Eddington was a sleepy little town in the path of the rag tag army of George Washington. His objective was bent on driving General Albert Hargrave from his occupation of the capital of a mid-Atlantic colony declaring statehood under the newly formed United States Constitution. The morale of his men was low. He did everything he could to keep them fired up and on target.

General Hargrave's spies told him the route that Washington was taking and decided to make sure that he couldn’t resupply his army along the way by destroying everything in his path. 

Hargrave sent detachments out to all the little towns and farms along the way. When they came upon a town, the British troops would call everyone into the street and ask who was loyal to the crown. 

They then would hang one or two of those they felt weren't telling the truth and then go about pillaging the town and nearby farms for whatever food and wealth they had. 

Beating and torturing the men, making them unfit to be soldiers, and raping the women and girls. They delighted a great deal in raping the girls. Always telling them that their babies would be loyal to the crown. It was devastating to the towns that it happened to. Crops along the path were pillaged and then burned. Livestock driven back to the British Army or slaughtered and carried off.

When Washington's spies got wind of what was happening, he decided to send ahead an elite cadre of his rifleman followed by some cavalry to ambush the raiding party approaching Eddington.

In town, the people had already suffered the war. Two sisters, Peggy and Eleanor Cook, had lost their mother to smallpox and their father had gone off to join the Continental Army. They hadn't heard from him in three years and feared the worst. 

Along with two other orphans, Lillian John and Julie Morgan, they had managed to keep their family house together by gardening, raising animals, gathering firewood and surviving as best they could. All teenagers between the age of 15 and 17, the dregs of human drunkenness that remained in town had to be avoided, and sometimes fought off, at all cost. They kept brooms and axes by every door when these miscreants came knocking.

Word traveled fast through the countryside. When the girls heard that British soldiers may be coming to do harm, they quickly put together camping materials and left town for a location they didn't think that the British would look for them. Before they left, they buried as much as they could everything of any value they had in the house. Carefully covering every place where dirt was turned to prevent anyone from discovering where those things were buried. It was a desperate act, but those were desperate times.

The place the girls chose to hide was a hollow with a creek running through it with steep walls of granite that made it difficult to access. A place where they had picnicked in happier times. As soon as they arrived, the girls set out snares for small game like squirrels and rabbits and begin gathering both firewood and greens, along with berries that were ripe at that time of the summer. There was more food in this place than in town.

On the third day, they heard muskets firing close by. Horses whinnying There was loud yelling and screams of those who were wounded or about to die from bayonet, sword or knife. It was terrible to hear, and the girls hid in fear.

When the sounds of battle were over, near evening, they crept downstream of the creek until they came to the gory result of the battle. Both sides had dragged off all but the mortally wounded. They paid no attention to the red coats, but those they found dying in the tattered Continental Army uniforms, they comforted and gave them water until their eyes glassed over and they were gone.

Feeling safer after what they learned, the sisters by bond returned to the town with a new understanding of the horror of war. Strangely, it sent urges through them they didn't quite understand.

That evening, while they sat by the fireplace to keep warm, Peggy, the eldest and self-appointed mother of the others, said. "I know you all wish you had suitors like the Bible tells us and we learned in church. But since I've been bleeding, I've been feeling emotions like never before. While helping one of those guys die today, I had the urge to have sinful relations with him. Did you?

She looked at the fire light flickering off their faces and they all nodded their heads. Julie said, "I get sinful urges all the time. But today, I wanted the guy I was comforting to touch me. I put his dying hand on my breast under my shift and he seemed to light up before he gasped his last breath. His breaches bulged and I was amazed that he was able to become very large in my hand placed there as he expired. I got wet!"

Lillian felt she had to confess, too. "I miss my Jacob since he went off to war. We used to play down by the creek, and he would rub me between my legs. Now, I do it myself…do you?"

There was a nod of agreement around the room and Peggy confirmed. “Let’s face It. From what we saw today, Daddy probably isn't coming home or your boyfriend, Jacob, Lillian, either. I'm ready to have babies even without a man for now. We need to reward those guys who've been fighting for us under conditions we can't even imagine based on how they looked. Starving and wounded many times."

