The Union Forever
Prologue
One Life
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Siege of Yorktown
October 9th, 1781 AD
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Major General Lord Baron William Josiah Marcus Bruce, Lord Baron of the Barony of New Lomond, stood as the cannons began to thunder to life, one by one, until there was an endless sheet of flame and thunder crashing through the very air.
He quickly found himself holding down his tricorn as guns fired in a great chorus. The roar of the guns deafening, but as true as his beating heart. The majestic sight of so many guns firing in one great effort.
"Look to boys!" he calls to his men all around him, "We shall not see another sight like it in our lives. So remember. REMEMBER!" he shouts to them, "That upon this day! With the grace of heaven! We declare we are Freemen! To which no crown shall ever hold us nor bind us to a will not our own again!"
The cheers of the American Continentals could be heard over the roar of the guns.
While noted as the Lord Baron of his family's holdings in London, he had been, in fact, pushed out in favor of his older sister's husband. He had been forced to surrender all, but the titles, and shoulder the debt upon the family name. So in rebellion, he had cut his sister and her husband from all rights, as was his privilege and rights granted by charter and crown, but instead, he had been fully ousted and his lands wrought to ruin.
But while he continues to hold the titles, he merely uses them to show his contempt to the English crown.
For once he passes, so too will the Barony of New Lomond. Never again, shall it exist. For he had granted all upon his lands, the title of Freeman, and ended all servitude, regardless of their skin and origin. All were created free by their Divine Creator, therefore, he would follow through as a man of character and faith.
Standing before them, the English troops and their German allies rush about, trying to avoid being hit. As Baron Bruce watches, one of his cannons clips a building, the cannonball ricocheting off to somehow reach the harbor, distant from their view.
A few moments later, a great explosion erupts in the harbor and the remains of a ship can be seen flying up into the air.
A piece of that said ship flies in towards where the Baron and his men stand and they have to dodge a rain of debris.
The Baron trips when a piece of sail lands atop him, still tied to whatever part of a mast it had been attached too. He tumbles over, but is caught by two of his men who had taken shelter near a dugout with a wooden overhang. They pull him into cover as the light rain of debris come to an end amid joyous laughter.
"What in the name of Old Lomond is all of that laughter?" the Baron demands angrily as he pulls himself free of the sail remnant.
"In your hands sir!" one of the two men pulls on one of the sail as the other lifts the other end.
The Baron blinks as in his hands, are the colors of the ill-fated ship his cannon had destroyed!
"Well," his men are laughing still and he reckons he gave them quite the show running about and tripping in the enemy's colors, "I believe this will make a fine gift to Congress when we return north to retake New York!"
Three cheers at that declaration were fast to follow.
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October 11th, 1781 AD
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"As quiet as you can men, dig fast," the Baron surveys the line of digging his men are doing. The same as all others along the line, "We will sleep well tonight while the English shell our old line."
The quiet chuckling follows that as the men dig. Their officers not minding the occasional shovel of dirt onto their boots. They even drop into the lines to help with the work and even pass out water to the thirsty.
"Hmm," Baron Bruce muses as he helps dig, stripped down to his waist, "Reminds me of that time I had to help a farmer because of a prank gone too far."
"A prank sir?" one man looks and sounds incredulous.
"Aye, a prank," the general smiles back to the man, "I missed those days on the farm. Honestly, they were the happiest moments of my life until now, for I earned my praise rather than receive it for who I was born as."
"That would change a man's outlook on life," another soldier mutters as he digs, a big ox of a man with a stout constitution and shoulders perhaps wider than some children were tall at age!
Nodding as he shoveled out another amount of earth, "That it did and I dare say, that is when I started my walk onto this path."
"Just needed a push?" an officer drops down into the unfinished trench and passes out water.
"Didn't we all?" the soon to be ex-Baron replies.
"We did," another man states, his colored skin making him stand out, but he is a Freeman now, thanks to his service.
"We all did indeed," the officer takes the general's shovel and lets the man know, the Senior Staff is soon to meet and he needs to be there.
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150 Yards from N.9 Redoubt
October 14th, 1781 AD
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"General," the Baron looks up from his maps, reading them with care one last time, to the person who had spoken to him, "I wish you well, for destiny shall await us both upon your outcome."
Removing his tricorn and placing it over his heart with a slight bow before rising, "Lieutenant General, you shall need not fear," using his free hand to signal the redoubt just beyond their lines, "I shall take that redoubt either to rejoin you or to be with you in spirit. You needn't worry, for upon the dawn of tomorrow, a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal will no longer be a dream, but a reality for all free peoples of this great world."
