THE BINKUSSING OF COLONEL BURLEY
Solomon had been hit in the thigh by a rifle bullet on his way to the
fort. He and Jack and other wounded men were conveyed in boats and
litters to the hospital at Albany where Jack remained until the leaves
were gone. Solomon recovered more quickly and was with Lincoln's
militia under Colonel Brown when they joined Johnson's Rangers at
Ticonderoga and cut off the supplies of the British army. Later having
got around the lines of the enemy with this intelligence he had a part
in the fighting on Bemus Heights and the Stillwater and saw the
defeated British army under Burgoyne marching eastward in disgrace to
be conveyed back to England.
Jack had recovered and was at home when Solomon arrived in Albany with
the news.
"Wal, my son, I cocalate they's goin' to be a weddin' in our fam'ly
afore long," said the latter.
"What makes you think so?" Jack inquired.
"'Cause John Burgoyne, High Cockylorum and Cockydoodledo, an' all his
army has been licked an' kicked an' started fer hum an' made to promise
that they won't be sassy no more. I tell ye the war is goin' to end.
They'll see that it won't pay to keep it up."
"But you do not know that Howe has taken Philadelphia," said Jack.
"His army entered it on the twenty-sixth of September. Washington is
in a bad fix. You and I have been ordered to report to him at White
Marsh as soon as possible."
"That ol' King 'ud keep us fightin' fer years if he had his way," said
Solomon. "He don't have to bleed an' groan an' die in the swamps like
them English boys have been doin'. It's too bad but we got to keep
killin' 'em, an' when the bad news reaches the good folks over thar
mebbe the King'll git spoke to proper. We got to keep a-goin'. Fer
the fust time in my life I'm glad to git erway from the big bush. The
Injuns have found us a purty tough bit o' fodder but they's no tellin',
out thar in the wilderness, when a man is goin' to be roasted and
chawed up."
Solomon spent a part of the evening at play with the Little Cricket and
the other children and when the young ones had gone to bed, went out
for a walk with "Mis' Scott" on the river-front.
Mrs. Irons had said of the latter that she was a most amiable and
useful person.
"The Little Cricket has won our hearts," she added. "We love him as we
love our own."
When Jack and Solomon were setting out in a hired sloop for the
Highlands next morning there were tears in the dark eyes of "Mis'
Scott."
"Ain't she a likely womern?" Solomon asked again when with sails spread
they had begun to cut the water.
Near King's Ferry in the Highlands on the Hudson they spent a night in
the camp of the army under Putnam. There they heard the first note of
discontent with the work of their beloved Washington. It came from the
lips of one Colonel Burley of a Connecticut regiment. The
Commander-in-Chief had lost Newport, New York and Philadelphia and been
defeated on Long Island and in two pitched battles on ground of his own
choosing at Brandywine and Germantown.
The two scouts were angry.
It had been a cold, wet afternoon and they, with others, were drying
themselves around a big, open fire of logs in front of the camp
post-office.
Solomon was quick to answer the complaint of Burley.
"He's allus been fightin' a bigger force o' well trained, well paid men
that had plenty to eat an' drink an' wear. An' he's fit 'em with jest
a shoe string o' an army. When it come to him, it didn't know nothin'
but how to shoot an' dig a hole in the ground. The men wouldn't enlist
fer more'n six months an' as soon as they'd learnt suthin', they put
fer hum. An' with that kind o' an army, he druv the British out o'
Boston. With a leetle bunch o' five thousand unpaid, barefoot, ragged
backed devils, he druv the British out o' Jersey an' they had twelve
thousan' men in that neighborhood. He's had to dodge eround an' has
kep' his army from bein' et up, hide, horns an' taller, by the power o'
his brain. He's managed to take keer o' himself down thar in Jersey
an' Pennsylvaney with the British on all sides o' him, while the best
fighters he had come up here to help Gates. I don't see how he could
'a' done it--damned if I do--without the help o' God."
"Gates is a real general," Burley answered. "Washington don't amount
to a hill o' beans."
Solomon turned quickly and advanced upon Burley. "I didn't 'spect to
find an enemy o' my kentry in this 'ere camp," he said in a quiet tone.
"Ye got to take that back, mister, an' do it prompt, er ye're goin' to
be all mussed up."
"Ye could see the ha'r begin to brustle under his coat," Solomon was
wont to say of Burley, in speaking of that moment. "He stepped up clus
an' growled an' showed his teeth an' then he begun to git rooined."
