14 - The Last Day of Magic

August 1776

The Americans expected an attack in the wake of Washington's rejection of the Howe's ineffectual peace offering.  However July passed without incident and as August began to come to a close the American's wondered when the British would finally spring their attack.  On the eave of their mobilization to attack New York General Howe instructed his Royal magicians to launch a preemptive strike intended to soften and demoralize the Continental Army stationed in, and around New York.

It was a quiet evening on August 22nd.  Nicholas Fisher was sitting in his room making notes in his journal when suddenly he felt a surge of magical energy spring up all around him.  It was instant and overwhelming.  He jumped from his chair and rushed out into the streets to identify the source.  He quickly determined the source to be 3 British magicians using practical magic to drum up a massive storm.  By the time Fisher explained the situation to Charlotte and General Knox the sky over the bay had already turned as black as ink and huge thunderhead clouds were reaching like greedy fingers up and over the airspace of the city.  Lighting darted across the ominous clouds and a constant deep rumbling thunder shook the ground unlike any summer storm Fisher had ever felt.

There was nothing Knox or any of the Continental soldiers could do against the wrath of the Royal magician's attack.  On the other hand, Nicholas and Charlotte could do something about the attack, even though their situation seemed dire.  So began the magician's clash that lasted the better part of 3 hours.

Nicholas immediately attempted to counter the magic of the British magicians but they were too strong and had too much energy in reserve to be stopped.  The storm was inevitable but Nicholas was determined to foil their plot somehow.  In an attempt to feel out the storm and perhaps hold it at bay Nicholas asked Charlotte to discharge some of the storms energy before it reached the city.  Charlotte discharged one large lighting bolt from the storm and directed it back to Staten Island which set ablaze some of the British powder supplies and caused a white-hot explosion visible from the Main Battery on Manhattan Island.  The Royal Magicians quickly reacted and pushed the storm out off of the bay and over the New York City.

Fisher had never faced of against three Royal magicians before.  For once he began to feel that magic could not overcome the obstacle in front of him, in terms of practical magic he was terribly outmatched in this situation.  Charlotte too struggled to do anything with the storm, the storm wanted to be destructive, and everyone on the city expected the worst.  Any effort on Charlotte's part only resulted in further damage and mayhem in the city.  The breaking point for the two Continental magicians came when Charlotte coerced Fisher to channel as much energy as he could through her.

Fisher channeled as much power as he could through Charlotte.  The power was so great that it blinded Charlotte to the reality of the situation.  One moment she thought she was building up a lighting strike to destroy the British magicians, and the next moment she realized she was unleashing the storm's fury on three officers of the Continental Army.  It all happened so quickly she couldn't stop herself. A huge blue tendril of lightning burst through a small house in the middle of Manhattan and instantly killed all three men.

Fisher had no idea that he had been an accessory to the death of three men from his own army, but he could instantly from the look on her face that the power he had fed Charlotte was too great and that something had gone terribly wrong.  Fisher abandoned his scheme of trying to fight the storm head on, instead he formed a new idea to stop the British magicians.  Fisher had no time to explain his new plan.  All fisher told Charlotte before he charged off was to hold back the storm and keep it from harming the city as best she could.

For two hours Fisher rode though the streets of New York City shouting to anyone who would listen that there was nothing to fear, Charlotte Rose, the savior of the Boston and Quebec Sieges was here to protect them.  Slowly word spread and the mood of the men in the city changed just enough to offer a hope of fighting the storm back with some positive emotional magic.  Fisher returned to Charlotte exhausted, Charlotte herself was exhausted, as were her reserves of stored magic.

Just as the storm entered its third hour Fisher and Rose made their stand.  They gave it everything they had, and it was just enough to dislodge the storm's grasp over the city.  The black clouds rolled back out over the bay and just as the storm receded back to Staten Island the British magician's stopped feeding the storm and within minutes the clouds broke up and scattered back out and over the Atlantic.  The storm was over.

