“Look down here on this map, he began, “we are currently in South Carolina, right?” He asked.

“Yes sir,” came my feeble answer.

“Up here is North Carolina, if you go either South or West, you get to Georgia and if you move North-west clockwise, you’ll encounter the Appalachian Mountain, go East you face the Atlantic Ocean,” he explained.

“I see,” I replied confused. He wasn’t making sense from his explanation, as if reading my mind he asked.

“Gat what am trying to explain?”

“No sir,” I replied honestly.

I never understood him because I was lost in all his geographical theories. I was glad when he did explain it better.

“You see, he began, “the Americans are in Alabama, let’s presume the battle is ranging on here in Columbia, assuming we move down to Atlanta in Georgia, the Americans in Alabama will have advantage over us ‘cause northwards are American troops chasing us. Eastward is the ocean and we gat no ship so our only hope will be to march down South. If we keep up camp here in Columbia, who knows how long we can hold the Americans off?”

Looking keenly at Mr Smith’s explanation, it made sense and I understood pretty well what he meant. His theory was that our present location was no longer safe and we couldn’t stand a chance against the Americans here, it was better we move out.

“Yes sir, I understand perfectly well. Where do we move to for the time being?”

“That’s why I called you,” he gesticulated.

I moved more closer to the map, took a careful look and then an idea struck me.

“What if we still move down south east of South Carolina?”

“What location?” He asked baffled.

“Charlestone will be a good point, you know, we can only keep watch on two places,”

“The west and the sea?” He asked, impressed.

“Exactly,” I replied.

“Then that’s it, we are moving south. Pass the word to the camp, we are moving in twenty four hours,”

“Isn’t that too short?” I asked with concern.

“No, it’s enough time for us to pack our stuff and march on, or do you want the Americans to visit us before we keep moving?” He frowned.

“No,”

“Alright, do as you you’ve been told,” Mr Smith instructed.

“What about the men on the battle field?” I asked thoughtfully.

“You mean the troops?” He smirked.

“Yes,” I formed an angry face.

“Oh don’t worry, that shouldn’t be a problem,” he replied absentmindedly.

“How will they know that we’ve move out?”

“Like I said before, it shouldn’t be a problem,”

“But answer me first,” I queried.

“Alright, I’ll send two messengers to inform them,” he explained.

“Wouldn’t that be risky?” I asked with surprise.

“You know we have not fix our communication system…”

“I know but it’s far too exposed to send out just two men,” I interjected.

“I know but two men will be hard to detect and again they’ll be armed to the teeth,” he calmly explained. “Go and alert the camp so we can move on, the earlier the better,” instructed for the second time.

“Alright, I’m on it sir,” I replied as I left his tent.

Leaving Mr Smith’s tenth, I started pondering what the journey down south would look like. I figured out that Mr Smith was indeed right about something which he refused disclosing to me. Thinking more about it, an idea struck me. Assuming the Americans beat the men on the battle field, it will be easier for the troops to retreat than when women and children are with them. Indeed Mr Smith is a genius, I thought as I arrived in my tent.

I saw two men waiting for me so I passed the instructions to them to spread it round the camp. I commenced packing my stuffs, when I was done I went out to inspect the camp. Everyone was done packing. Indeed it was faster than I anticipated. I returned back to Mr Smith to tell him the camp was ready.

He replied that we should wait till night fall before we move out. We waited till the beginning of dusk before we hit the road to Charleston.

***

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