Autolycus, American Pride-Chapter 2

When I reached Washington, I immediately went to enlist in the American Military.

"Mr. Anthony Stiles, is it?"

"Yes sir."

"By God, you certainly look exactly like your grandfather, Jack, used to. He paused a moment. "We are all sorry to hear of his passing; he was indeed a great man, and he served our country well during the last war with the British."

"Ah yes," I replied, in personal amusement, "Oh the stories." i Oh, the memories.. /i

It was April of 1775, and the British were getting restless about the colonist's morale, and with their storing up of arms, especially after our little "tea party" at Boston Harbor, heheh. So, a small army of soldiers was ordered to Concorde, less than 20 miles away from Boston, to find and destroy the arms supply that was said to be housed there. On their way to Concorde, they were to march through Lexington to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock, the main instigators of the tea party, and two of the biggest criminals to the crown of England.

We were ready, though. You see, after tension had started to build in Boston, as well as several other colonies in along the East Coast, we had assembled a small militia of hunters, fighters, ex-soldiers, and whoever else could be found. They called us minutemen, because we were to be prepared to go into battle at a minute's notice. Even though I had never been in any kind of large war, after 2500 years, I had seen my fare share of battles, even many gun fights since they were invented, and though not as good with a gun as some, I could more than make up for it with my swordsmanship.

The night before, Paul Revere had warned Samuel and John, who had escaped, and by the time the British troops arrived, we were there waiting for them, all 76 of us. This is going to turn out wel , I thought. Led by Captain Parker, we were instructed to hold our ground, but not to fire unless fired upon. The British stepped up and ordered us all to drop our weapons. I, of course, had nothing to fear, one of the things we Immortals loved about the invention of guns. They, on the other hand, had families and yet stood risk of being killed by the British and unlike me, if shot, they would not be waking up in the morning. I always admired the courage of such mortal men, which I could never know in myself.

We stood there, frozen, for what seemed like an eternity, and this coming from a 2,000 year old man. Then, I felt the presence of another Immortal, and in that same instant, a shot was fired, the Immortal left, and the battle began. Guns were continually fired from both sides. Several British troops were killed, but many more Americans died that day, many men who would not be waking up that night or in the morning with their families. I too, was shot down that day and as I fell to the ground, I saw the man who had shot me, looking into his eyes.

When I came back to life, it was well past dark, and weather on foot or under foot, everyone else had left. Concord! I thought. I had to get there, and fast. As I got up, I noticed that my guns had been taken, but fortunately I still had my sword, which I used to cut a nearby horse free. I mounted the steed and quickly galloped off towards Concord, hoping I could make it in time. By the time I arrived, many other minute men had arrived to hold off the advancing British. I later found out that they had hid out up on a hill outside of town, but when they saw fire coming from the town, they charged, thinking that their homes were being burned.

This was about the time I arrived. Abandoning my horse, I charged in from the rear, as they descended from the hills on the other side. I ran in like a ghost; I darted across the town square, chopping down a soldier as I passed by, and then quickly hid behind the corner of a building, then poped out somewhere else before ducking behind a stack of barrels, then advance again. At one point, however, a soldier ran up at me from out of nowhere and stabbed me in the back with his bayonet. I immediately twisted my sword around, stabbing him in the gut. His bayonet hadn't pierced any vital organs, so in a few minutes I knew I'd be fine. Fortunately, I was able to take his pistol and his bayonet.

After a few moments, I was able to walk, so I staggered back into the town, where the British were already starting to retreat. At least I had a gun, now. Many of the colonials, including myself, ran after them, and as we left town, we were joined by farmers and reinforcements of minutemen who came in from the woods on the sides. As the British attempted to return to Boston, they were continually attacked by men behind and up in the trees. As I was chasing them, noticed a dead farmer lying on the ground with a shotgun. This, I can do some damage with, I thought. I took to the trees, as I had learned from some Amazons back in ancient Greece. As I was moving through the trees from one to the next, I started shooting down soldiers with my rifle, picking them off one by one, and scaring both sides, who didn't know where they were coming from.

As the British went on, they began to get annoyed with the colonist's way of sniping them from behind trees. Many of them left the road, some fleeing to the hills, and some going to seek out the homes of suspected shooters. They would go to houses, and if they found anyone around or near the house with a gun, they would kill them on sight, and if no man of the house was found, they immediately burned the house without question. I saw one small group chasing after one of the Americans who had fled the battle and was running back towards is house. As he ran across his farm fields towards his house, the four redcoats continuously fired at him with rifles. When he got closer, his wife came out of the door with their baby, cheering him on as he ran. Once I got close enough, I pulled out my pistol and started trying to stop them. However, my pistol was too weak and inaccurate at that range, and it took me too long to get close enough. Once he got within about 10 yards of his house, the two remaining Brits shot him in the back, killing him. By that time, I had gotten close enough, and came running in from the side with my shotgun.

One of them, just happened to be the very man who had killed me back in Lexington. Heheh, You should have seen the look on his stupid face! "Hello boys, meet my BOOMSTICK," which I blasted them with as I said it.

I turned to face the man's wife. I didn't know what to say, so I just gave her a small, sympathetic nod, and left. Now I was mad. As I said before, I had never been one for wars, especially back in my day, when wars were fought with the sword and it was much more likely for an Immortal not to live through the war. But now I was Ready to go to war with these redcoats. I quickly ran back to the battle, with a new found energy and fire.

I helped chased the rest of the soldiers all the way back to Boston, running down several more small groups of them on the way.

