Journey's Endings
Part Four: The Scene of Battle
Author's Comments: Kim, Ron, Oscar Diggs and the Doctor are in pursuit of the Empath and the stolen TARDIS at the Battle of Bladensburg, one of the worst defeats ever suffered by an American army. Will our friends find and capture their quarry, or will he elude them again? Read on, and you may learn some of the answers.
My thanks go to Mahler Avatar, CajunBear73, and all others who have read the previous chapters. Please feel free to leave a comment about this story at any time. I will do my best to reply.
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Kim had heard the phrase 'the heat of battle' a few times but didn't think it exactly meant this. As their wagon rolled up the road to Bladensburg the heat clung to her like a hot blanket. She tried to imagine what it was like for men carrying a musket, ammunition and a pack to march six or seven miles in such humid heat. There were small groups of men moving in various directions, and ahead she could see a group around a pair of cannons parked side by side on the road. There were three more cannons to the right with men in blue coats working with them, and more men further to the right in open fields. All of these guns seemed to be aimed up the road to Bladensburg.
"There's the Commodore!" said Thomas, pointing to a man in white trousers and a blue uniform jacket with gold epaulets, sitting on a horse alongside the two guns on the road. There was a growl of sounds coming from further up the road, as if men were shouting and guns were firing, all jumbled together. Then a streak of smoke came down the road, sailing through the air and shooting off to the right. Moments later another came, heading toward the guns, but it dropped well short of them.
Oscar pulled the wagon up to where Commodore Barney's horse stood, and Thomas called out, "I've got thirty shot an' thirty stands o' grape for the twelve-pounders, sir! Where should I put them?"
The Commodore brought his horse over to the wagon. "Good man! Take them there, to Captain Miller and his Marines. They're handling the twelves." He pointed at the three guns and blue-clad men to the right.
"Aye, sir!" Thomas nodded to Oscar, who flicked the reins and directed the horse toward the three guns. There was a whistling noise and another of the smoke trails came from up the road, wobbled, and aimlessly sailed off in a random direction.
"Say, what are those things?" Ron nervously asked Thomas.
"Rockets. The redcoats use 'em instead of field artillery sometimes, but mostly they never hit a thing." He glanced at the three guns as Oscar pulled the horse to a stop. "Give me a long nine-pounder any day." He leaped to the ground and trotted over to a man in a blue coat, white trousers and tall boots, who wore a hat unlike any Kim had seen before. It was rounded on top but narrow, with one end forward and the other behind the head.
That must be Captain Miller, Kim decided.
As soon as Thomas had spoken to him, the officer came back to the wagon and looked at the grapeshot and cannon balls.
"Right. We need ten of each with each gun. Those redcoats will be through the militia and up to our position in a few minutes, and we can use all you've got. Can you unload this?" he added to the Doctor, Kim and Ron.
"Yes, sir!" Kim snapped. "Come on, Ron, it's mission time!" She jumped to the ground took a cannon ball that Ron handed her, and passed it to Thomas. "Take this to that gun!" she ordered. "You two; and you! Give us a hand, here!"
The men Kim had called to came over to the wagon as promptly as though their sergeant had barked an order to them. In moments Kim had Thomas and five marines in a line, passing the ammunition from the wagon to the first cannon. As soon as ten cannonballs and ten stands of grape were stacked by the gun, ready for use, she shifted the line to the second gun, and then to the third.
Once the projectiles were in place Kim took a moment to look around. Most of the Marines wore a round, brimless hat with a red plume on top. They wore white knee breeches and white crossbelts over their blue coats while the officer had a shoulder sling that held a short sword at his left hip and a red sash around his waist. It all looked somewhat fancy for a battlefield, but she realized that the men were going about their duties as calmly as if they were performing a drill. The growing noises of battle, the heat and the occasional British rocket didn't seem to bother them.
"Mister Barkin ought to be here," Kim remarked to Ron. "He'd enjoy seeing Marines this calm when they're in action."
"Yeah, he would," Ron replied. "But I guess that's what he'd expect, since he used to be a Marine."
"Remember what he told us in history class last semester, Ron? He said that there's no such thing as a former Marine!"
Ron nodded and grinned. "Oh, yeah. 'A Marine is active, reserve or retired, but never former!'"
Kim noticed that the Doctor was looking around at the guns, troops, and signs of the approaching battle, and scanning the scene with the sonic screwdriver in a guarded manner. She stepped up to the time lord and quietly asked, "Can you find the Empath, Doctor?"
