The Fall of Fort Washington....

In greatful commemoration to the brave men that fought in for the ill-fated defense of Fort Washington, the following passage is from the novel, "Then...A Patriot I'll Be". It recounts the experience of a Continental Soldier as he fought in the final moments before losing the fort to the combined forces of the British and Hessians....

Continental Defenders of Fort Washington

 

....We had gotten within twenty yards of the fort or so, and now we were afforded some cover fire from the men stationed atop the wooden walls of the structure. Luckily for us, this barrage of musketry caused the advancing Hessians to slow their pace just long enough for us to make it to the heavy wooden doors of the fort. As we made it to the doors, they were swung open and a group of riflemen came out to provide some more cover fire to allow us all to run inside and shut the doors tightly. As the doors shut behind us, I fell to the ground while trying to catch my breath. After all, it had been a long run and the pace was at a sprint rather than a jog. I checked on my mates and was assured that they too, though also in need of breath, were ok. Even Jessie had managed the retreat, and he now stood at the walls of the fort firing off his weapon at the enemy outside, seemingly unfazed by the run he had just participated in. I was thankful that although he was in the grasp of madness, he still had enough logic left in him to retreat when the redoubt was overrun.

While still crouched on the ground and trying to catch our breath, an officer came up to Thomas, Francis, and I and presented us with his canteen. “Drink up men, you have had quite a run from those German buggers”, he jollily said with a comforting smile. “Once you have had your refreshment, get to the walls lads. We have need for every available musket to hold the bastards off”. I replied that we would, and the officer went on to the next group of men clearly suffering from the retreat as well. I came to find out that that officer was none other than Colonel Robert Magaw.

Not taking too much time to recuperate, my mates and I quickly took our positions up along the walls of the fort, and began firing down upon the still attacking Hessians and regulars. As they had gotten so close, I was almost positive that some of my musket balls had hit their mark and taken down more than one of my foes. One shot in particular, I actually saw enter the body of a Hessian as he loaded his weapon to fire upon me……. I had just finished ramming down a cartridge into the breach of my musket, when I heard the distinct buzzing sound of a projectile whiz past my head, nearly taking my ear off with it. “Sausage eating bastards almost got me”, I thought! Now enraged, I completed my muzzle load and replaced the ram rod back into the hoops beneath the barrel. Someone was about to pay for nearly knocking me off my perch. I looked upon the mixed masses of blue and red coated enemies and found my target. There, loading his recently fired weapon, and looking back at me with a devilish smile was a big fat Hessian soldier. I was certain that this was the fellow that had fired upon me and nearly sent me to my maker. If he wasn’t the scoundrel that fired upon me however, he would suffer all the same for the color of his uniform. Time seemed to stand still, as our eyes locked upon each other. When he saw that I was already loaded and about to take aim, his evil grin turned into a look of nervous desperation, as he scrambled to get his musket ready to fire at me first. I put my musket to my shoulder and took aim down the barrel. Suddenly, I no longer felt remorse for shooting at a man in combat. Someone was going to die that day, and it was either going to be me or him. I was about to do all in my power to see to it that it wouldn’t be me.

The Hessian continued to fumble with his weapon as I steadied myself to lock my sights onto him. I wanted to make sure I had this shot perfectly executed, as I didn’t want to allow the enemy a second chance to return his fire and this time straighten out his musket ball. Looking down my barrel, I could see that the enemy soldier had now finished his weapon loading and was about to put the butt of the gun to his shoulder in anticipation of firing at me. I cursed myself for taking so long to aim my musket, and now given him the chance to present his arms toward me! Another glance to his bloated mustache covered face, and now it appeared that his demonic smile had returned. I suppose that in his mind, he had once again gained the advantage due to my stupidity of allowing him the time to make ready his piece. I knew that I had to aim and fire fast now, as my enemy was endeavoring to do the same. I once again steadied my sights and made sure that I could see his massive body from down the length of my musket barrel. He now held his piece securely in the firing position, and was involved with cocking his lock back to the second position. “I had to act now”! I rubbed my finger along the trigger and squeezed with all my might. The plume of red flame shot out of my barrel, and through the smoke, I witnessed the musket ball tear into the monstrous man’s chest. Upon striking him, a burst of red exploded from the wound, and the blood instantly covered his grayish small clothes.