“What are you suggesting, Peggy? Eleanor, intrigued, asked.

"I suggest we go find the army tomorrow with all the food we can gather and then give some comfort to some of the young men there that I know are starved for it."

They all giggled. That night, as they had become accustomed, slept together in the same bed to keep warm. Roaming hands on bare bodies released some of the tension they felt anticipating going out to meet these brave men of war the next day.

Gathering up baskets of food, including two rabbits and three squirrels that they had snared the day before, the girls set out the next morning and it wasn't long until they smelled campfires. Washington's Army had camped just beyond the previous day’s skirmish site along the same creek. In the distance, they could see General Washington sitting on a log reading some dispatches and talking to people coming and going.

Young officers were surrounding him, mostly at campfires cooking what food they had and chatting.

The sisters had never seen a man so grand and just had to meet General Washington. With Peggy at the lead, they followed her through the encampment until they came up to him holding out their baskets.

Washington called out. “Hello young ladies, my men will appreciate the food you bring. But who sends you here? Your mothers?"

Peggy, her voice quavering, answered, “No, sir. We are orphans of disease and the war. Yesterday, we came upon your dying from the raid on the British. We comforted them as they died. We want to do more. We came to comfort the living as well."

Washington's face lit up and showed that he knew what she meant by comfort. “You are awfully young." He shook his head. "Are any of you married? Are you virgins? You don't look like whores."

"I can assure you, sir, that we are not that. But I am a virgin, and I believe my sisters here are also virgins." She turned and saw them all timidly agreeing with their heads nodding up and down.

Perplexed, Washington looked down on them. "It is a great sacrifice that you are making today. Allow me to select who will go with you. The men here are hungry for love. I can't let them take advantage of your innocence and rape you in their eagerness.

“Young lady, since you are the leader, I have a special person for you. Do you see that young boy over there? He is my drummer boy and has turned 15 in battle with me. He has not known a woman and I think you should be his first."

General Washington raised his hand and signaled to his drummer boy to come. By that time everyone in the vicinity was watching. The boy came running over.

"Timothy Johnson, I want you to meet…he hesitated…"

"Peggy Cook." She held out her hand and he took it.

“Boy, please take Miss Cook to an empty tent or wherever you two decide and allow her to show you what a woman can offer you that you haven't had before. You've earned it in battle. And, be gentle with her, she's not a snare drum." He laughed and those around him echoed.

Johnson saluted, turned and led Peggy away toward a tent nearby in the camp.

Before they got there, Peggy grabbed his hand and said, "Timothy, not the tent. They might hear us. Let me take you to a place along the nearby the creek up here where we could be in the sun on the bank." With her free hand she pointed the way.

“Call me Tim. Wherever you want to go, I'll go. You are so beautiful. I can't believe it! General George would never let me be with those whores that follow us. You don't have any devil diseases my father warned me about, do you?"

“No, silly. I'm a good Christian girl. I'm as excited as you are. You can call me Peg." She could see his excitement in his eyes. 

Tim followed her silently after that. They soon arrived at the moss-covered spot briefly in the sun this time of day. They sat down beside each other on the soft, damp moss and just stared at each other for a few moments. Each of them a bit frightened about going any further. Although both of their hearts were thumping nearly out of their breasts.

Peggy pulled her knees up and with it, her skirt and single petticoat. Revealing much more than the usual ankle below the long skirts modesty required girls to wear. It made him so excited; he began unbuttoning his britches to give his struggling penis more room. 

It soon popped out into the sunlight to Peggy's delight only to find that Tim had not bathed and opening his britches let out and awful stench that repelled her.

She exclaimed! “You will have to wash off if I'm going to touch that…what do you call it?" She immediately pulled off her top revealing her small budding breasts and then stood up, to untie her skirt and petticoat.