"I can't detect the fellow, Kimberly, but I have located the stolen TARDIS. Don't stare at it, but it's that large tree-trunk beside the road, about fifty yards back toward Washington." He kept his eyes on the Marine gunners and their cannons. "I cannot tell if he's inside, but if he wants to feel the emotions of this battle, he will have to come out. If he stays inside he won't feel anything of the battle."
Kim looked up the road toward Bladensburg, back toward Washington and then over at Commodore Barney's big guns on the road itself. As she did this she spotted the bulky, battered trunk of a large tree standing somewhat off the road.
"Right. Can we get inside it? Will your key open the door?"
"It's likely he'll leave it on the latch instead of locking it," the Doctor muttered. "Once outside to absorb emotions he'll be vulnerable to physical attack, so any delay to unlock the door would hamper a quick escape from danger."
"You'd better move this wagon back from the guns, lad," the Marine officer said to Oscar. Then he turned and strode back to his men.
"That sounds good to me," Thomas remarked, going to the horse. "The redcoats might think we've got powder cartridges in it and try to drop one of those rockets on us. I can help you lead him, Oscar."
"Back by that old tree looks like a good spot," Kim suggested, pointing at the leafless trunk.
The Doctor gave her a glance of approval, and then led the way back to the road. The sounds of guns and men shouting were getting louder; the battle was drawing closer.
Once they were back at the tree Thomas got a long, pointed iron stake with a ring at one end from the wagon and tried to drive it into the ground to tether the horse, but the soil had been baked hard by the hot weather. Kim stepped up and said, "Let me try." She gripped the top end of the stake, knelt down, concentrated and thrust the point down with a kung-fu shout.
The point of the stake went almost a foot into the sod! "That should do it," Kim remarked, bouncing back to her feet.
"I'd say so," said Thomas, in an awe-struck voice. Then he shook his head and added, "Well, I have to report back to the Commodore. Thanks for all the help, folks." He shook hands with each of them.
"Can we come with you?" said the Doctor. "I have some basic medical knowledge, as do my niece and her friend. We could help with the wounded."
The sounds of individual gunshots could be heard, now, and the rockets seemed to be coming more often.
"All right; I'll take you to the Captain, then I'll see the Commodore." Thomas led the way as Oscar finishing tying the reins to the ring on the stake. Then he came trotting up behind the group.
The two big guns stood on either side of the road, pointing toward Bladensburg. Men were standing easily around them, calmly waiting for the command to open fire. Kim saw that most of the men had blue coats, white crossbelts and tall collars that looked like black leather. Many wore tall hats with the word 'Flotilla' on it, and Kim noticed that one of these men, standing near the Commodore's horse, was black. She knew that there had been black soldiers in the Union Army during the Civil War, but this was the first black soldier Kim had seen in 1814.
There was a stack of cannon balls and stands of grapeshot near each of the guns, and further back what looked like a pair of two-wheeled carts. There was a large box on each of them. The Doctor remarked that these were the 'limbers,' and that the boxes held ammunition for ready use in the guns. The Commodore sat on his horse, between the guns, and was talking to a black-haired man in a blue uniform standing beside him. As they came up, Kim briefly noted that there was something oddly familiar about the man, but put this notion aside. There was a mission at hand, and that came first!
When the Commodore stopped talking and straightened up on his horse, Thomas stepped forward to the black-haired man and saluted. "Reporting for duty, Captain!"
"Good! At the moment there are plenty of gunners but I'll need you to run messages for me, Diggs. Who are these people?" He gestured toward the Doctor, Kim, Ron and Oscar.
Kim hardly heard what Thomas said as he introduced them and explained how and why they were there. Diggs? she wondered. Could Thomas be Oscar's grandfather? This sitch is really getting complicated!
When Thomas had finished the Captain nodded and remarked that someone to collect and bandage injured men would be useful. Then he glanced at Kim, and added, "But you might want to leave, miss. The British are through the first line of militia already and will be on us shortly."
"I'm staying here, Captain!" Kim snapped back. He grinned wryly.
"That sounds familiar. Very well, but if we have to fall back don't waste time about doing it. Excuse me." He turned from Kim toward the black flotillaman who stepped up to him and saluted.
"Both guns are in position, manned and ready, Captain. We are ready to load," the man reported calmly.
"Thank you, Mister Ball. We'll see action soon; just stand easy for now." He turned away to study the ground to the north-east.
