"You there, are you willing to serve to defend your country against the violence that the King sends hither?  Will you stay here and wait in the chill of winter for the redcoats to put all to the torch and warm you thus?  Or will you turn out and send them back to England whence they came?" 

James did not much care for being personally singled out in this manner, but he could not dispute the appeal of the officer's call to duty.  Although the past four years of warfare had little touched Virginia since independence had been declared, the newspapers and tavern talk were full of the suffering of New-England and warnings of the risk to the local ports and cities. 

The officer wasn't finished, though.  "I carry word that King George's troops have taken the port of Savannah, in Georgia, and that they mean to use that foothold to drive northward -- all the way to Boston if they can -- right over the ground where you have been trying to survive." 

He looked each man before him in the eye to ensure that he had their full attention, and then waved an arm out toward the acres of tobacco stubble.  "Would you see these fields run red with the blood of your neighbors?  Will you stand by while the British seize your hard-won land and hand it over to some officer in their army to reward him for returning these states to the Crown's despotism?  Will you leave it to some other man to defend your wives, your mothers, and your children from the perils of war?" 

James' neighbor Phineas spoke up, answering in a deep rumble, "No, sir, I will not."  He was joined by a ragged chorus of shouts and James found himself adding to it, without conscious volition.   

Tales From a Revolution:

The Prize

The Light

The Smoke

The Declaration

The Break

The Wind

The Darkness

The Path

The Freedman

The Tree

The Mine

The Siege

The Will

The Convention

The Oath

The Powder

The Word

The Bridge