Startled by seeing her breasts, Tim grabbed hold of it and begin pumping furiously. In barely a moment, creamy white sperm was spurting in front of him. "I'm sorry, but my Peter got the best of me, and I had to relieve him. I hope you don't mind?"

Curious, Peggy replied. “Not at all. That's the first time I've ever seen a man's seed that I read about in the Bible. Such force behind it! It seemed like the devil had taken over you!" She's snickered, dropped her skirts and yelled, “You’d better get undressed and, in the water, or I won't let you catch me!"

The creek was quite cold and only about waist deep, but they were in it and very soon, without any soap or a rag, Peggy was washing Tim's peter and balls as best she could. The cold water had shriveled it, but her hands seemed to revive it.

Likewise, Tim was pretending to wash her while running his hands over her breasts and erect nipples and then even venturing below the waterline to feel the softness of hair beginning to grow.

As he rubbed her underwater, he asked. "What do you call yours?"

"I prefer to call it my muffin. Because when I have full hair down there it will look like a muffin." She laughed and ran back up on the bank, soaking wet, to let the sun warm and dry her. It felt so good and so free for her to lie there naked with him staring at her. 

Her muffin beckoned him, so Tim forgot any formalities and manners. He came out of the water dripping and walked up to her looking down with his Peter yearning more than him. Drooling already, looking for a spot to hide. He hadn't done anything like this before, but he had watched some of the men with the whores and had masturbated while watching. So, he thought he knew what to do.

Peggy's eyes were glistening with excitement as she allowed him to spread her legs and bend down between them, reaching for the target that she found eager to have something touch. In a minute, Tim was probing and spurting again, his seed. But he stopped short.

“There’s something wrong, Tim whispered huskily, nearly out of breath, “There’s something in your muffin. It won't let me enter. I think I'll wait with this until I have a bride, Peg." Still wet, he began to put on his uniform as though in defeat. 

“It’s my fault, Tim. If I were a more experienced woman, I might've been able to show you how. But I love you!" She grabbed her skirt and petticoat and pulled them up into place, tying them tightly again. "You can kiss me.” She suddenly blurted, pulling her top over her head.

Tim hadn't finished buttoning all the brass buttons on his uniform but stopped and approached her.

Their lips approached each other but missed a bit, bumping teeth, and both were disappointed with what happened. It wasn't like Peggy thought it would be. She took his hand again and led him back into the camp all the way to where General Washington was still doing business from that log.

“Ahoy Tim," Washington called out as they approached. “Did the young Miss treat you well?"

Trying to hide his embarrassment and emotion, and a bit shy, Tim answered, lying… "She did Sir, that she did." He saluted and then hurried off to his tent. Probably to relieve Peter again as his private one man show.

“And you, young lady. How did you find Master Timothy?"

“And you, Miss, were you satisfied?" Looking at Peggy keenly with a grin forming on his cheeks.

“Tim was very sweet…he even kissed me. But have you someone in mind a bit older?" Peggy blushed, but General Washington, wise in the ways of women, thought for a moment…

"I have someone in mind that will be gentle and do as I say. How do you feel about Negro men?"

"I don't know sir. I've only seen them once or twice in the village. And there's one sitting over there whittling on a piece of wood." She pointed.

Washington called out, "Joshua, I have a job for you. Please come over."

The black man in full uniform, jumped to his feet and came directly over. Stopped and saluted stiffly. He was the handsomest man, tall and with no beard, that Peggy had ever seen.

Washington ordered. "Joshua, this is Peggy Cook. She is a virgin from a nearby village who has come to give our soldiers some pleasure while we briefly camp here today. You have served me so well through all these campaigns that you need a reward. Go freely with her and be very gentle with her."

Joshua responded, “Yes Massa, I will. I will be most gentle.”

Peggy led Joshua out of the camp amid some snickers and guffaws, though subdued near the General, nonetheless, a sense of disagreement of some of the men hanging around who didn't get to go off with one of the girls, so far.