"I pray not for your success then," the senior officer states, "But rather, I shall pray for you safe return and failing that, of your soul's passage to the hereafter."
"My great thanks Lieutenant General," the Baron bows even lower than before with an arm outstretched.
"The cannons shall open your path, so take it quickly," and with those parting words, the commander of all forces walks away to oversee the assault preparations of No.10 Redoubt.
Turning to his officers after rising from his bow, "We shall take that path quickly indeed. Are the men ready?"
"Yes Major General," one of his aides responds at once, "Eager and pulling at the iron chain that holds them to England."
"Then let us break that chain," another aide states with a low chuckle, just as eager as the assigned troops.
"Let us break the enemy and come next Sunday, break bread as Freemen!" the former pastor amongst them declares.
Stabbing a knife into Yorktown, the Baron silently agrees.
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Assaulting No.10 Redoubt
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Innocent faced, curly blond hair and fair skinned Private Hanson Jennings nearly trips. The young man is underage to be in the army, but the Baron permits it. He has called upon every able bodied person to fight the battle and win their freedom and future from the Crown Across the Sea!
So here was Private Jennings, right behind the Major General himself, tripping like a fool!
"You well Private Jennings?" the Baron turns to the jade-eyed young man, "We have to fight to the top and then into the Redoubt itself."
"I am well, sir," the young sounding private swallows thickly, "Though I do admit to being worried sir."
"About the English fleet, no?" General Bruce frowns in thought, his stately features twisting with the act to shown his concern as his blue eyes narrow in thought.
"Yessir," Private Jennings and the others begin to reach the abatis line and find it undamaged, "Should they not have already arrived? With reinforcements? Or to evacuate the Redcoats, sir?"
The men with axes begin working in unison. The officers had expected this possibility. So they had trained their best axes to cut through in a hurry. But the noise, is something that pulls at the collective assault's nerves.
"Indeed and why they haven't I have no means to divine," William J.M. Bruce does not like such mysteries. They seldom turn out well. But to the private and the officers and men around them, "I would say that perhaps weather may not be on their side or their own means at preventing ship capture may be in their way. Though there need not be worry, the Senior Staff and myself have discussed this for a fortnight and believe there is merely reason we have yet to see and the news shall be joyous rather than disastrous."
"HALT! Wer geht dahin?" a Germanic voice calls down and a quick thinking lieutenant shouts back up.
"Speak English you oaf! Where am I? My men and I are returning from scouting with these blasted and dammable rebels aware of us!"
"Pardon me milord!" the man calls back down, "We were told of no such scouts? What is your regiment and name?"
"Leftenant Evans Courtney of the Earl House of Suffolk!" the officer is another Noble turned Patriot, "My regiment is the Suffolk Reds Light Regiment of Foot, Twenty-Third Battalion, Second Company! We were sent out on the other end of the line by boat, to scout the enemy's strength to rear, but were discovered by those dammable Militiamen! No one told me that I had to contend with skilled hunters from the Frontier!"
The perfect whine for an officer unaccustomed to North America.
"You are destroying our defenses!" the sentry calls down, "Stop and let us show you the way through!"
"Hold the work men!" the lieutenant calls, though it is little late, the abatis had been broken through in numerous places.
Enough that the men are already slipping through.
"Once through, strap that wood back into place, I don't care how at this point!" the lieutenant continues as both Jennings and Bruce slip through as well, "The rest of you follow the sentry around.
"This way, quick!" the sentry calls down and the men move quietly until another Hessian pokes his head up and looks more closely, but by that time, the ruse and assault were working too perfectly to stop.
"ALARM! Es ist der Feind!" the second Hessian shouts, even as his comrades are trying to help the Patriots up the front of their redoubt.
"HALT und Feuer auf sie!" an officer orders as men let go of Patriots, but too many are now atop the works and attack first with a thrust of bayonets, breaking up the Hessians.
"OVER THE TOP!" Bruce orders as he and Jennings begin the process themselves, with Bruce giving the smaller Jennings his shoulders to climb up and fight, "OVER THE TOP!"
The lieutenant and his group come up through the opening they have been shown in haste. Several of the men had been able to quietly load their muskets. The occasional shot rings out from both sides as the back entrance is overrun by the Patriots.
A belated and disorganized volley tears above Jennings head, but he hears someone behind him cry out and all atop him. Pushed down by the heavier person, Jennings is barely able to deflect a saber from an officer before the man is shot by another of the regiment's officers.
