Chương 14: Battle of Fort Saint Johns
Do you hear the people sing
Lost in the valley of the night
It is the music of a people
Who are climbing to the light
For the wretched of the earth
There is a flame that never dies
Even the darkest night will end
And the sun will rise.
We will live again in freedom
In the garden of the Lord
We will walk behind the plow-share
We will put away the sword
The chain will be broken
And all the men will have their reward!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!
Admittedly, it was a strange sight to behold. Nearly 2,700 men were marching and singing together over the border of Quebec as they approached the fort of St. Johns. The men were from various colonies and, for a few of them, from Native American tribes. The negotiations with the Six Nations took several days to finish, and by the time General Kim returned to his army, it was already August 22nd. However, the negotiations were fruitful and yielded positive results. Four of the six tribes accepted the proposals outlined by the treaty. However, they desired to wait and speak with Congress first before accepting "statehood" into the United States and agreeing to the remaining terms. Like the other history, the Oneida and Tuscarora threw in their support of the American colonies, along with the Seneca and Cayuga. The remaining two tribes, Onondaga and the Mohawks, stood firmly neutral for the time being, with the Onondaga tribe agreeing to adopt a "wait and see" approach. The Mohawks tribe was waiting for the return of their chief. Still, a few of the elders were already leaning towards accepting the colonial offer, as they could gain territory and secure their sovereignty compared to the relatively vague offer made by the British. More and more elders of the two neutral tribes were also voicing their support for Congress since General Kim gave the supportive tribes the promised arms and gold, showing that the terms were being followed to an extent.
The four tribes sympathetic to the patriot cause agreed to send representatives to Philadephia immediately to decide upon the terms. The Onondaga also sent a representative to meet the members of the Continental Congress. General Kim happily wrote a letter in support of the tribes and wrote his regards to the members of Congress, stating that the representatives of the tribes were friendly and that they should be treated as equals. Before he left to rejoin his men, some of the warriors of the Iroquois Confederacy were already preparing to launch an invasion into Quebec to seize Niagara.
Three of the tribes, Oneida, Tuscarora, and Seneca, all offered 50 men each from each tribe for the invasion of Quebec, which General Kim accepted graciously. The men were all on horseback and were slated as the first "First Cavalry Company" of the marine regiment, the "hammer" to the main regiment forces' "anvil". There was a language barrier between many of the Native Americans and the men of the colonies, and an atmosphere of cautiousness as well. But General Kim was optimistic and made sure that the two groups mingled as much as possible, utilizing translators to help the two groups communicate. He personally began to learn the language of the three tribes to build a relationship with them, even though he struggled with pronunciations. By the time the group reached St. Johns, a crucial fort that stood in their way to Montreal, the men of the regiments were more accepting of their new Native American allies. General Kim noted that the men that had more exposure to African American soldiers (which made up about 15% of the 1st Marine Regiment regiment in total, after the mass recruitment in Philadelphia saw many freed slaves and free African Americans join) were more accepting of the Native Americans. However, the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment and the 3rd Connecticut Regiment were more hostile and nervous around the Native Americans.
Yet the men of the Continental Army had arrived in their first objective of the campaign unscathed and relatively united on September 8th of 1775. Despite their attitudes to one another, General Kim's army forces were now focused on their common enemy and objective: Fort St. Johns and the forces within. Before they even reached the fort, several British skirmishers and Indian scouts attempted to harass them. Still, they were driven back with casualties due to the superior firepower of the colonial forces. Several Native Americans saw the Native Americans with the colonial troops, and after some discussion, they retreated to their villages without any penalties.
The Marine Recon Company, led by Major Knowlton, had successfully scout out the fort and the general composition of the troops stationed within. General Kim received word from one of General Washington's messenger while his men were resting at Fort Ticonderoga and were told that the main bulk of the Continental Army was already moving into the Maritime province with the assistance of local patriot sympathizers. As such, some of the British forces in Quebec were withdrawing to defend Fort Cumberland and the surrounding areas. Fort St. Johns, which was situated near the border of New York, was manned by 600 British soldiers and a few members of the local militias. An additional 100 Native Americans were also within the fort, already stationed there before the word of the negotiations was spread to Quebec. General Kim tasked them with gathering further information and meeting with locals to win over their support for the colonial cause, which Major Knowlton accepted without complaint.
