Battle of Harmony

Battle of Harmony
Part of Mount Zeon War of Independence
Date March 1758 Location Harmony, Goshan Colony of Mount Zeon Result Rebel victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Frankenlisch	Goshan Colony
Commanders and leaders
Earl of Brumley Percival Hadglade John Moran	Peter Garner Duncan Page Seth Parker
Units involved
21st Foot 29th Foot
Strength
approximately 1,200	Start of battle: 70 militia End of battle: 3,000 militia
Casualties and losses
71 killed 194 wounded	100 killed and wounded

The Battle of Harmony was the opening engagement of the Mount Zeon War of Independence. It marked the beginning of open armed hostilities between the Kingdom of Frankenlisch and the Colony of Mount Zeon. A force of Frankenlischian soldiers sent to seize arms and war material confronted colonial militiamen in the town of Harmony, outside the city of Kirtland. The regulars were forced to make a fighting retreat back to Kirtland in the face of superior numbers.

Background

Tensions in the Frankenlischian colony of Mount Zeon had been on the rise for several years prior to the battle. Efforts by the royal government to centralize authority and enforce new taxes and regulations inspired resentment and protest from the colonial populace, especially in the province of Goshan. The fiercest opposition to royal authority was in the northern port city of Kirtland, and the surrounding countryside. In 1753 royal troops had fired on a rioting mob, killing several colonists. The event became known as the Kirtland Massacre. Three years later, to protest a new tax on tea and other imports, colonists in Kirtland set fire to two newly-arrived ships in the harbor. The royal government suspended the provincial assembly, sent additional troops, and placed the city under martial law. In response, an extralegal assembly convened and soon supplanted royal authority throughout the countryside. This Provincial Congress also began stockpiling military supplies and organizing militias. Under the orders of the Frankenlischian governor, General Lord Rotail the Earl of Brumley, made several attempts to seize these weapons but met with little success.

March Expedition

In March of 1758, Lord Rotail mounted the most ambitious expedition yet, leading two regiments to seize weapons and known conspirators and ringleaders from towns on the King’s Highway between Kirtland and Harmony. The expedition was intended to be secret, but Lord Rotail’s colonial-born mistress Margaret Foster learned of the plan and alerted members of her family who supported the anti-government cause. Critically, Foster misunderstood a joking comment by one of Lord Rotail’s officers and told her cousin, Edward Franklin, that the Frankenlischians intended to burn Harmony after it had been searched. As the troops mustered to begin their march, alarm riders set out to warn the countryside and mobilize the militias to respond.

The expedition began without issue. Lord Rotail led the two regiments out of Kirtland and down the King’s Highway. At Edricstown, the largest town between Kirtland and Harmony, the regulars discovered a cache of muskets and gunpowder, which was destroyed. When the regulars reached Harmony, they found the town’s militia company mustered and arranged across the road at the edge of the town. Colonel Percival Hadglade, commander of the 29th Regiment of Foot, called on the militia to disperse but they refused. When Hadglade ordered his men forward, militia commander Peter Garner ordered his company to retreat to the town common.

Battle

First Shots

The identity of the person who fired the first shot at Harmony is still disputed by historians. Most believe that a militiaman, trying to retreat in the face of the regulars’ advance, accidentally discharged his musket. Local legends say that the shot was fired by a concealed colonist, the jilted lover of Margaret Foster, who was trying to assassinate Lord Rotail. At the time, both sides believed that the other side had fired. Hadglade’s regulars fired a volley which killed several colonists and caused the militia to scatter. A few militia apparently returned fire, because one regular was recorded as wounded after the exchange.

With the militia dispersed, the regulars began to conduct their search of the town. However much of the material they had been sent to seize had been relocated during the night and early morning, and there was little in the town left for the regulars to capture. What few supplies they did find were collected in the town and set aflame. Some looting of private property was conducted by the regulars, though it was swiftly punished by the Frankenlischian officers.

The Militia Arrives

While the regulars had been conducting their search, militia from the surrounding area had been gathered and marching for Harmony. The first militia to arrive were several companies led by Duncan Page. They encountered Seth Parker on the road, and he informed the militia that the regulars had opened fire and were now likely sacking the town. The smoke from the burning war material seemed to confirm that report, and the militia resolved to drive the regulars from the town. Duncan Page led his men to the town, where they began to fire on the regulars from behind the cover of trees, fences, and homes.

The regulars organized into formation and began to return fire, but more militiamen arrived throughout the late morning. By the afternoon, facing superior numbers and having satisfied himself that no war material was left in the town, Lord Rotail ordered a retreat to Kirtland.

The Gauntlet

The retreat back to Kirtland was a fighting retreat. The militiamen, whose numbers continued to swell throughout the day, pursued and harassed the regulars as they marched back down the King’s Highway. Firing from concealment and cover, the militia targeted officers and sniped at the soldiers as they struggled to respond effectively. At one point a force of militia threatened to capture a bridge over Salmon Brook and cut off the line of retreat to Kirtland. The grenadier companies of the two regiments conducted a bayonet charge that pushed the militia away from the bridge. This action marked the fiercest fighting of the day. Soon after crossing the bridge, the regulars had returned to Kirtland. The militia were deterred in attacking the town by artillery fire from the garrison and the Royal Navy warships in the harbor.

Aftermath

Lord Rotail wrote at once, informing his superiors of the situation and requesting reinforcements. The militia of Goshan encircled the city by land, beginning the Siege of Kirtland. The royal troops and rebel militia faced off, neither side feeling confident in its ability to launch a successful attack on the other, for two months before fighting the Battle of Sentinel Hill in May 1758. Meanwhile, revolutionaries across the colony of Mount Zeon began to seize power and dismantle the royal provincial governments. Soon a pan-colonial assembly, the Free Congress of Mount Zeon, was convening in New Esterfield (modern Millstown) and debating independence.