sound of a musket ball whizzing close by Rall.
    Just stay in place, damn you, he thought. Just stay in place a few seconds more!
    “Charge, lads, charge!” he cried, saber out, pointing the way, urging his mount to a gallop, the nervous Münchasen pressing up by his side, trying as usual, against all etiquette, to place himself between his colonel and enemy fire.
    They reached the open gate leading into the farmyard . . . and there was nothing.
    The door to the outpost was flung open as Rall reined in a splatter of mud.
    It took him a moment to register who it was.
    “Sergeant Lindermann, where are they?” Rall cried.
    The sergeant looked about, unable to reply.
    “Where are they?”
    “Sir, I believe they have fled.”
    “Damn them,” Rall growled as he started to dismount.
    “Sir, shall we pursue?” Metzger asked, breathing hard, coming up alongside the colonel.
    Angrily, Rall shook his head. “The cowardly peasants have fled, as usual.”
    He looked to the sky. If the moon were out, he would have pursuedthem. But if the weather had been clear, the fields bright with moonlight on snow, the rebels would never have dared to creep in this close to town and to linger as long as they had.
    “Useless, Captain Metzger. Post guards around the house, and keep them away from the light of the windows. The rest of the detachment, move into the barn for now and out of this storm.”
    Metzger saluted and began to shout orders, detailing off pickets as Rall, heart still racing, climbed the four steps to the broad porch of the farm house.
    “Now, sergeant, your full report.”
    “Sir, I have wounded inside.”
    Rall brushed past him and into the house. He could hear cries of anguish from the back, and the kitchen looked like a slaughtering shed. One man was on the floor, gasping for air, foaming frothy blood with each breath. Two more were sitting on the floor, one with arterial blood pulsing from a gaping wound in his left forearm, a corporal kneeling by his side, already tightening a tourniquet around it as blood pooled and spread across the brick floor and splattered against the wall. This man, if he survived, would go home with that arm missing.
    Two others were bleeding as well, one with a hole through his cheek, crying out as he spat blood and shattered teeth. It was an agonizing wound, and Rall paused for a moment, bending by his side, putting a hand on the young man’s shoulder.
    “Be brave, my lad, be brave.”
    The soldier looked up, saw who was addressing him, and his crying ceased.
    “The damn cowardly dogs!” someone cried, coming down the stairs from the second floor. “They got Yeager in the face and Franz in shoulder——”
    The corporal stopped his cursing as he stormed into the kitchen and saw his colonel. He snapped to attention.
    Rall took it all in. There was food on the table, plates knocked over, some shattered on the floor. Several muskets, never used, wereleaning against the wall behind the table. The room was heavy with the smell of gunpowder, a cold breeze racing in through broken windows and driving the smoke out. There were bullet holes in the wall, one with a splattering of blood around it.
    He did not need to be told what had happened.
    The outpost guards, with the onset of the storm, and this being Christmas night, had settled down to a feast. Following his orders, they had not taken any spirits, which were banned for the entire army this night. But they had let their guard down. It was all so clearly evident. The raiders had literally crept beneath the eaves of the house and into every window fired a volley.
    It was little better than murder. It was also a surprise that never should have happened.
    He turned to face the sergeant, who stood before him, features pale.
    “Did you