TEARS OF THE FOOT GUARDS

SCHERZO - STAVE XLII

S T A V E

XLII

St. Stephen's Day – the Expeditionary Fleet put to sea – eight thousand troops and equipment. It had always been Clinton's plan – an Invasion of Charlestown, and now reality since the news of Savannah, but the Objective kept secret. Something big, thought all. It had to be big to make Sir Henry move. Not only big, but sure, or nearly sure. Sir Henry would think it through with brilliance, of the German School, as only he could – no attack dog like Cornwallis with his 'straight-at-them'.

Not a great general – Clinton, but thought himself better than most. Such happens with the Occasional Success – a white spot on a black wall, which draws the attention. And if success should not happen, it was never Sir Henry's fault: it was Germaine siphoning off troops to the Caribbean, or the Prime Minister's doubts, or Arbuthnot an incapable fool, or having to inherit Billy Howe's War . . .

Lucky to have me, he thought. They refuse my resignation. The Saviour of America, Whitehall calls me. Five Loaves and Two Fishes. "This is the most important hour Britain ever knew," he wrote to Sir William Eden. "If we lose it, we shall never see such another."

Whitehall agreed, the fall of Charlestown would be "a blow to the rebellious colonies which they could not recover, and which might reduce them to reason much sooner than anything that can be effected to the northward." In other words: abandon the Northern Strategy of inducing Washington to Fight. What a relief and Whitehall needed movement with the Home Front in Chaos – markets near collapse, the price of wheat the lowest since the turn of the Century. High taxation. The increasing power of the Crown. Radicalism. Unionism. Anti-Parliament fever . . . Catholic Relief! Anti-Catholic protests. The Irish on the verge of rebellion. If only the American conflict would quell. "Let them Go!" the ever-rising cry. Anti-war M.P.s wear the Blue and Buff of Washington's soldiery. . . But Opinion would turn with Success. And for Success, Britain must maintain Superiority, maintain it with the force Clinton had while in the Caribbean, the Navy does Double Duty. Never mind Britain lost control of American waters twice before, albeit temporarily, and now with the abandonment of troop consolidation, the Navy would have to work extra hard supplying two armies – one in New York and the other in Charleston. Any check could bring disaster.

"But the Americans chiefly depend upon presumptuous appearances and imposition," assured the Royal Governor in Florida. "The lower their affairs are reduced, the higher they hoist the flag to show and imposture, that they may thereby conceal their wretched state and condition . . . I am certain the four southern provinces are incapable of making any formidable resistance; they are not prepared for the scene of war."

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The night wind made no sound, but the trees clattered. Snow swirled, blinding, stinging. Naked skin turned red then black; the dead patches crystalline as onyx. The Laurel Hill camp writhed like an animal trying to shake off winter. Campfires clung to life tenaciously, harried by gusts; it threw their flames wilder 'til they lapped the edge of a too-close tent and up it went.

Geordie watched from his guard post on the Bell of Arms bent from a snow drift near its top. The wind puffed the back fall of his fatigue hat he'd tucked beneath his coat collar and the army blanket covering his head. He wore two shirts topped by two waistcoats, one double-breasted made from his third issue regimental. On his legs, thick woollen hose, woollen breeches, overalls and thick blue Indian leggings. But cold still, though not so cold as the by-blows down the way diving out of the burning tent. Not his tent, thank God, for it was a squad of First Guards, cursing to high heaven.

They should've been in huts by now, but the construction hampered by such a winter, the worst in a hundred years; it'd come so fast. They worked on the cabins by day and froze in tents by night. Officers too, when they had the duty, otherwise, kept apartments in Town and only in the lines when they had to be. And so few had to be. If not for Hard Winter, they'd be children running Wild.