A Short Story by Martin Wade
Present Time
Eric McPherson is a Logistics Engineer
working for a defense contractor in Northern Virginia. Eric and his family live out near the
Shenandoah Valley, in an unincorporated area just outside of Marshall, Virginia,
located near the intersection of I-66 and State Highway 17, approximately 50
miles to the west of Washington, D.C., the Nation’s Capital. They had chosen an area where he could easily
afford to purchase a house and property outside of the National Beltway, I-95
that runs North and South along the East Coast.
They could afford the amenities that came with country living as opposed
to living in a planned development with the neighbors close by
The family of four consists of Eric’s
wife, Elisabeth, daughter Erika, and son Eric, Jr. The house sits on ten acres of land with a
small barn for his wife and daughter’s horses plus he had a workshop and space
for his other toys such as several ATVs, snowmobiles and dirt bikes for the
entire family of four to play with all year long. Living near the Shenandoah Valley, gave the
family had plenty of forest area for camping, hunting and target shooting in
the National Forest and there had been dining table discussions about purchasing
a piece of land with a cabin just over the Appalachians in West Virginia. Out here, in Marshall, Eric’s family would
have space to grow.
Living in Marshall got him far
enough away from Crystal City and Washington, DC that he just forget about the
weekly grind for a few days plus the added days off during holidays and
vacations. Eric also serves as a Captain
in the Virginia National Guard where he spends one weekend each month as well
as two weeks every year in training. His
education as well as previous military experience and present job backed up his
position as Brigade Transportation Officer, which meant that he was responsible
for planning and executing unit movements for the Brigade. The unit to which Eric belonged was able to
trace it roots in the Army back to the Revolution and the War against the
world’s superpower, England.
The Revolution
Captain Eric McPherson and his
unit, the 45
th Highland Fusiliers (Light, Dismounted)
[1],
had been posted to the Colonies in 1773 as additional support for the Royal
Governor, John Murray, the 4
th Earl of Dunmore.
There were elements in the Colonies talking
treason against King George III, revolution was in the air with the outcome the
birth of a new nation.
Rebellion could
not be allowed as it would set a precedence that might be followed by the other
British Colonies around the world.
This
talk of revolution must be crushed and the instigators brought to Court for
trial and punishment.
The British controlled New York
City, Boston, and the coastal cities while the Rebels more or less controlled
the countryside. The Battle of Bunker
Hill had shown the British that this was not going to be a quick quashing of
the rebellion and there was always the possibility that the French and Spanish
would enter the war on the side of the colonists, hoping to gain some leverage
with the new country should the rebellion prevail. On September 26, 1777, General Howe and his
troops captured the Rebel Capital of Philadelphia and the British believed that
the mopping up of the rebellion would now begin. The Commander of the Rebel Forces, George
Washington skirmished with the British until December when he took his army
into Winter quarters at Valley Forge about 20 miles from Philadelphia.
The British knew that many of the
rebel troops were lacking proper winter uniforms; enlistments were expiring, the
men were low on food and morale and some were deserting. This rebellion should soon be over.
The Revolutionary War actually
kind of whimpered up and down the Eastern Seaboard from April 19, 1775 at
Concord/ Lexington, Massachusetts to October 19, 1781 with Lord Cornwallis’
surrender of the British forces at Yorktown, Virginia.
The British Army and their Hessian
[2]
Allies had won the majority of the battles against the Colonial Forces and felt
that the Colonial Forces were pretty much on the ropes right up to the end
until, cut off from re-supply, the British were forced to surrender to General
Washington and the Americans.
22 October 1777
(Insert map of area circa 1777
with route of march shown)
[i]
Captain McPherson had received his orders.
He was to take a platoon (about 30 men) of
his company on a two-day march from their encampment in Fairfax, Virginia to a
location near
LeHewtown (now Front Royal) fifty-two miles away, at the entrance
to the Shenandoah Valley where the rebels presumably had a stockpile of cannon,
rifles and ammunition.
Tory
[3]
spies had passed on information that the cache was lightly guarded because of
the distance from any British garrisons so Captain McPherson had decided to take
his men out under cover of darkness and do a fast march to the North before
turning toward the West and their objective.
Captain McPherson asked the First Sergeant to handpick the men who would
be on this mission because there were so many volunteers it appeared the entire
company had stepped forward.
It was
decided that the patrol would consist of Captain McPherson, a Lieutenant, a
senior NCO, 2 junior NCOs and the remainder would be made up of lower ranks as
well as four Tory scouts.
Once the men were chosen for the mission,
Captain McPherson passed orders to the NCOs to have all uniform brass left
behind or dulled with mud and dirt.
There was some grumbling because the troops knew that if they dulled
their brass, it would have to be returned to inspection ready form when they
returned to Fairfax. All bayonets,
canteens as well as any “noise-makers” would have to be muffled for the early
departure from camp. McPherson also
ordered that the men turn in early and be ready for muster at 0200 hours and
that all red coats and uniform caps would be left behind. Dark jackets would be worn to better blend in
with the local forests and be less conspicuous in the open even though an
obvious military movement, they might be mistaken for a rebel force by the
casual observer. However, there was the
possibility they might be mistaken for a Tory force if spotted by the rebels.