Peggy was happy that her spot wasn't taken although she passed the others going and coming with soldiers in tow. She turned around and faced Joshua with a bit of trepidation. He was so dark, and so handsome. So manly, she was about to swoon.

She spoke. "Joshua, I'm a bit inexperienced with a man of your stature. Do you have experience with young women like me?"

"I do, Missa Peggy. I has a wife about your age when I first met her, Martha, and three childrens. I miss them somethin’ terrible! While I be gone, Martha be set upon by white men at Mount Vernon…so’s guess it's in God's power for me to be with you. I'll be gentle." He began to take off his uniform.

Peggy quickly stripped to naked with her excitement rising as Joshua took off his great uniform and blouse revealing a massive, muscled chest with a tight curly patch of hair that shined in the sun making him look like a god she had seen in statues. But when he released his britches and his peter popped out, there was no rank smell like with Tim and it was twice the size of Tim's. She gasped!

“Now, now Missy, don't you fret. I mean no harm.”

"it's just…just that I've never seen anything so beautiful as you. Can I touch you?"

“Yes, Missy, you can." He looked down at her with a kind expression on his face and his hands out and up in submission.

Peggy moved in close and reached up to put her hands on his chest. She found it as hard as she expected, and she started to slide her hands around and down his hard belly until she reached the tight curls above his growing manhood. All the while looking up into his eyes.

She reached up and took Joshua’s hands and put them on her breasts. And then took hold of his manhood and felt it grow larger and longer, harder and harder in her hands. Before long, she was playing with his balls and Joshua had moved his hands down to between her legs and was gently stroking her in a way that was bringing her nearly to swoon from the feeling she was getting, stronger by the minute.

“Your peter is so big." Peggy whispered to his nearby ear. Her voice quavering with ecstasy.

“My what, Missa?"

She tightened her grip on his manhood and stroked a little faster. Precum was dripping off the end. He understood.

Joshua, moved from gently stroking with the tips of his fingers the entrance to Peggy's vagina to pushing his index finger in slowly moving it in and out as Peggy’s vagina, swollen with blood and wet, let the finger in until he came upon her hymen, and it stopped. Knowing that she was a virgin, he continued gently until the skin gave way and a trickle of blood came running out.

Seeing Peggy’s response to the blood in her eyes, Joshua whispered, “Don’cha worry none, Missa, that’s s’posed ta happen."

Taking his manhood in his right hand, he pulled back the skin and gently begin rubbing the head on her vagina opening. Gradually, it opened further. 

Joshua had to fight his wish to kiss her on her soft cheeks and mouth, but as a Negro slave, he dare not do that. What he was doing was a violation of God's will according to his teaching. It was only his charge from his master that he was willing to do. Yet so pleasurable that when he was only in just a little as she was opening to him, he couldn't stand it anymore…

“Missa, oh Missa. I’s…I’s ‘bout to come!" He couldn't hold it anymore. He ejaculated heavily into her vagina and all his muscles gave out, near collapsing on her when he did.

“I’m sorry, Missa. So sorry. I’s didn't mean to do that."

Peggy was so excited and warm; she had felt every drop flowing into her. She only could reply, "I'm not sorry…could you do it again?"

Joshua obliged. This time, he entered a little bit further before he let go with even more sperm than before. After that, they just sat together on the soft moss in the late afternoon sunlight, silently caressing one another until it was time for them to return.

As Peggy and Joshua came once again to where General Washington was conducting business, she saw her three sisters nearby chatting to young officers they had been with.

Washington's booming voice called out, "Hello, it's best that you be headed back home. Will be pulling camp and marching in the morning again. I wouldn't try to follow us; it may be too dangerous. We will remember you. You are a part of military service now. You can be proud." He laughed. And all the men around him laughed, too. Joshua suppressed a chuckle.

As the girls walked quickly back towards the safety of their home in town, curiosity flourished, and they begin asking questions of one another about their experience. When they got home, they made a soup from what little they had left that they didn't take to the soldiers. Then sat before the fireplace and talked about their experiences. Just talking about it made Peggy, for one, all warm inside. It was an experience that would last a lifetime for her. Like the other girls.