The man didn’t go down right away, although he did drop his musket upon receiving the wound. At this time, I heard nothing of the war engaging around me. It was as if complete silence encased me from the horrible struggle occurring. All appeared to be at a slower pace once my shot tore into the poor German. I could only focus on this mortally wounded man at the time, and nothing more. I recall his head falling down toward his torn open chest and then rising back up again. He grasped at his wound while staring into the eyes of the American who delivered the blow. His eyes told the tale that he was not only shocked by what happened, but also a bit nervous of what was to come. The dark red blood continued to ooze out from behind his hand as it now covered the wound. Falling down to his knees, the dying soldier continued to look out to me; his tall miter hat now fallen off his massive head. I heard not groans or cries of pain from the Hessian. He simply stayed fixated into my eyes as the blood now began to come up from his gut and flow out from the corners of his mouth. I just stared at him, as I had never so graphically witnessed a man in the throes of death; let alone, the death that my musket had created for him. It took what seemed like ages for the man to succumb to his wound, but finally, the poor Hessian’s body flopped from his knees, to face down in the dirt; kicking up dust as it smashed into the ground. This was followed by a slight twitch of his torso, and then there was stillness. The Hessian had crossed to the beyond, and although I had sent him there before he was able to do so to me, I silently wished him a peaceful travel.

Once I realized that the man had died, all the horrors of war began to come back to me. Time picked up its pace, and the sounds of battle were once again as clear as they had been before my encounter with the Hessian. Around me, men were dropping at their positions in the fort. Before me, enemy soldiers were falling dead as they took on musket fire while charging the walls. The rattling of musket volleys now echoed through my head. Snapping back to the reality of war, I shook my head clear of the dead Hessian and began to load my musket; for I would need to continue my part in the defense of the fort.

We continued to fight the good fight, but there were just too many of them coming at us. As I was firing my musket out over the walls, I was nearly looking clear in the face of the enemy as he climbed up on the wooden defenses. The Hessians were climbing over the walls of the fort like a dark plague infesting the citadel. We continued firing, but the enemy’s numbers were too great. We were ordered to move back from the walls and regroup toward the center of the fort, as it was obvious that we weren’t able to stop the enemy from coming over the walls. Any man unfortunate enough to not be able to get off the walls in time was slaughtered via bayonet as the Hessian beasts scaled the defenses. It was unbearably loud inside the fortress, as the combined sounds of men screaming in pain, musket fire, and the chilling battle cries of the Hessians combined to make it nearly impossible to hear the orders that our officers were yelling out to us. At this point, it didn’t matter anyway. It had almost become a “save yourself” type of situation, as our ranks broke up during the hand to hand combat that had ensued once enough of the enemy had made it inside the fort.

In a last ditch defense, we had nearly fifty of our men line up to give the Hessians one last volley before our inevitable slaughter at the hands of these mercenaries. There was one lone sergeant giving us our final firing commands. We quickly loaded in open order and prepared for our last stand. “To the ready”, he yelled with his sword up high! Across from us was a hulking mass of enemy soldiers cutting and slashing anyone they could get their infernal bayonets to. They were so involved with their butchering that they hadn’t noticed that we were lined up to fire upon them. The sergeant flung the blade of his sword down and yelled, “Fire Men! Damn you, Fire”! Instantaneously, we all squeezed our triggers, and a massive volley of hot lead tore into the enemy as they were busy slicing up our unfortunate men at the walls.

As the smoke cleared, I noticed that we had taken out a great deal of the Hessians, but unfortunately, more of them (including regulars as well) were now climbing over the walls in waves of red and blue. The situation turned bleak. Our officers had no orders to give, and they seemed as nervous as we were. All this time, some brave men still continued to resist the invading forces from the walls; using their muskets to block the bayonets and swords coming toward them at a fevering pace. It was a sad sight to behold however, as nearly all of them were hacked up and dispatched to the earth. Desperately, we began to load our muskets one more time, with the intention that though we would inevitably be cut to bits by the ghoulish Hessians, we could at least fire on a few of them; hopefully causing some casualties for their effort....