The British mustered early and
departed the encampment at about 0300 under the watchful eyes of their sentries
and the unseen eyes of rebel spies who immediately sent out messengers that the
British were on the move. Where the
patrol was going, the watchers were not certain.
As the platoon of Fusiliers
marched away from camp toward present day Vienna, VA and ostensibly onward to
the Philadelphia, the occupied rebel capital, they were being shadowed by
Washington’s scouts attempting to find out where the unit was going and their
mission. As the unit continued its march
to the North, along a carriage road past small farms and hamlets that dotted
the countryside, the rebel watchers
began to peel off to join other units that were fighting the British elsewhere
in the former colonies.
Captain McPherson increased his
pace to where the troops were moving along at a slow trot as he started his
swing to the northwest toward Leesburg.
He then adjusted the route of march toward the west, passing through the
Sully (Chantilly) Plantation with its broad cultivated fields, and then slowly,
as the rebel scouts dropped away, the platoon made a turn to the southwest,
passing just to the west of the village of Newgate (now Centreville). Captain McPherson and his men had to avoid
all of the crossroads that dotted the countryside because he had no way of
knowing which were held by Tories and which were Rebel. Although the patrol was required to take
cover on several occasions to avoid detection by rebel units, the route of the
march while purposeful to the West was also hindered by the fact that the forested
areas made it as difficult to traverse as the rolling hillsides and farms made the
march easy. He also had to stop the
march every couple of hours for rest and water in order not to wear out his
men. After ten hours of travel, Captain
McPherson halted his men for the night near the present day Haymarket. They would enter the Shenandoah around late morning
tomorrow and he wanted his men rested for the completion of the mission ahead.
23 October 1777
The British broke camp around 0230
in the morning and followed the path through the woods on a southwestern
orientation bypassing numerous small farms, houses, and inns that dotted the
countryside. As the force moved
westward, the scouts kept reporting that there were no rebel forces in the area
and the trailing observers were no longer in sight along the line of march so
Captain McPherson continued his movement toward the Shenandoah Valley. He now headed straight for his objective in
the Valley about 20 miles away.
Captain McPherson sent out his Tory scouts to check out the terrain
ahead because he personally was unfamiliar with the area having been stationed
down in the Alexandria/Fairfax area since the early ‘70s. Prior to this mission, his troops generally
patrolled the area to the northeast of Fairfax toward Baltimore, Maryland and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
McPherson had called a halt near present day Old Tavern, the men were
relaxing, drinking water and eating some jerky when one of the scouts came back
into the company with a prisoner that he had found alongside a strange
thoroughfare not one mile ahead.
23 October 2015
(insert map of area circa 2015 with
route of march showing)
Eric McPherson was driving East
on I-66, a major East-West route in Northern Virginia, heading to his job in
Crystal City, VA, about 50 miles away.
He was drinking his second cup of coffee and listening to talk radio as
he drove. Eric usually left home about
0500 hours in order to reach his job no later than 0830.
I-66 is not a straight East-West
route, there are numerous sweeping curves and low hills passing through forests
and small farms as it goes from the Shenandoah Valley towards Washington,
DC.
As Eric headed East on 66, he did
not yet know it, but his day was about to get quite interesting.
It was as Eric was coming out of
one of the curves and over a small hill that he noticed a movement of men to
his right, (the South side of the highway) and nearly drove off the highway when
he realized that this apparently was part of a small military unit. The men he saw appeared to be Revolutionary
War reenactors, although he didn’t recall having seen any reenactments in this
area in the five years he lived here and wasn’t aware of any battle sites from
that time in the local area other than Civil War.
As he brought his vintage 1977 British
Triumph TR-7 sports car to a halt on the side of the highway with other
vehicles flashing by at speed, he noticed that the men had disappeared. Eric
was standing by the side of the road, wondering where the battle had been and
when the site had been located because he could not remember having seen
anything about it in the news. He was
still pondering the question when a man stepped out from behind a tree,
silently aimed a pistol at him, and motioned him into the woods.
Eric McPherson was nonplussed as
he walked ahead of his captor down a path.
“What the Hell was going on here?” he was asking himself when they came
to a clearing where a group of men were seated, relaxing, rifles within easy
reach. One man standing in the center of
the group was obviously in charge. Next
to him was another man who was either second in command or somewhere in the
chain of command. All talk ceased as
Eric was brought into the center of the circle and he was motioned to halt.
Being in the National Guard, Eric
immediately recognized that this was most certainly some kind of military
organization, but he was not certain what type of organization or who they
were.
At first, he thought it might have
been one of those militia groups that the Guard had warned were operating in
the area but as he took in the situation, he noticed that the rifles were a
type of flintlock that he’d seen at the NRA Museum in Fairfax, he thought it
was called a ‘Brown Bess’
[4].
In addition, the clothes these men were
wearing, with the exception of the jackets and hats looked like military
uniforms from the Revolutionary Era.