Once he began the invasion, General Kim spread the word of the Continental Congress' guarantees to the locals using printed posters and messages. The promises were simple: the people of Quebec would not be taxed until the year 1785 if they chose to side with the Continental Congress, their language and religion would be respected and supported by local law, they would have representation in the Continental Congress, and they would be allowed to have local elections to choose their leaders. He knew words mattered, but General Kim was aware that he needed to show the locals that the colonial forces could achieve victory and secure Quebec before accepting any terms.
After reaching about 500 yards from the fort, General Kim ordered the artillery corps to unlimber and prepare for bombardment. Colonel William Thompson, the leader of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment, was placed on the left flank while Colonel Arnold and his 3rd Connecticut Regiment were deployed to the right flank. Colonel Arnold was already receiving praises for seizing the schooner Royal Savage before it managed to depart from its shipyard just east of Fort St. Johns and for capturing valuable munitions and supplies in the ship that were initially meant for the defenders of the fort. The centerline was held by the 1st Marine Regiment, all 600 members of the infantry. His troops were spread out and entrenched in pits and trenches dug with the entrenching tools of the 1st Marine Regiment. As trained, they were watching from their trenches carefully, making sure to remain hidden and entrenched. The Native American cavalry company was held in the rear, mainly to watch for any flanking actions and to flank the enemy forces should they attempt to leave their defenses in the fort.
"Fire!"
The twelve 12-pound howitzers roared to make their existence known. The crew of the howitzers was used to the sounds of the guns firing and moved calmly as they began to reload the guns to fire once more. From a distance, the general saw five of the shells striking the fort's walls, enough to cause damage and startle the defenders. His artillery corps had plenty of ammunition, and if the defenders wanted a siege, they would be battered by colonial artillery fire.
After about four rounds of artillery fire, the fort looked much battered compared to before, and the British forces within the fort were returning fire. The few cannons on the fort walls were firing at the colonial positions, but only a few landed near the entrenched regiments. General Kim had taught the men how to build effective earthworks to limit the damage caused by artillery fire, and the marines had taken the lessons seriously. The few artillery fires that struck the colonial positions caused relatively minimum damage. Even so, several of his men became casualties as some of the shots from the British barrage managed to land home directly. Even with several losses, it was clear that the twelve colonial howitzers were causing much more damage to the defenders than to his men.
The Quebec campaign was expected to take anywhere from a month to four months and the last thing he wanted was to force his men to scale the walls and fight in close-quarter combat. Out of the three regiments under his command, only the 1st Marine Regiment was equipped and trained enough to prevail in hand-to-hand combat. The 1st Pennsylvania Regiment did not have bayonets, due to their own preferred rifles, and the 3rd Connecticut Regiment was not trained up to the same standards as the 1st Marine Regiment. If they were to win the fight with minimal losses, they needed to force the British out of the fort or have open space to push in and force the fight into the fort.
Seeing that the British weren't budging from the fort, General Kim ordered the artillery to seize fire and the men to set up a siege around the fort. Since each regiment outnumbered the enemy in total, a regiment was placed on the eastern, western, and northern parts surrounding the fort, with the artillery positioned in the east next to the river so they could be evacuated if their positions were overrun. However, in secret, 200 men from the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment and the 1st Marine Regiment (as the two regiments had 1,000 men and 750 men respectively) were detached from their forces in the middle of the night and positioned in the defenses already constructed in the southern side of the fort. The calvary company was also tasked with reinforcing the forces on the southern positions, watching for breakouts, and flanking the defenders if they attempted to retreat from the fort. Their siege works were positioned out of range of British small arms fire, though the British were still within range of the colonial howitzers and rifled muskets.
