The Original "Quaker Gun Trick"
During the American War of Independence, after nearly a year of brutal backcountry conflict between American Colonel William Washington and the fierce British commander Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, Colonel Washington had retreated to North Carolina in October 1780.
Ordered to return to lead an irregular force of colonial dragoons in the South Carolina theater by Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, Colonel Washington still lacked the proper artillery to dislodge the Loyalists. On December 4, the Americans, were able to trap the Loyalist Colonel Rowland Rugeley and his company of 125 or so men in Rugeley’s house and barn near Camden, South Carolina. He told his cavalrymen to dismount and surround the barn. While out of Rugeley’s sight, Washington’s men fabricated a pine log to resemble a cannon.
This so-called "Quaker Gun Trick" worked quite effectively. Colonel Washington faced the fake cannon toward the buildings in which the Loyalists had barricaded themselves and threatened bombardment if they did not surrender. Shortly afterwards, Rugeley surrendered his entire force without a single shot being fired.
Read more about this topic: Quaker Gun
Famous quotes containing the words original, quaker, gun and/or trick:
“Wit is often concise and sparkling, compressed into an original pun or metaphor. Brevity is said to be its soul. Humor can be more leisurely, diffused through a whole story or picture which undertakes to show some of the comic aspects of life. What it devalues may be human nature in general, by showing that certain faults or weaknesses are universal. As such it is kinder and more philosophic than wit which focuses on a certain individual, class, or social group.”
—Thomas Munro (1897–1974)
“this old Quaker graveyard where the bones
Cry out in the long night for the hurt beast
Bobbing by Ahab’s whaleboats in the East.”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)
“I’d like to say I didn’t intend to kill her. But when you have a gun ... you always intend ... when you have to.”
—Ketti Frings (1915–1981)
““It’s better to be fooled than to be suspicious”Mthat the confidence trick is the work of man, but the want-of-confidence trick is the work of the devil.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)