We were all glad to have won the day. Though it wasn't much, it was for us, for we had humiliated the British forces, and given England a big smack in the face. More than that, the Americans had started a war for their freedom and independence. I was impressed with this group of mortals more than I had been in mortals for a long time.

Perhaps, I thought, this was what Marcus Constantine was telling me about all those centuries ago back in ancient Rome. And I almost thought I felt the same for this country as he had for Rome. Sure, I wasn't born here, but way back in Greece, nearly 3000 years before, but for the first time in centuries, I felt like I belonged here.

And Now, back to 1813

That was then, but I didn't have the 'privilege' to be there for the very start of this war.

By the time word got to me, and I was able to come all the way back from the East Indies, the war had already been going on for nearly a year.

So they got me suited up with a uniform and shipped straight off to the Great Lakes where much of the action was happening. I was sent to Lake Ontario to help Commander Chauncey hold off the British naval forces. Much of the war was fought as a naval battle on the Great Lakes, since one of the main reasons behind this war was to push the remaining English out of North America, particularly Canada.

Commanding officer Jacob Brown was glad to see me as soon as I arrived.

"Well, well, soo, the grandson of Jack Stiles, is it? You know, your grandfather did a lot to help the war effort in the Revolution, we owe him a lot."

"It is good to here that he is so well known. I hope that I can live up to his name in this war."

"It's good to have you, Anthony. I look forward to fighting with you."

This was one of the most important bases on Great Lakes, where America was building a new naval ship that was almost ready to launch. The British naval forces on Lake Ontario heard of this, and planned a raid on Sackets as a counterattack to the raid on their Kingston on the Northeast edge of the lake. The day after I arrived, British naval ships were sighted approaching from the North. I went with a small group of men, lead by General Chris Miller. When groups of British approached us in small boats, we went out in our own boats to meet them.

As soon as we were close enough, the enemy started firing on us. The closer boats immediately surrendered, while the rest of our men started turning back. I, on the other hand, having been in one of the rear boats, jumped out with my shotgun in hand. I had become an extremely good swimmer in the previous few centuries, and was able to swim with my gun held just above the surface. I swam up beside one of the boats and popped up just above the surface, killing two of their men with my shot gun. Abandoning my gun, I swam up to the fore boat and, thrusting my arms and legs down with all I had, I managed to thrust myself out of the water high enough to grab the commanding officer by the waist and pull him back down into the depths. After snatching the oars from some of the other boats, I quickly swam to catch up to our boats.

By the time we reached shore, it was late afternoon and Commander Brown had already sent out for reinforcements, which continued to arrive for the rest of the day, and throughout the night. When the British came, we would be ready for them.

The next morning, about three hours after sunrise, the British attacked. As the British began pouring onto the beach, many of our front men were quickly taken down, but the next line that I was on, took much longer for them to breach. In fact, it took them nearly two more hours just to push our men back to the fort, where heavy fire rained down on the British attackers from the walls of the fort. The walls were too thick to be breached, and the British ship, which still refused to advance any closer, was finally forced to retreat. Many of the remaining Brits began to retreat to their boats, being chased by our forces.

I quickly charged out into the water to one of their boats, hiding beneath the dead body of a British soldier that lay in the bottom of the boat. We paddled back their boat where, under the cover of evening twilight, I snuck up onto the ship, then quietly set their ship on fire, and swam back to Sacket's Harbor where the British had already been chased away. When I returned, I made a point to come back from the side, so that no one would know that it was me who had set the ship on fire.

We had won a great victory, but they had ruined much of our progress on the new naval ship, which would take weeks to make up for. So, we worked and worked for several weeks.

One day, while I was out taking a walk around the perimeter, I noticed a sound over in the woods just as I was getting ready to walk back. I quickly and quietly crept over to the source, and coming out from behind a tree, I had my sword at his throat before he had a chance to see me.

"Who are you?, huh?"

"A British spy, I take it..?"

"You Americans won't best us This time!"

"heheh, you think not, huh?… Ok, come on pal, we're going back to the fort."

"Good work, Anthony."

"Thank you, sir. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time."

"No, I don't think so. I saw how you handled yourself in the battle a few weeks ago. You are already starting to show yourself like your grandfather. I think they could use a man like you up the river where our men are fighting up in Canada. We are sending a small group of men on a march up around the shore to Fort Johnston, 100 miles north of here. I would like to see you go with them, Mr. Stiles."

"Yes Sir! When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow morning, at dawn!"

So, the very next morning, we left for Fort Johnston, on July 12th, 1813.

It was easy going, since it was summertime, and therefore the weather was very mild.

However, on the 12th day, less than 20 miles away from our goal, we were ambushed by a much large group of British. We were greatly outnumbered, only 1,000 of us, to more than 2,500 British, and in less than half an hour, I was killed. The next thing I remember is waking up to find everyone around me dead. The rest of them were missing, obviously taken captive. As I got up, I had only one thought: I had to get to Fort Johnston.

I started walking, trying to be weary of anymore British soldiers who might be waiting to attack me. Sure, they wouldn't destroy me, but they could damage me enough to slow me down for several hours or worse, capture me. Then I would be out of this war all together!

The next morning, as I was taking a leak, I got the sensation of another Immortal. I was just able to finish up, pull up my pants, take out my sword, and turn around, when I received a bullet in my gut.

"Well, Well, Jack Stiles," said an all-too familiar female voice, "caught with your pants down again, heeheehee!" She grabbed me as I fell back. She gave me a big long smooch on the lips, and then dropped me to die.