| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| SgtMunro |
Posted - January 21 2004 : 01:39:24 AM
Two Secrets (Part 2)
A Tale By Sgt. Munro
Fort Pitt, The Ohio Country – 30 October 1763 / 2335 Hours
Back in his quarters, a small room on the second floor of Mac Kenzie Barracks (named in honor of Captain Mac Kenzie of the 77th Regiment, killed in action 14 September 1758 at Grant’s Defeat), Duncan sits writing a letter to his wife, Lady Eliza Wallace-Munro. He had not seen her since May, when Captain Graham granted him leave to join her in Philadelphia. Eliza was still there, staying with her maternal aunt Beatrice.
Duncan remembered how the Wallace Clan balked at the thought of Eliza marrying a Munro, and even worse a soldier. Eliza would hear none of it, for her temper was as fiery as her crimson locks, and she was a woman determined to choose her own path. It has been eight years since they exchanged vows of matrimony, and even with this extended tour in North America, she still proudly proclaimed that she is a ‘Soldier’s Wife’.
“For all of my misfortunes, she is the one beacon of light that gives me pleasure and hope”, Duncan thought to himself. “How I wish to feel her touch, and hear the soft melody of her voice.”
Duncan completed his letter; sealed and placed in the company dispatch pouch, it should be in Philadelphia by late November. Relighting his pipe, he sat back and starred through the window into the inky night. The evening’s conversation with Sergeant Mac William still played out in his troubled head. It was very generous of Malcolm to overlook his unpopular faith, it is an example of the unspoken bond amongst those in the profession of arms. But, would he be as understanding of Duncan’s concern for his adopted Shawnee family?
“Savages!” That was how Malcolm, and a lot of soldiers, described the Natives of the Ohio Country. It was not that Sergeant Mac William harbored any bigoted views toward any given people, on the contrary Malcolm was a purely professional soldier. A weapon system, from his mitre cap to his brogues, built only to serve two masters God and the King. This was not to say that Malcolm was cold-hearted, but that he did not let emotion interfere with duty to Crown and Regiment.
It is customary to ‘de-humanize’ an opponent during wartime, it makes it all the easier to kill them. Duncan knows this all to well, for he had killed many a man in his twenty years of service to the Crown. The first man you kill, is the only one you remember the face of, all others blend together. The first kill is always the hardest, and afterwards you may become nervous, nauseous, wondering if you did it right. After the first, successive ones become easier, till you stop thinking of the enemy soldier as a man and more like a target. Killing then becomes mechanical in action, as it has with Duncan, but you still find yourself wishing for the innocence lost.
Sergeant Munro never once used the term ‘Savage’ to describe the Natives of the Ohio Country. How could he belittle a people so similar to his own Highland Scot heritage? His adoption into the Kikposka Sept of the Shawnee Nation gave him great insight into the culture of these people. The behavior of these people; scalping, burning, killing and kidnapping, are the desperate actions of a people trying to protect their home and families. Duncan often said, “Did not our own clans do much worse to each other?”
“Savages!” Duncan thought, “We poison them with rum, cheat them of their ancestral lands, debauch their women, and visit the small pox upon them. Who are the savages?”
The sergeant’s thinking was followed by a short nap, interrupted by a knock at his door.
“Who is it!” in his best sergeant’s voice.
“Corporal Mac Intyre, Sergeant. ‘Tis almost four in the morning, the on-going guard awaits your inspection.”
“Very good, Ian. Let the lads know I’ll be down in five minutes”
With that, Duncan straightened out his kit and donned his sash, one must always look sharp in f |
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