The Kenton Carry

I’m seriously nerding out on this Tactical Games stuff. It’s so bad that I woke up at 3 a.m. the other morning with a notion for a drill in my head. I know.

Like the Steve Earle song says:

…It come to me when I was asleep
And it wakes me up sometimes
I can’t get no rest, you know the rest

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Of course this thing was inspired by an incident from Frontier Partisan history. Dig the caper…

From Warriors of the Wildlands:

April 24, 1777 — Fort Boonesborough, Kentucky

The young frontiersman leaned against the rough log palisade gate of Fort Boonesborough, his long flintlock rifle cradled in his arms. He felt no twinge of shame as he watched other men gather wood in the clearing outside the fort. Such labor was not his calling. The youth’s indolent pose belied his alertness. His keen eyes roved over the distant tree line, looking for movement, sign that the marauding Shawnee had returned.

The warriors had been raiding through the Kentucky lands, killing cattle, burning the settlers’ rude cabins, scalping the settlers who trespassed on their hunting grounds. They’d made several serious attacks on Kentucky’s handful of fortified stations. The raiders were supplied and encouraged by British agents, at war with these rebels who sought to put themselves beyond the reach of the King’s authority.

The frontiersman was only 22 years old, but already a veteran of the frontier region known as the Middle Ground. He called himself Simon Butler. It was not his true name. That had been left behind in old Virginia, along with the battered, bloody body of a romantic rival.

Shots rang out and clouds of powder smoke rose from the brush at the edge of the clearing some two hundred yards distant. Two of the wood-gatherers fell. A party of Indians burst from cover and rushed forward to take the scalps. Kenton and a couple of other sentinels rushed from the fort; Simon fired on the run and killed one of the warriors. The Indians ran away. It seemed that this was only a small raiding party, and Daniel Boone led a party of men out of the fort in pursuit. It was a mistake; the attack had been a ruse to draw the men out of the fort. A wave of nearly 100 warriors boiled out of the woods, rushing to cut the frontiersmen off from the fort. Boone saw the danger; his men skidded to a halt to face this menace. They fired a volley, then charged at the Indians, trying to club their way past them to the security of the fort.

Boone went down, his ankle broken by a musketball, and a Shawnee warrior leaped forward to tomahawk the helpless frontiersman. Simon, having reloaded, rushed up and shot the Indian through the chest. Dropping his rifle, he lifted Boone and lumbered toward the fort. Supporting fire was coming from the palisade, and the men had broken through the mass of warriors, but two Indians charged the burdened frontiersman with raised tomahawks.

Simon lunged at them, shoving Boone’s body before him, knocking the warriors to the ground. Scrambling to his feet, he wrenched his own tomahawk from his belt and brained one warrior with a savage blow. He kicked the other in the ribs, then picked up the unconscious Boone and ran for the gate. Most of the men were inside, but Boone’s plucky daughter Jemima ran out to the faltering frontiersman and they managed to drag her father safely into the fort, the gate barred behind them.

The disappointed Shawnee fell to sniping at long range, and soon gave up and pulled out — this time for good.

Boone, regaining consciousness and gritting his teeth against the pain of a wound that would nag him for the rest of his life, called Simon to him.

“Well, Simon,” he said, “you have behaved like a man today. Indeed, you are a fine fellow.”

The young fugitive was glad to hear it.

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Inspired by this legendary incident, I crafted a drill around lugging a 100# Heavy Bag amid other exertions. My fellow Frontier Partisans, I give you…

THE KENTON CARRY

Load: 1 AR mag = 10 rounds

2 pistol = 5 rounds

Targets: 5 clays at approx. 50 yards (CLOSING DISTANCE); pistol silhouette = 15 yards

Course: Zimmeran Butte Cinder Pit

1. Run to Zimmerman Butte sign and back (approx. 250 yards total with 50-yard hill climb)

2. Carry Heavy Bag around cone 35-yards distant and return to firing line (70 yards total)

3. Rifle: 10 rounds for 5 targets. With each hit or movement, must throw 24 kg (53#) kettlebell forward. Move to KB. If all 5 targets hit, each left-over round = -3 seconds on time.

4. Carry KB to pistol firing line; 5 goblet thrusters/5 rounds X2

5. Carry Heavy Bag around cone 35-yards distant and return to firing line (70 yards total)

END — REPEAT AS DESIRED

Scoring: Clays must be broken with at least “visible chip.” All pistol rounds in A-zone. 3-second penalty for misses. Left-over rifle rounds = -3 seconds.

Sunday run: Short and sharp and kinda mean. That last carry-Boone-to-the-fort gassed both of us pretty good. Rullman posted a time of 7:37; I posted 7:53. That’ll be a baseline for when we return to the drill in a couple of weeks.

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Next up? The Colter Crusher? The Sieber Slam? Burnham Ball-Buster? Shangani Smoker? Heh! This is fun.