著名的二人军队
——记美国1812年战争的两位少女英雄
An American Army of Two
The Tale of Rebecca and
Abigail Bates
来源：http://www.highbeam.com
作者：Edmund A. Fortier
插图：Kay Life
(生词可拖选或双击)
Some arguments are not easy to
settle. For example, many people say Rebecca and Abigail Bates
were real heroes of the War of 1812. Others think that’s just
not so.
What did Rebecca and Abigail do?
They saved their town from a British warship. At least that’s
what Rebecca claimed in 1874, the year St. Nicholas, a
children’s magazine, published the first of several versions she
gave of her story.
The Bates family lived in
Scituate, Massachusetts, a fishing and farming village about
thirty miles south of Boston. In early June 1814, the British
attacked the village. Two barges from a British warship entered
the harbor and set fire to Scituate's fishing fleet. Ten ships
were lost, and the militia was called in to defend the town.
For twenty-year-old Rebecca, the
raid hit close to home. Her father, Simeon Bates, was keeper of
the town’s lighthouse at Cedar Point on the north side of the
harbor. Rebecca and her family lived next to the lighthouse in
the small keeper’s cottage.
As keeper, Mr. Bates operated the
lanterns in the light tower each night. But during the day he
and other family members were sometimes away from the
light-house. After the June attack, however, full-time lookouts
were needed. The militia posted guards.
Weeks passed. No new enemy ships
were sighted, and the militia was told to go home. But for a
while, guards continued to stand watch at the lighthouse. To
pass the time, they taught the Bates children to play the fife
and drum. Rebecca learned four tunes and thought her “Yankee
Doodle” was especially good.
But more and more, the
light-house was left unguarded. This was the case one
late-summer day in 1814.
According to Rebecca, she, her
mother, and sixteen-year-old Abigail were alone in the cottage.
As Rebecca was about to boil water for the evening meal, she
spotted a British warship from the kitchen window. Too large for
the town’s shallow harbor, the warship had anchored just beyond
the lighthouse.
It was early afternoon and the
harbor was quiet. Rebecca and Abigail ran to the lighthouse for
a better look and watched as a boat was lowered from the
warship. The barge, full of soldiers, headed toward the harbor.
Then Rebecca and Abigail saw a second barge follow the first.
The memory of burning ships was still fresh in their minds.
But more than Scituate’s boats
were in danger. Tied to the town wharf were two merchant
vessels, each carrying a full cargo of flour. Food supplies were
extremely scarce at this time, and the raiding parties were sure
to seize the cargoes. Losing the flour would be devastating to
the town.
Rebecca thought fast. The guards’
muskets, fife, and drum were still at the lighthouse. She and
Abigail could use the muskets to shoot at the boats, but that
would be risky. The soldiers might answer with cannon fire.
Then Rebecca had a bold idea.
Calling to Abigail to follow, she dashed to the room where the
firearms were stored. But instead of reaching for the muskets,
she grabbed the fife and the drum. Rebecca handed the drum to
Abigail and explained her plan.
The two young women ran down the
wooded path that led to the edge of the water. When they reached
the shore, Rebecca cautioned Abigail to stay low. “We must keep
out of sight,” she warned. “If they see us they’ll laugh us to
scorn.”
Hiding behind tall cedar trees,
Abigail and Rebecca played the instruments. Abigail beat out
“Roll Call.” Rebecca joined in with “Yankee Doodle.” The sound
of military music drifted across the bay. When Rebecca looked
up, she saw that the soldiers had stopped rowing. Was it because
of the music?
The girls continued playing. A
moment later, a flag was raised on the warship—the signal for
the barges to return. Once everyone was on board, the enemy
vessel raised anchor and set sail for the open sea.
The British were fooled. They
thought the town militia had been warned and was coming to stop
them. Instead, they were chased away by two young women with a
borrowed fife and drum.
Today, a plaque at Scituate Light
honors the bravery of Rebecca and Abigail Bates—“The Army of
Two.”
