Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1907-01-24
From the Youths Companion
Continued from last week.
JABEZ ROCKWELL'S POWDER-HORN
PART II

Thin and pale, but with unbroken
spirit, this siIteen-year-old veteran
drilled and marched and braved picket
duty in zero weather, often without a
scrap of meat to brace his ration for
a week on end but be survived with
no worse damage than sundry frost
bites. In early spring he was assign
ed to duty as a sentinel of the com
pany which guarded the path that led
up the hill to the headquarters of the
commander-in.chief. Here he learn
ed much to make the condition Of his
comrades seem more hopeless and
forlorn than ever.
Hard. riding scouting parties came
into camp with reports of forays al
far as the suburbs of Philadelphia
twenty miles away. Spies, disguised
as farmers, returned with stories o.
visits into the heart of the capital city
held by the enemy. This gossip and
information, which the young sentinel
picked up bit by bit, pieced together
to make picture of an invincible
veteran British army, waiting to fall
upon the huddled mob Of "rebels" al
Valley Forge, and sweep them away
like chaff. he heard it over and
over again, that the Hessians, with
their tall and cleaning brass hats and
fierce mustaches, were dreadful to
look upon" that the British Grena-
diers, who tramped the Philadelphia
streets in legions, "were like moving
ranks of stone wall.
Then Jabez would look out across
the valley, and perhaps see an Amer.
lean regiment at drill, without uni
forms, ranks half-flled, looking like
an array Of scarecrows. His heart
would sink, despite his memories Of
Saratoga and in such dark hours he
could not believe it possible even for
General Washington to win battle
in the coming summer campaign.
1t was on Albright day Of June that
Capt. Allan McLane, the leader Of
scouts, galloped past the huts Of the
sentinels, and shouted as he rode :
The British have marched out Of
Philadelphia | have just cut my
way through their skirmishers over
in New Jersey J.
A little later orderlies were buzzing
out of the old stone house at head
quarters like bees from a hive, with
orders for the troops to be ready to
march. As Jabez Rockwell hurried
to rejoin his regiment,men were shout
ing the glad news along the green val
ley, with songs and cheers and laugh
ter. They fell in as fighting army,
and left behind them the tragic story
of their winter at Valley Forge, as
the trailing columns swept beyond the
Sch1ylkill into the wide and smiling
farm lands of Pennsylvania.
Sumner heat now blistered the dus'
ty faces that had been for so long blue
and pinched with hunger and cold.
A weak of glad marching and full ra-
tons carried Washington's awakened
army into New Jersey, by which time
the troops knew their chief was lead
ing them to block the British retreat
from Philadelphia.
Jabez Rockwell, marching with the
Connecticut Brigade, had forgotten
his fears Of the brass-capped Hessians
and the stone-wall Grenadiers. One
night they csmped near Monmouth
village, and scouts brought in the
tidings that the British were within
sight. In the long summer twilight
Jabez climbed a little knoll hard by,
and caught a glimpse OF the white
tents of the Queens Rangers, hardly
beyond musket-shot. Before day
break rattle OF firing woke him, and
he scrambled out, to 6nd- that the
pickets we're already exchanging shots
He picked up bis old musket, and
chewing hunk of dry bread for break.
fast, joined his company drawn up in
a pasture. KnapsAcks were piled
near Freehold meeting house. and he
troops marched ahead, not knowing
where they were sent.
Across the wooded fields Jabez saw
the lines ofred splotches which CLEAN.
cd in tie early sunlight, and he knew
these were British troops. The rat
ting masket-6re became a grinding
roar, ard the deeper note Of artillery
doomed into the tumult. A battle