What followed was ten long days of siege, with the 400 men in the southern parts of the fort remaining hidden in the trenches and the artillery bombarding the fort's walls erratically to prevent the defenders from getting any sleep. Additionally, the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment harassed any defenders attempting to man the walls with their superior range during the siege. They inflicted over a dozen casualties on the British forces for only one of their own.
Finally, after ten days of relentless harassment and artillery fire, action finally came upon the Continental Army. Approximately 300 men from Montreal, consisting of British regulars and Canadian militias, approached the northern siege works of the colonial forces on September 18th at noon. The 1st Marine Regiment guarded the northern section, and when the British reinforcements neared the marines, the northern gates of the fort opened to reveal one hundred Indians and several hundred British regulars marching out to support their allies. The remaining cannons in the fort focused their bombardment on the marine's positions. Their goal was apparent to General Kim: to breach the colonial forces in the north before the other flanks could properly reinforce the pressured lines and allow the reinforcements to supply and reinforce the British within St. Johns. He knew that the British within the fort were lacking in foodstuff as per the other history and with the early capture of the Royal Savage, this was even more so. The defenders were desperate, and he was going to use it against them.
"First Company, Second Company, focus on the enemy coming from the fort. Third Company! Focus your fire on the enemy forces coming from the north! Hold out for reinforcements and buy time for our forces to seize the fort!"
"Oorah!"
Deep in the trenches, General Kim looked to the sky and fired his flare gun. Each of the commanding officers of the flanks had a flare gun, and they were only to fire the flare guns if they were under attack. General Kim created a plan for every potential route of British assault, and the colonial forces responded to the "North Assault Plan" accordingly. Colonel Arnold, whose men were better at close combat than the men of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment, immediately began their attack on the fort itself and breached through the collapsed walls on the eastern portion, which had suffered heavy damage from the constant string of bombardment. The Pennsylvanians moved in to support the 1st Marine Regiment while the Native American cavalry company in the east flanked around to hit the reinforcements coming from the north. Finally, the men on the south side approached from their earthworks and scaled the southern walls with the hopes of catching the defenders by surprise.
For ten minutes, General Kim and his men needed to hold on their own. But he was confident, no certain of his victory.
He pulled out his Garand and aimed towards the British forces streaming out of the fort. He waited for them to step into range and shouted out his command, "Fire!"
The superior rifled muskets of the colonials struck the British lines with deadly force, outside the range of the regular British muskets. General Kim also fired eight shots continuously, all aimed at any notable British officers and soldiers. By the time the British managed to form their lines and stepped within range, the marines managed to fire off two deadly volleys, whittling the British forces by a hundred men. Unfortunately for the British soldiers, their apparent reinforcements were faltering against the disciplined fire of the Third Company and the militiamen were already routing in face of losses.
Regardless of their losses, the remaining British forces returned fire to fight against the entrenched colonials, striking some of the marines that were exposed while firing. The bombardment from the fort continued upon their positions, throwing earth into the air and knocking additional marines out of the fight. General Kim showed no mercy to the British soldiers in front of him and slid in clips after clips into his rifle to fire upon the enemy.
When the reinforcements from Montreal broke and began to flee from the battlefield, the remaining British soldiers and Native Americans attempted to retreat into the fort. However, before they could escape to safety, they were cut off by the Native Americans who sided with the patriots, along with the riflemen of the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment. At the same time, the marines moved forward to assist the engaged units. They moved forward while firing, only readying themselves for hand-to-hand combat when the Native American cavalry and British soldiers became too clustered together.
Many of the surviving British-aligned Native Americans surrendered upon seeing the charging patriot-aligned Native Americans. And after several minutes, the British soldiers surrendered as well.
All three hundred of the remaining defenders within the fort also surrendered upon seeing the remaining colonial forces storming the fortress.
Within ten days, General Kim managed to take Fort St. Johns, seized a British schooner and supplies, forced the surrender of 400 British soldiers, and inflicted 250 casualties for only 32 of his own.
The road to Montreal was now open, and by the end of the month, nearly the entirety of Quebec was aware of the Yellow Marshal, his message, and his military victory over the British.
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