Charlotte woke the following morning from a fitful evenings rest.  All night in her mind she replayed the massive lighting blast that killed the three men in the house just a few blocks away.  Seeking to shake  the endless torment from her conscience she set out early before anyone else at the Kennedy mansion was awake.  She made her way across a few short blocks and in that small space of time passed by several burned homes.  The storm the previous evening had set many a fire in the city and in the thick morning fog the smell of burnt wood hung heavy in the air.

Charlotte made her way to the small house she had seen so many times by then in her minds-eye.  The small home was ravaged, the roof blasted away and most of the single story walls were charred black from the blast.  Standing in front of the house Charlotte was forced to accept that it had been real, what she had seen, what she had done, was real.  She was afraid to enter but at the same time, the house had a certain pull on her, an emotional gravity that pulled her in. She stepped inside.

The men were strewn about the small room that had been the dining room.  Their bodies were blackened beyond recognition.  The tip of one man's sword was complexly melted off and the coins of another man were reduced to puddles of metal that had pooled into a blistered pocket of flesh on the man's thigh.  The only thing to identify any of the men was an officers insignia which Charlotte took from one of the dead men's coats.  Perhaps she could learn the man's identity from the insignia, or perhaps she would simply keep it to honor the man and to serve as a reminder of what had happened; it was too soon to know for certain.  Charlotte didn't stay long, she was quickly overwhelmed by the smell and had to remove herself from the house.

Charlotte, still reeling from the aftermath of the storm, returned to Kennedy Mansion before breakfast was set.  Neither Fisher nor Knox were aware of her morning excursion.  Charlotte did well to hide her fragile state even as they all discussed the storm over the morning meal.  Warning shots were fired from the main battery just as breakfast was cleared from the table.  Everyone got up to see what new ill fate the British had in store for them.  Across the bay the British were loading men into small landing craft.  The portents of the storm being a precursor for the invasion were true.  The British were coming to fight, and from the looks of the mounting invasion force the fight appeared as though it would be a bloody affair.

Knox and the magicians watched as the General Howe sent forth his men.  As was typical during breakfast a knock could be heard at the front door.  It was about that time of the morning that General Greene typically came to call and delivered the days report, however the man who stepped through the doors of the dining room was not General Greene, it was General John Sullivan.  Sullivan seemed surprised and somewhat sheepish to find Fisher and Rose in the company of General Knox.  The last time the three had met things had not gone so well.  Fisher and Rose had been extricated, by order of the deceased General Thomas, from Sullivan's command hours before he foolishly lead his reinforcements, and Thomas' evacuees from the Quebec siege, back into battle with Guy Carleton and John Burgoyne's superior forces just outside of Montreal.  The battle was a blood-bath, the Continentals were sent fleeing pell-mell into the surrounding swamps.  Over half the men died in battle or from smallpox after being chased for days through the swamps by the British.  The battle cost Sullivan his command and nearly his place in the Continental Army.

However, on August 23rd, in the dining room of the Kennedy Mansion, Sullivan seemed to be a changed man.  He greeted the magicians with respect and apologized from his handling of the situation in Canada.  Perhaps the defeat had brought about the change of heart, or perhaps the scolding and demotion from the Continental Congress had curbed his arrogance.  Either way, Sullivan was to lead the men on Long Island into battle, not Greene.  Sullivan explained that Greene had fallen ill and that Washington had appointed him to lead so that Greene could recover.

Knox invited Sullivan to stay and discuss the plans for the battle.  Sullivan explained that Washington was being forced to split his Army in two.  When outnumbered, as Washington was - 3 to 1, it was never advised to split your forces, but Washington felt he had to.  He believed that General Howe was landing a third of his men on Long Island as a diversion and that the real invasion of New York would happen after General Howe's brother, Admiral Howe, sailed the remaining two-thirds of the men up the Hudson River and landed on Manhattan Island.  Washington had no choice but to defend against both attacks; if either one were successful they would be cut off and they would be forced to surrender the entire army.

Sullivan told Knox that he was being given command of New York.  It would be his responsibility to stop Admiral Howe and the British fleet.  Meanwhile Sullivan would defend Long Island.  After laying the grounds for the defense of their two positions the two generals turned their attention to the magicians in the room.  Seeing as the army was being divided they suggested that the magicians be divided as well.  That way each half of the army would have a magician support.  At first Fisher and Rose were opposed to the idea, stating that they worked best together, but eventually they agreed to separate for the battle to best serve whatever the British threw at them.  The battle for New York was to be the biggest and most important battle either magician, or the Continental Army for that matter, had seen.  Yet, Nicholas and Charlotte would have to face it apart from one another.

