Nate took off his big knapsack and grabbed some ammunition cartridges. He stuffed them into his pockets. Then he crawled back to his tree.

He held his weapon like Samuel had showed him, and aimed up the hill. He could see the soldiers in their bloodred coats hiding in the trees. It looked like only about twenty men. Probably soldiers sent ahead as scouts.

He waited for Captain Marsh’s orders.

“Pre-sent!” Captain Marsh shouted.

Nate clicked back the flintlock, holding his aim.

“Fire!”

Nate pulled the trigger.

KI-crack!

The gunpowder exploded inside the gun. The musket ball streaked out of the barrel like a comet, trailing flames and smoke. The other men shot at the same time. And Nate’s musket ball joined theirs in the blizzard of metal sweeping up the hill.

The Redcoats scattered.

Nate and the men all reloaded. He aimed again, ready to shoot. But the Redcoats didn’t come back.

They all waited for them to return. Minutes ticked by. Finally Captain Marsh gave the order for them to line up again.

“We need to get to our camp, men!” he shouted.

Nate stood up.

“Captain!” he called. “It’s Samuel, sir.”

A moment later all of the men were gathered around Samuel’s body.

Martin knelt down and put his hand on Samuel’s blood-soaked chest.

He looked up at Captain Marsh. “He’s gone, sir.”

Captain Marsh’s stony face seemed to crumble for a moment, and then he regained his steely determination.

The men all said a prayer. And then they stood silently.

But then a chilling song shattered the moment.

RAT, tat, tat, tat, tat.

RAT, tat, tat, tat, tat.

Battle drums, like from Nate’s nightmare.

Except these were real.

The sound got louder.

Rat, tat, tat, tat, tat.

Rat, tat, tat, tat, tat.

Rat, tat, tat, tat, tat.

“What will we do, captain?” Paul asked.

Paul had an unusual look in his eyes, one that Nate had seen only once before: during the storm that took Papa.

It was fear.

“We need to get back to the fort,” Captain Marsh said.

But it was too late. Before they could take a step, the ground started to shake. It sounded like a stampede of giants was heading right for them.

And in a way, that was exactly what was happening. Suddenly hundreds of soldiers were charging over the top of the ridge.

They were not Redcoats.

They were not American.

They wore dark green-and-red uniforms and tall, pointed silver hats.

They carried muskets topped with long glinting bayonets.

Hessians!

The hillside exploded into a wall of flames and gunpowder smoke.

Balls hissed by, smacking into the trees and cutting holes in the ground.

And this time there was no way for the men of the Connecticut 5th to shoot back.

The Hessians were pouring over the hills, like a churning wave of green and red and silver.

“Retreat!” Captain Marsh bellowed.

The men scattered in different directions.

Paul grabbed Nate by the arm and they tore through the woods.

Cannon blasts rang out.

Boom!

Boom!

That evil sizzling sound of approaching cannonballs filled the air.

Crash!

A cannonball shattered a tree right in front of them. Shards of wood flew like daggers.

A sharp piece hit Nate on the cheek, an inch from his eye. Paul lost his grip on Nate.

The smoke was so thick now. Nate could hardly see. He lost Paul and ran almost blindly, stumbling over rocks and weaving around trees.

Musket balls whizzed by.

Nate heard footsteps behind him.

Paul!

But when he looked over his shoulder he didn’t see his friend. Instead he saw a man in a silver hat — a Hessian. He was chasing after Nate with his bayonet held straight out in front of him, shouting angrily in a language Nate had never heard. But Nate did not need to understand the words. Even through the smoke, Nate could see the hatred and fury in the man’s eyes.

Nate wanted to scream, “I’m not a soldier!

But it didn’t matter that Nate was just an eleven-year-old boy. That Hessian meant to kill him.

Nate’s legs were giving out. He was slowing down. He braced for the vicious stab, for the agonizing pain, for the end.

But then a cannonball sizzled overhead.

And it wasn’t a regular cannonball. It was an exploding shell.

Kaboom!

The world around Nate seemed to shatter apart. And then, whoosh! In the same instant, Nate was ripped up off the ground.

There was searing heat. Blinding light.

And then … darkness.