"Jennings!" the man cries out, "How is the Major General?"
"WHAT?!" Jennings carefully squirms out from beneath the fallen man and gently turns over the wounded Baron.
The dim light does not help, but his bare hands finds the hole and the blood around.
"He's hurt bad!" thankfully it is only one hole, but to the chest, "I can hear something from the hole!"
The officers keep the attack going as Jennings holds their leader in his arms, doing what he can to stem the bleeding.
Another pair of volleys and Jennings' tricorn is shot from his head, but he is on unharmed. The passing men move on as the officer that had witness the Baron being shot, kneels beside the man, undoing his collar to let him breath easier and helping Jennings cover up the wound.
"We need a bandage and now," the officer states, but where would they get one?"
"Sir, hold the wound, please!" Jennings pleads and the officer does as Jenning removes his hand and undoes his tunic and vest, revealing bandages around his upper torso that when removed, reveal Jennings to be a woman.
"Use this sir!" the now revealed woman soldier states, "I washed them just prior to the attack. They should be clean enough!"
"Aye," Bruce rasperly manages out, "I care not Captain Hopps, but I need to be standing for the men."
"Yes Major General," the man and Jennings tie the wound close.
"Your top Jennings, look presentable as a soldier, soldier," Captain Hopps orders to the woman.
"Yes sir!" the woman quickly redresses and grabs her holed tricorn and puts it on as Captain Hopps is handed the general's tricorn by a passing soldier who stops to help with three others.
A final volley, but a battle cry followed by.
"NICHT MEHR! NICHT MEHR!" the Teutonic voice shouts high, "WE SURRENDER! WE SURRENDER!"
"Take them prisoner!" Bruce calls out as strongly as he can as he holds onto Jennings and Hopps as the soldiers around them mask how bad he is with their bodies.
The surviving Hessians had retreated behind some barrels. They had fired one final volley that did little harm. One man had been caught on the cheek by a passing ball, but on the whole, he would only have a scar for life at worse.
The Patriots had readied a bayonet charge and when seeing the full size and breadth of their foes, the Hessians surrendered.
This wasn't their war to begin with. Why did they have to die for some English monarch?
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Medical Camp
October 15th, 1781 AD
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"He is weak Captain Hopps," Jennifer Hanson informs her former officer, "You cannot be too long, doctor's orders I'm afraid," and indeed, she knows full well, that the Baron would love nothing more than to converse for long hours with his officers and men.
"We were told he had been recovering?" Captain Hopps approaches his general's bed.
"He has," Ms. Hanson informs the man, "But sadly, such was the wound that he will be bedridden for some time."
"I see," Captain Hopps is fair, but stern faced with sandy hair pullback into a tail and two grey eyes to see the world.
Like many of the officers of the Noble Regiment, he has renounced his Nobility Status for being a Freeman. Then again, most of them were Nobles in name only and were not much different from commoners and merchants in terms of actual status and wealth. As such, it had proven hard to keep them loyal to the Crown Across the Sea, when they were treated as though they were mere commoners of conquered land than colonists of a great empire, let alone Nobles within that empire.
"Private Jennings? Captain Hopps?" Bruce is still fevered from his wound as his body struggles to recover.
"Miss Jennifer Hanson, General Baron Bruce," the woman gently corrects only for the Baron to make a dismissive sound.
"Until I muster you out, it is Hanson Jennings, Private," he sternly warns and the two beside him share a smile at his stubborn attitude.
"Sir," Captain Hobbs' grey eyes dance with merriment, "The French have arrived and the Regiment has been removed from the line to rest."
"The French?" the wounded man's eyes widen in surprise, "How? When? Why?"
Captain Hobbs gently holds his wounded general's shoulder to keep him from rising. The wound is bad enough. They don't need it to be worse now.
"The French Crown recognized our fight and has been moving troops and resources to help us since last year some time," Captain Hobbs gently reports, "They struck in the south first, to the islands in the Caribbean. They surprised the British there and then sailed north, blockading the English fleet attempting to relieve their forces in Yorktown."
"Troops?" Bruce fears as though his fever is making him hear things.
"They landed an army slightly smaller than ourselves," the smiling Hobbs reports, "The line has been shortened in thanks to them, so more men may now rest."
"We've won," Bruce quietly declares as sleep takes hold of him and for the first time, in a long time, he sleeps soundly, peacefully, to rest and greet the new day.
"Captain Hobbs," it is the lieutenant from the assault, Forsythe and he looks severe, "The Redcoats have counterattacked the French and taken two positions, but appear to be contained and the French are pushing them back even now."
