Cover

Title

Copyright

A FIDELIS BOOKS BOOK

An Imprint of Post Hill Press

ISBN: 978-1-64293-314-7

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-64293-315-4

The Rifleman

© 2019 by Oliver North

This book is a work of historical fiction. All incidents, dialogue, and characters aside from the actual historical figures are products of the author’s imagination. While they are based around real people, any incidents or dialogue involving the historical figures are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or commentary. In all other respects, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

Though this is a work of fiction, historical fact has been as accurately portrayed as all available resources allow. Many dates and times in particular we found to be unreliable from any single source. Also, history is often interpreted from the perspective of the original recorders as well as those coming later to retell the events.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

All Scripture is from the King James Version of the Bible, in the public domain.

Maps and end sheets by George Skoch

Copyediting by Amanda Varian

Post Hill Press

New York • Nashville

posthillpress.com

Published in the United States of America

Dedication

For Elizabeth Stuart

With Whom I Fell In Love Over Five Decades Ago

And In Whose Veins

Flow The DNA Of Revolution

Contents

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

PREFACE

THE LETTER

TO THE READER

chapter one

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

chapter two

FAREWELL AND A CALL TO DUTY

chapter three

LISTEN AND LEARN

chapter four

PLANTING THE SEEDS OF WAR

chapter five

A CALL TO ARMS

chapter six

SELECTING THE BEST RIFLEMEN

chapter seven

THE LONG MARCH TO BOSTON

chapter eight

1775: THE CONTINENTAL ARMY—FROM DEFENSE TO OFFENSE

chapter nine

1775: THE ORDER IS GIVEN

chapter ten

1775: A SORTIE DELAYED

chapter eleven

1775: RIVER-READY BATTEAUX?

chapter twelve

1775: WINTER IN THE FOREST PRIMEVAL

chapter thirteen

1775: QUEBEC—SETTING THE STAGE FOR BATTLE

chapter fourteen

1775-1776: QUEBEC—THE FORLORN HOPE

POSTSCRIPT

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Preface

PREFACE

This is a war story. It’s about real people and events before and during the American Revolution. The central characters in this work—Daniel Morgan, George Washington, Patrick Henry, Charles Mynn Thruston, and Generals Arnold, Knox, Greene, Lee, Gates, and a host of others—actually did the deeds at the places and times described herein. So too did their accurately named foreign and native adversaries. As you will see, our war for independence was a most un-civil, civil war.

If Daniel Morgan were alive today, he would be my near neighbor in Virginia’s beautiful Shenandoah Valley. It was while visiting a nearby gristmill Morgan and Nathanael Burwell, a fellow Revolutionary War hero, built in the late 1700s [now restored and operated by the Clarke County Historical Association], I became fascinated by this unsung national hero.