13 - The Last Day of Magic

July 1776

Things calmed down in New York in the days following the celebration over The Declaration.  Admiral Howe was still making his way across the Atlantic, and so the newly independent state militias settled back into their daily routines of reinforcing the city in preparation of defending their new country.

On July 12th at three in the afternoon, under perfect weather conditions the 20 gun Rose and 40 gun Phoenix loosed their moorings on Staten Island and set sail to round the tip of Manhattan and travel up the North River (Hudson).  Warning shots rang out from the American main battery once the ships intentions were clear.  The warning shots roused Knox and the magicians from their leisurely afternoon activities at the Kennedy Mansion.  The three grabbed their personal effects and rushed out into Broadway, within Bowling Green, just as the first volley erupted from Knox's cannons at the main battery.  The ground shook beneath their feet as 20 cannon erupted, sending over 500 pounds of shot hurtling towards the approaching British war ships.  The Asia and Phoenix quickly returned fire.  Nicholas had just enough time to grab Charlotte and duck behind the bare plinth, which until recently held the statue of King George III, as cannon balls bounced and barreled down Broadway, smashing through homes and shattering cobblestone streets.

People poured from their homes immediately. Broadway was choked with panicked citizens running for their lives.  The magicians and Knox tried to push their way through the throng of people but it was futile. By the time the second volley was fired from the battery, Knox had been separated from the magicians.  The magicians took shelter in homes when fired upon and moved up Broadway in between volleys.  It was several minutes and several volleys later that the magicians finally made their way to the battery.

Knox reunited with them at the battery and together the three climbed to the top of the walls to get a better view of their attackers.  The Rose and Phoenix were cruising at full sail and making their way swiftly out of range of the main battery.  Fisher went to work on slowing the ships down by trying to change the winds while Knox shouted commands to his cannon crews.  Charlotte was briefly pressed into service to assist one of the crews, but after the first shots rang out only feet from where she stood, she was so severely rattled that she was of no assistance to anyone from that point on.

Fisher and Knox worked tirelessly, leap-frogging on horse back from battery to battery up Manhattan Island over the next hour in a vain attempt to damage or even slow down the two massive vessels.  In the end, over 200 shots were fired from the American batteries, many of which found their mark, but the Rose and Phoenix slipped past without much trouble or damage taken.  The only casualties of the skirmish were 6 Americans who died when their cannon backfired and exploded as a result of improper loading.

At dinner that evening, Knox chided himself when relating the days action to Nathanael Greene for having not lead his men better.  Greene and Fisher attempted to encourage Knox for leading his men to stand and fire upon the enemy as they were heavily shelled themselves, but there was nothing that could be done to cheer up the young artillery general.  The passage of the Rose and Phoenix was rather inconsequential for the moment, but the ease of their passage highlighted a major weakness in the American's position on Manhattan Island - they could be easily flanked and cut off.  Greene and Knox made plans to scuttle ships in the river and create obstructions to funnel any future ships into killing zones to hopefully prevent the British from surrounding them and land-locking the entire army on Manhattan but both men feared the their efforts would deter further British movements.

Later that same evening warning shots were fired again from the battery indicating an incoming ship.  From the large windows on the second floor of the Kennedy Mansion, haloed by the blood-red light of the sunset, Knox could see the union jack flying high above the HMS Eagle - The flagship of Admiral Howe's fleet.  The long wait was over, action was certain to follow.

The following day Nicholas and Charlotte were surveying the main battery at the tip of Manhattan Island for damage with General Knox when cries of a boat approaching started from the men on the battery walls.  The approaching boat was a small landing craft flying a white flag and carried only two men.  The men were British Redcoats and they wore their full battle regalia despite the blazing summer heat.  The two men where pulled from their boat and held on the shore. Knox hailed the men from atop the battery walls, shouting down to them he demanded they declare their business.