Turning to the Private Jennings, "Find a uniform Private Jennings. You are the general's messenger now," and with that he strode out as Private Jennings responds.
"Yes Captain Hopps," with a salute.
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Yorktown, Virginia
October 31st, 1781 AD
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"The Lobsterbacks are going to break through!" a soldier shouts as the English try one last, desperate break out.
The Noble Regiment finds itself fending off the very focal point of the attack. Already the men have been forced from their trenches. The English Redcoats climbing out of them as men desperately try to reload and fire a coherent volley.
Captain Hopps lays dead with several others after the failed first attempt to countercharge the English. Lieutenant Forsythe could be heard screaming where he had fallen during the second attempt.
NO!
He's screaming because he's being dragged back harshly by the Redcoats. A couple even poking him with bayonets, draw spurts of blood.
"Those dastards!" a soldier fires right into one of the draggers, felling the man and startling the Redcoats into remembering they are still in battle.
"Hold men! Hold the line!" the men look up to see the Lieutenant General arrive with reinforcements, "We will stop the Redcoats he-" something crashes into his horse from behind just as a bullet removes the epaulette from his shoulder.
"My apologies Lieutenant General!" General Baron Bruce yells over the battle, Private Jennings trying to get a hold of their horse, "We took a Pack Horse and the Private is not a horseman!"
The senior commander of all American forces merely looks to the tear in his shoulder. Had the two not collided with his horse, he may have perished in that moment.
But he hadn't.
"No apologies necessary General Bruce," patting his own shoulder, looking for blood, but only the cloth is torn, "Your sudden arrival has saved my life and I am thankful for that, as we will now reform the line and prepare to charge!"
The general's shout sends the men rushing to reform ranks. Private Jennings moving their horse, allowing the Baron to command his Noble Regiment. His sudden and surprising return causing the men to rally at his return.
"Come now men!" Bruce shouts, rallying his men, he can see Forsythe trapped among the enemy, "We will rescue our own, retake our trenches, and drive the the Redcoats into the blue waters of the ocean!"
A great cheer went up as Jennings gets their pack animal under control and soon the order comes down. The ranks are reformed and with a ripple of volley fire is followed by a charge. Jennings guiding their horse forward where they meet with destiny head on.
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
June 14th, 1784
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The men and women of the Noble Regiment throw confetti into the air as Baron and Baroness William and Jennifer Bruce exit Independence Hall, a newly wed couple.
The city's celebration is nearly as big as the celebration of the victory at the Siege of Yorktown and again, the larger celebration with the victory at Liberation of New York.
Stepping down the steps, the pair pass their honor guard and enter a carriage to take them to the larger party celebration. The great city turned out in all of its finery. The capital of the new nation still in development. A world changed by a man and a woman at a critical time in war as representatives of all the States, the members of Congress, and their fellow soldiers and officers, including the senior leaders of the Army, all attended this most joyous occasion.
For the pair, it will be a long life of happiness, with a few rough patches to hoe.
But as the city celebrates, they cheer the new couple who are heroes of the Revolutionary War and champions of the rights of men and women.
For with this final union, the war is now officially over as the flag of the thirteen five point white stars assembled in a circle in a blue field, bordered by thirteen alternating red and white stripes flies high above every building in town.
In their carriage, William leans to his wife, "I have but one life to give, I'm glad I had not needed to give it so as many others did."
"So is my life but just one," Jennifer responds to her husband, "But may we be blessed to give both our lives to a family some day."
"Aye," William smiles as the driver guides them through the cheering streets as a green haired woman smiles on with a shake of her head.
"So you barely used it, did you?" the woman gently walks away, smiling as she spots the other Contract she had made, "The both of you relied instead upon your own wits and faith, yet you were not fool enough to forget you had it."
Despite that her conditions were not met… She could not feel resentment.
She got to see an exciting change to the world after all.
"Perhaps there are some things worth living for," the yellow eyed woman speaks quietly to herself as she leaves the party goers to seek out a companion for the night.
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Wer geht dahin? - Who goes there?
Es ist der Feind! - It is the Enemy!
HALT und Feuer auf sie! - STOP and Fire on them!
NICHT MEHR! NICHT MEHR! - NO MORE! NO MORE!
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A/N:
Yes, America Hell Yeah! In the Code Geass verse.
How will things change?
How will they be so much different.
And can you let me know what you think of this chapter?
Considering I just threw it together in the last four hours. I'd really like to know what people think? Just remember… It's a Prologue.