Kim walked forward, stood beside the Captain and looked over the place that would soon be a battlefield. The two big guns straddled the road while the three smaller guns and the Marines were to Kim's right. Beyond the Marines was another group of men, and what looked like a mass of infantry was off the road, to the left of the guns. This line was on a ridge running across the road in a north-south direction, with a good view of the terrain. The ground sloped down to a shallow ravine that was parallel to the ridge, while the road ran across it toward Bladensburg. A narrow bridge stood where the road crossed a small stream of water flowing south some distance beyond the ravine. There was another group of troops to the right of the road and almost at the bridge; Kim wondered who they were and why they'd been placed out by themselves instead of back with this line of men and guns. Everything between the ridge and the bridge was all open land and attacking troops would be exposed, without any cover.
"The guns have a good field of fire, sir," the flotillaman said.
"Yes. If they come straight at us, Charlie, they'll regret it," the Captain agreed.
The noise that had been coming from up the road had died down, and a few men were coming back toward the guns from that direction. As they got closer Kim realized that they weren't messengers; they were running! At a slow pace, as if they were exhausted, but just the same, they were running from the battle.
"Here come the stragglers, men," Commodore Barney called out. "The redcoats will be along soon enough. Captain, load with roundshot and aim your guns at that bridge."
"Kim, I'm glad it's hot today," Ron said. Kim turned to look at her friend and partner.
"Why is that, Ron?"
"Because I'm sweating, and not just because it's hot," he answered.
Kim grinned in a humorless way and said, "So am I."
Team Possible had been in tight spots many a time, stopping some plot of Doctor Drakken's or foiling one of Professor Dementor's plans, but having to stand and wait for an army to attack them was something both new and nerve-wracking.
The Doctor and Oscar joined them, and the time lord took a spyglass from a pocket, opened it and studied the road and bridge.
"Can you see 'em, sir?"
"I believe so, Oscar. There's movement on the road, and it looks like a body of men with muskets . . . yes, British regulars, coming this way." He closed the spyglass with a snap and looked at Kim, Ron and Oscar. "Keep down all you can, and be prepared to capture our quarry when he's spotted," he added softly.
There was a mass of figures in red uniforms coming along the road toward the small bridge. As they came to it the troops to the right of the road opened fire, but the redcoats
promptly began shooting back, and to Kim's disgust after two minutes the troops broke, fleeing back and to the right of the line of guns.
"Confound those militia!" the Captain fumed. "They strut and play at soldiering, but when they're needed . . . just look that!"
"They ought to fight," said the black flotillaman, "instead of running like sheep chased by dogs."
The Doctor nodded in agreement. "George Washington said it, you know: 'No militia will ever acquire the habits necessary to resist a regular force.'"
"George Washington knew how to fight a war," Kim growled. "Didn't people learn anything from that?"
"It was the same way at Bull Run," Oscar said softly, with a shrug.
At the bridge the British troops closed up and began to cross the little stream. Then Commodore Barney, who had dismounted, came up to the big eighteen-pounders and said, "They're close enough now, Captain. Open fire!"
"Number one, ready!" the Captain shouted. "Take aim! Fire!"
The big gun jumped back with a roar and Kim felt the shock of the explosion at the same time. A cloud of thick white smoke billowed out and then blew off to one side, just in time for them all to see the cannon ball strike the mass of men on the bridge. Figures were swept aside and struck to the ground, and Kim suddenly felt sick. Down there men were being killed and mangled — slaughtered! — and there was no way for her to stop it.
There was a crash of gunfire from the left of the road, beyond the troops stationed there.
"That will be Major Peter's guns," the Captain remarked. "Number two, ready! Take aim! Fire!"
The second big gun thundered, but this time the smoke obscured the view and they didn't see the roundshot tear into the redcoats, but as it blew aside Kim saw the ones who were still on their feet were moving forward and closing their ranks.
"Pierre Bosquet had it wrong," the Doctor said softly. "It's not magnificent, but it is war."
The Commodore clapped the Captain on the shoulder. "That's good shooting! Keep at it, Captain Possible!"
Kim's jaw dropped like a rock. Could this be her own ancestor, Rodger Possible? The one she'd read about in that book that her father had loaned her?
Captain Possible glanced at Commodore Barney. "Certainly, sir. As you know, anything is possible — for a Possible."
TBC . . .
Author's Disclaimer and Notes:
The Disney Company owns the Kim Possible concept and characters.
The British Broadcasting Corporation owns the Doctor Who concept.
The term TARDIS is also copyright by the BBC.
The plot of this story is my responsibility.
Joshua Barney was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 6, 1759, and he died in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, on December 1, 1818. At Bladensburg Barney was 55 years old.
Charles Ball was a runaway slave who passed himself off as a freedman, and then enlisted in Commodore Barney's flotilla.
Pierre Bosquet was a witness to the charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaklava (25 October, 1854) and said of it, "It is magnificent, but it is not war."