Again, Eric thought to himself, “What
the Hell is going on here?”
Captain Eric McPherson looked at
the captive and was curious about his method of dress, but asked the scout if
he had checked for firearms or other weapons and was not very happy when the
man stated that he had not, but refrained from knocking the man down. “First things first! Who is this person and what is he doing
here?” Captain McPherson turned to Eric
and opened his mouth to ask the question when Eric beat him to it. “Just what is going on here, who are you and
what are you doing?” he asked?
Captain McPherson looked at his
prisoner and said, “I was just about to ask you the same thing! I want to know your name, what unit you are
with, why you are dressed in such a manner?”
Eric looked at Captain McPherson
and said , “My name is Eric McPherson, I work for a Defense
Contractor in Crystal City and serve as a
Captain in the Virginia National Guard.
Captain McPherson looked at Eric
and stated “You mock me, sir, for my name is Eric McPherson, I am a Captain in
His Royal Majesty’s 45th Highland Fusiliers. Virginia is a colony in rebellion against the
Crown and I am here to help put down the insurrection and bring the traitors
who fomented this problem to justice.
Eric looked at the man
incredulously and asked, “Exactly where do you think you are and what year do
you think this is?” “In the Colony of
Virginia”, Captain McPherson replied, “October, in the Year of Our Lord
Seventeen Hundred and Seventy Seven”.
“Well, we have two out of three
correct,” said Eric. “You are in the
Commonwealth of Virginia and this is October, but the year is 2015. We are 237 years out of synch”.
Captain McPherson was incredulous
with what he had just heard and was just about to respond, but decided to
consider the situation in which he found himself. If this person was correct, Captain McPherson
realized that he and his men were truly in unfamiliar territory, but that could
not be as he had left garrison just yesterday morning. He realized that he was staring at Eric and
found himself curious as to why they happened to have the same names, so he asked,
“how could we possibly have the same name spelled exactly the same?”
Eric knew a little bit about his
ancestry because his Grandmother had been interested the family history and
created a family tree. He showed Captain
McPherson his Virginia Driver’s License and explained that apparently one of his
ancestors had been a British soldier who had decided to stay in the new Nation
after the surrender at Yorktown, and the Treaty of Paris in September 1783, as
had numerous other soldiers including some of the Hessian mercenaries. The Hessians had moved up toward Pennsylvania
where other Germans had migrated from Europe while the former British soldiers
had spread out through Virginia, North and South Carolina and areas toward the
West in what became the Northwest Territories.
However, what was apparently happening here was impossible and could not
be happening. Was this British Captain
his ancestor? How did the British happen
to be here in 2015, or had he, Eric, been transported back to 1777?
Captain McPherson was thinking
that what Eric had just told him was impossible because the American War of
Independence was still very much in play and the question was still to be
decided. Captain McPherson was about to
ask some more questions of Eric to get to the bottom of this situation when a soldier
came into the clearing and moved to the Captain whispering something in his
ear.
The Captain turned, ordered Eric released,
and motioned to his men to pick up their rifles and prepare to move out. Eric was led to the edge of the clearing and
pointed in the direction of the highway and given a push into the woods. He turned and looked back to the clearing and
saw the last of the British soldiers disappearing into the woods to the East.
23 October 2015
Eric McPherson returned to the
highway as three Virginia State Police Officers were beginning to walk along
the highway looking for the owner of the car.
They inquired as to why he had left his vehicle and he told them that he
had an upset stomach and went into the woods to throw-up. He was not about to tell anyone of the
encounter with the British troops. As he
continued his journey to the East and Crystal City, Eric noticed that his
coffee was still hot and good to drink.
How long had he been away from his car?
How long had the encounter with the British troops lasted? Had it really happened?
25 October 1777
|
Captain Eric McPherson and his patrol returned to their barracks at
Fairfax having taken a direct route back from their interrupted mission. All members of the patrol, including the
Tories, had decided as a group not to discuss with anyone about what had
happened other than to report that when they arrived at the designated site
in the Shenandoah Valley, the cache was gone, and not to be found. Their secret would go with them to the
grave. The question with each member
of the patrol, whether he died in battle or of old age was, had it really
happened?
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1. The 45th
Highland Fusiliers (Light, Dismounted) is a fictional unit in the British Army.
2. Hessians were mercenary soldiers, nominally
from the Germanic province of Hesse, contracted to the British by their King.
3. Tories were colonists who remained loyal to
the British Crown during the Revolutionary War.
4.
The
“Brown Bess” was introduced into the British Army in 1722. One of the rifles used during the
Revolution were the Long Land Pattern (1722-1793). This rifle was 62.5 inches long overall and
weighed 10.4 pounds. The other was the
Short Land Pattern (1740-1797) which was 58.5 inches long and weighed 10.5
pounds. The usual load was .69 caliber
and could be loaded with “buck and ball”, a combination round.
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[i]
This entire exercise takes place within the 33-mile distance from Fairfax,
Virginia to Marshall, VA. The distance
from Fairfax to LeHewtown (Front Royal) is only 50 miles. The Shenandoah Valley is about 68 miles away
from DC.
