This is the way I heard it.

As he rushed to prepare the fort for the looming attack, private Williams calculated the odds

of his survival.

Not good.

The 21-year-old recruit, along with hundreds of other American soldiers, would soon be

bombarded by the British Navy.

But unlike his brothers and arms, private Williams had no idea what his survival would

actually mean, because private Williams was a runaway slave, who had escaped his master

four months earlier and been on the lamb ever since.

Like every other slave in America, private Williams knew the British Navy would guarantee

his freedom in exchange for his service.

But private Williams wouldn't stand for that.

He didn't want a king anymore than he wanted a master.

He just wanted to be free.

But since freedom was not an option, private Williams joined the Maryland militia under an

assumed name and prepared to defend the only home he knew.

Meanwhile, eight miles away, two teenagers with rifles hid in the forest and marveled

at the sight before them.

Daniel Wells and Henry McCommus didn't understand why anyone, especially a British general

who didn't want to be shot, would dress himself in a bright red coat and sit on a white

horse a hundred yards in front of them.

All they knew was the red coats had burned Washington, D.C. a few days earlier, and now they had

...