Burley had kept a public house for sailors at New Haven and had had the
reputation of being a bad man in a quarrel. Of just what happened
there is a full account in a little army journal of that time called
_The Camp Gazette_. Burley aimed a blow at Solomon with his fist.
Then as Solomon used to put it, "the water bu'st through the dam." It
was his way of describing the swift and decisive action which was
crowded into the next minute. He seized Burley and hurled him to the
ground. With one hand on the nape of his neck and the other on the
seat of his trousers, Solomon lifted his enemy above his head and
quoited him over the tent top.
Burley picked himself up and having lost his head drew his hanger, and,
like a mad bull, rushed at Solomon. Suddenly he found his way barred
by Jack.
"Would you try to run a man through before he can draw?" the latter
asked.
Solomon's old sword flashed out of its scabbard.
"Let him come on," he shouted. "I'm more to hum with a hanger than I
be with good vittles."
Of all the words on record from the lips of this man, these are the
most immodest, but it should be remembered that when he spoke them his
blood was hot.
Jack gave way and the two came together with a clash of steel. A crowd
had gathered about them and was increasing rapidly. They had been
fighting for half a moment around the fire when Solomon broke the blade
of his adversary. The latter drew his pistol! Before he could raise
it Solomon had fired his own weapon. Burley's pistol dropped on the
ground. Instantly its owner reeled and fell beside it. The battle
which had lasted no more than a minute had come to its end. There had
been three kinds of fighting in that lively duel.
Solomon's voice trembled when he cried out:
"Ary man who says a word ag'in' the Great Father is goin' to git mussed
up."
He pushed his way through the crowd which had gathered around the
wounded man.
"Let me bind his arm," he said.
But a surgeon had stood in the crowd. He was then doing what he could
for the shattered member of the hot-headed Colonel Burley. Jack was
helping him. Some men arrived with a litter and the unfortunate
officer was quickly on his way to the hospital.
Jack and Solomon set out for headquarters. They met Putnam and two
officers hurrying toward the scene of the encounter. Solomon had
fought in the bush with him. Twenty years before they had been friends
and comrades. Solomon saluted and stopped the grizzled hero of many a
great adventure.
"Binkus, what's the trouble here?" the latter asked, as the crowd who
had followed the two scouts gathered about them.
Solomon gave his account of what had happened. It was quickly verified
by many eye-witnesses.
"Ye done right," said the General. "Burley has got to take it back an'
apologize. He ain't fit to be an officer. He behaved himself like a
bully. Any man who talks as he done orto be cussed an' Binkussed an'
sent to the guard house."
Within three days Burley had made an ample apology for his conduct and
this bulletin was posted at headquarters:
"Liberty of speech has its limits. It must be controlled by the law of
decency and the general purposes of our army and government. The man
who respects no authority above his own intellect is a conceited ass
and would be a tyrant if he had the chance. No word of disrespect for
a superior officer will be tolerated in this army."
"The Binkussing of Burley"--a phrase which traveled far beyond the
limits of Putnam's camp--and the notice of warning which followed was
not without its effect on the propaganda of Gates and his friends.
2
Next day Jack and Solomon set out with a force of twelve hundred men
for Washington's camp at White Marsh near Philadelphia. There Jack
found a letter from Margaret. It had been sent first to Benjamin
Franklin in Paris through the latter's friend Mr. David Hartley, a
distinguished Englishman who was now and then sounding the Doctor on
the subject of peace.
"I am sure that you will be glad to know that my love for you is not
growing feeble on account of its age," she wrote. "The thought has
come to me that I am England and that you are America. It will be a
wonderful and beautiful thing if through all this bitterness and
bloodshed we can keep our love for each other. My dear, I would have
you know that in spite of this alien King and his followers, I hold to
my love for you and am waiting with that patience which God has put in
the soul of your race and mine, for the end of our troubles. If you
could come to France I would try to meet you in Doctor Franklin's home
at Passy. So I have the hope in me that you may be sent to France."
This is as much of the letter as can claim admission to our history.
It gave the young man a supply of happiness sufficient to fill the many
days of hardship and peril in the winter at Valley Forge. It was read
to Solomon.
"Say, this 'ere letter kind o' teches my feelin's--does sart'in," said
Solomon. "I'm goin' to see what kin be done."
Unknown to Jack, within three days Solomon had a private talk with the
Commander-in-Chief at his headquarters. The latter had a high regard
for the old scout. He maintained a dignified silence while Solomon
made his little speech and then arose and offered his hand saying in a
kindly tone:
"Colonel Binkus, I must bid you good night."