The senior officer, a lieutenant, pulled from his coat a letter and held it aloft declaring that he wished to deliver a letter from Admiral and General Howe to "George Washington, Esquire."  Knox without hesitation replied to the man below that there was no such person in the army.  The lieutenant was dumbfounded by Knox's response, he stood staring back up at Knox not knowing how to respond.  Finally Knox shouted down to him again asking, "Surely you are a sensible man, have you not heard of General Washington?"  As soon as the lieutenant replied yes Knox pulled back from the rampart and ended the conversation.

Nicholas and Charlotte were just as confused as the lieutenant after the exchange.  They quickly asked Knox to explain his odd handling of the situation.  Knox explained that Admiral and General Howe were attempting to insult the commanding general by not recognizing his rank as general in the Continental Army and addressing him as an individual.  By not respecting Washington's rank the Howe Brothers were dismissing the validity of his command, and in turn relegating the men under his command to little more than an angry mob instead of a proper army.  Before Knox left the battery that afternoon he gave instructions to his men that they were to refuse any correspondence not properly addressed the General Washington.

Two days later the same men approached the battery, again with a letter in hand.  This time the letter was addressed to "George Washington, Equire, Etc."  The letter was refused by Knox's men.  Again two days passed and the men returned for a third time.  The same letter was presented, this time addressed to "George Washington, Equire, Etc., Etc."  The Knox's men quickly dismissed the letter bearer.

The game was finally put to a stop on July 20th when a new messenger arrived at the battery.  His name was Colonel James Patterson and he requested an audience with General Washington to personally deliver the letter.  Washington agreed to meet with Col. Patterson.  The meeting was arranged at Knox's residence, the Kennedy Mansion.  Refusing to be insulted by the British, Washington assembled a room full of his closest officers, and instructed them to dress in their full uniform.  Washington intended to meet with Col. Patterson and send a clear message back to the Howe Brothers that he too could play in their game of gentlemanly posturing.

With the help of the magicians, the reception served to belittle Col. Patterson and empower General Washington.  Indeed the atmosphere of dominance in the room was so strong that the Colonel acted as if he were addressing royalty when he spoke to Washington.  Patterson attempted at first to apologize for the confusion in properly addressing Washington, explaining that Esquire and Etc. were often used to imply everything that ought to follow when the exact rank or title of a gentlemen was uncertain.  Washington deftly deflected the thinly veiled insult by announcing that he was familiar with that line of etiquette but that Esquire and Etc. may also imply nothing at all or worse, anything at all.

Patterson once again attempted to deliver the letter to Washington, but Washington left the letter untouched and told the Colonel that any he would refuse any letter concerning his station as a public figure when it was addressed to him as a private individual.  Patterson was effectively shut down by Washington; to keep the conversation alive Patterson offered to verbally relate the contents of the letter.  Washington agreed.

Patterson related to Washington that Admiral and General Howe were appointed by King George III to act as commissioners to "accommodate this unhappy dispute," and that nothing would please them more than to reach terms with Washington concerning their recently declared revolution.  Washington again rose to the occasion and put Patterson in his place.  Washington explained that he was unable to discuss peace terms with the Howe brothers, only Congress could do that; Washington went on to call Patterson's bluff, pointing out that neither could the Howe brothers negotiate peace terms, they could merely offer pardons on his majesty's behalf.  Not allowing Patterson to respond, Washington followed up with the knockout punch saying, "men who have done no wrong seek no pardons, we are only defending our indisputable rights."

Patterson was stupefied by Washington's skilled word-craft.  There was nothing more for Patterson to say or do.  He took the untouched  letter and turned to leave.  Just before he reached the door he stopped and turned to Washington asking, "Has you excellency no particular commands for me to relate back to Admiral and General Howe?"  Without hesitation Washington replied, "Nothing sir, except my particular compliments to them both."

With that the reception was ended.  Washington had played his role to perfection and Patterson was sent back to the Howe brothers with a clear message, General Washington was not to be taken lightly, and the Americans would not be pacified by anything short of independence from Britain.  The stage was set, it would come to blows to decide who won and who lost.