The Fighting Ground

“5:40.” It’s a small Swedish-style log house with a wide porch. A shed stands nearby. The cow stands before it, lowing. Jonathan realizes the cow needs to be milked. The men whisper to Jonathan, pointing to the house door. Jonathan goes to the door and knocks. No one answers. He opens the door. Inside is a single dirt-floor room with a fireplace at one end, a table in the middle, a bed, two chairs, and some boxes. A cup, plate, and candle on the table suggest the room was abandoned quickly. The men enter and search the place, finding a loaf of bread. Jonathan makes signs that the cow can be milked; they understand and send him to the shed. He opens it and finds a little boy.

“6:00.” The boy is much smaller than Jonathan’s seven-year-old sister. Jonathan finds a bucket. Quietly, he asks the boy where are his parents. The boy won’t speak. Jonathan takes the bucket to the cow and milks it, and he feels soothed by the familiar chore. Inside the house, they all share the milk and bread. The cow lows again, and Jonathan milks it again. He wants to get back to the child in the shed, so he indicates that he needs to go there, and the youngest Hessian, trusting him, waves Jonathan to it. Jonathan takes the cow by its rope and leads it to the shed.

“6:30.” Inside the shed, Jonathan again asks the boy for the whereabouts of his parents. Again, the boy won’t talk. Jonathan asks about the boy’s “mama,” and at this, the boy points off in a nonsensical direction. Making a quick, drastic decision, Jonathan leads the boy by the hand back to the house.

“6:35.” The Hessians are surprised by the boy, but they do nothing. Jonathan again asks the boy for his mother, and again the boy points. Everyone follows the boy out into the field.

“6:45.” At the edge of the field, they find the boy’s parents lying dead. The soldiers see the bodies and seem merely annoyed. The boy begins to play with the woman’s hair, trying to braid it. Jonathan asks the boy if these are his parents, but he says nothing. Jonathan wonders if the Hessians killed the couple. He points at the Hessians, asking if the boy has seen them, but gets no response. The oldest grenadier, impatient, signals for them to return to the house.

“7:00.” At the house, the soldiers sit or lie exhausted, indifferent to Jonathan and the boy. Angry at the men’s callous disregard for the dead farm couple, Jonathan finally picks up a shovel and indicates that he means to bury the boy’s parents. The oldest grenadier looks at him, then looks away. Jonathan takes the boy out across the now-dark field and begins to dig graves.

“7:35.” The boy falls asleep against his mother’s body. The graves are hard to dig and too shallow. Exhausted, Jonathan returns to the house and indicates brusquely that he needs help. The oldest soldier understands, wakes the youngest soldier, and issues commands. The young man grabs a blazing wooden splint for use as a torch and brings it outside.

“7:40.” They walk to the bodies. The little boy is still asleep. The young soldier sees Jonathan’s grave-digging work and, disgusted, tosses the torch to Jonathan, picks up the shovel, and begins to dig. Muttering, he clears a much deeper hole. Jonathan wakes the boy, who’s startled by the big Hessian holding a torch. The grenadier plants the splint in the ground, grabs the dead man’s feet, and calls curtly to Jonathan to take the man’s arms. They pitch the body into the grave, then roll the woman’s body in after it. The Hessian indicates that Jonathan should shovel the dirt into the grave. Jonathan begins to do so, but some dirt enters the dead woman’s open mouth, and Jonathan turns and throws up. The Hessian grabs the shovel and fills in the grave while Jonathan watches, humiliated. The soldier has Jonathan stand the boy up, then adjusts his uniform and offers a quick prayer. He picks up the torch, and they walk back to the house, the boy in Jonathan’s arms.

“8:15.” At the house, the young soldier removes his boots, lies down, and quickly falls asleep. The tall soldier snores on the floor; the old soldier, awake, sits in a corner, smoking a pipe. Jonathan gives the boy the last of the milk. The boy points to a box beneath the bed; it’s his own bed, which together they push under the table. The boy crawls in and pulls up a blanket. Jonathan touches him briefly. The old soldier waves him over, ties the rope to Jonathan’s ankle, the other end attached to his own leg. Jonathan sits. The old soldier falls asleep. Jonathan figures out the knot and unties himself. He stands. He can escape, stay, or even kill them.

“8:45.” Jonathan takes one of their guns, loads it carefully, and fills the priming pan. Gun in hand, he steps out onto the porch, turns, and aims the weapon at the old soldier. He can’t do it. Tearfully, he unloads the gun, puts it away, goes outside, and lies on the ground, looking up at the sky.

“9:00.” As he lies there, Jonathan thinks back to the morning, when he was so eager to fight, and it seems like a very long time ago. He remembers thinking the Corporal was the person they saw earlier that day, skulking through the forest, and he decides he’ll escape, find the Corporal, and report the location of the three Hessians.

“9:15.” Inside the house, Jonathan decides he must take the boy with him. He can’t take both the boy and his heavy gun, so he leaves the weapon, quietly gathers up the boy, steps outside, and gently shuts the door.

“9:30.” The boy is heavy; Jonathan won’t be able to carry him all the way back up the road to safety. He’ll worry about that later. He crosses the field under moonlight, trying to guess the best direction.

“9:45.” Jonathan stumbles into the wooden fence. Carefully, he strains to lift the boy over the fence and onto the ground beyond, then climbs over, picks up the boy, drapes him across his shoulders, and faces the forest.

“10:10.” The forest is dark. The boy keeps slipping, and he must adjust the weight. Unsure of the direction to the road, Jonathan decides to keep moving forward regardless.

“10:15.” The darkness, broken by occasional bits of moonlight, contains many night sounds—animals, whirring insects, shifting leaves. Jonathan fears he’s headed nowhere. After an hour, he sees a flash of light.

“11:20.” The light flares and goes dark. Jonathan sets the boy down and peers toward it. Finally, it flares again. Arms aching, Jonathan picks up the boy and walks toward where he saw the light. It’s a campfire; six figures sit hunched around it. He creeps closer, listening for words that will tell him if they’re American or Hessian. Behind him, someone says, “Halt!” Jonathan turns. It’s the Corporal.

“11:35.” Some of the men recognize him. Jonathan gives a quick report, then goes to the fire and sits with the frightened boy. Someone hands Jonathan a piece of johnnycake—a cornmeal bread—and he shares it with the boy. The Corporal says he was the man Jonathan saw in the forest. He demands more information from Jonathan, who explains the farmhouse, the dead couple, the graves, and the brief burial service. He learns that the volunteers actually won the Rocktown battle and drove the Hessians back, save for the three that chased after Jonathan. He confesses that he ran from the battle, and they tell him not to worry about it. The Corporal realizes they can catch the Hessians, but Jonathan says he doesn’t know how to find the way back to the farmhouse. The Corporal says he knows the way because he was there last night.

“11:50.” The Corporal explains that the farm couple were French, and the husband was a spy for the enemy. The men around the campfire executed them, but the farm couple’s older son escaped and informed the Hessians, who moved out that morning and faced the volunteers in battle. Jonathan just wants to go home, but the Corporal needs his help at the farmhouse where the three Hessians sleep.