Nine months later, they called a midwife, and little Joshua, Jr. was born. He was very light skinned brown with brown eyes but had the very attractive facial features of his father. Within a week, Lillian had a little girl that she named Ernestine. Eleanor and Julie were not pregnant but acted as surrogate mothers when it came to nursing the two babies because the lack of food made their mothers' milk not adequate, especially for Joshua, who was always hungry.

After Yorktown, the surviving Continental Army soldiers from Eddington, returned. Clyde Edding, whose family had established the town, was wounded in three places but had risen to the rank of Captain. As they passed the villagers waiting beside the main road through town, he spotted a girl he knew from school, Peggy Cook, standing there with a little boy waving with her at her knee. He was smitten immediately and within six months they were married in Peggy's uncle’s church.

The young couple settled into the Edding home, and soon after, had two little daughters. 

The young Lieutenant that had spent the afternoon with Eleanor, Robert Edding, couldn't get her out of his mind after the war and came to Eddington looking for her. She welcomed him into the home with the three of them. Shortly thereafter, they were married and eventually had nine children.

Julie also got married to a middle-aged town apothecary owner, but they had no children except his from his first marriage. Lillian never married but became a wet nurse and nanny for all of Eleanor's children in the Archer home.

Joshua grew up very fast and was very intelligent. He excelled in school and was very strong in all athletic endeavors. He was called to study at West Point and became an officer. But before he went off to college, a question that had bothered him nearly his whole life came to mind the day before he was to take the stagecoach to New York and the Hudson River Road.

They were packing his things when he asked the question. “Mom, I look nothing like my sisters. And certainly not like the boys that I go to school with here. I know I've been here since I was born, but although my skin is quite light, I favor looking like some of the Negroes I've seen. Is Dad my father?

The question embarrassed Peggy, but Joshua was grown now, and keeping a secret would only make things tougher for her. She didn't regret what she had done, but it was hard for her to tell him about it…she tried to frame her words carefully…

"Josh, during the War, your Aunt Eleanor and I were orphans in her home. Aunts Lillian and Julie were also orphans, so we stayed together for protection and to survive. It was very difficult without our parents. We all were virgins but coming-of-age and wanted husbands and children, like you.

"We decided to go to General George Washington’s camp to find men and we succeeded because President Washington was so kind to us to offer us his best men for our safety as naïve young girls. 

He offered me his valet, a very handsome and strong black man who was one of his slaves at Mount Vernon. That man was also named Joshua. He was gentle and wonderful to behold. Like I know you will be to the women or woman that you marry. I think of him often of that very brief time I spent with him. Every time I see you, he's on my mind. My first, true love. But as a slave, I couldn't be with him. You are free and will thrill some woman like he did me.”

By that time, both were crying, and Peggy held her own Joshua in her arms, knowing that he may go off to war, someday.

After four years studying war at West Point, Joshua received his commission and was immediately put in charge of a regiment because the War of 1812 had broken out and the White House had been burned. At one point during the campaign, they were camped in Virginia near Mount Vernon. 

Captain Joshua Edding took leave from his troops and rode to the massive plantation. It didn't take him long after making inquiry when the butler of the great house introduced him to a stately, strong man working on the grounds to the house with white hair, bearing a striking resemblance to himself.

Captain Edding was at a loss for words, but he managed to hold out his hand to the man and say, “My mother told me that she came to Washington's campsite and met you. She never was in touch again, but she had me nine months later and believes that you are my father."

The old man began crying. Eventually, he calmed down enough to answer. “Yes, Massa told me to go with Miss Peggy and I did. I knew it was against the Lord's Commandment, but I needed to obey my Massa, too. I was torn, but your mother was so sweet, and she wanted so much to have a baby, that I did what she asked. Now, after all these years, here you are, my third son." He shook his head and disbelief. Tears came again.

“How many children do you have. How many of my half brothers and sisters?"

“Four brothers an’ three sisters. They all be gone ‘cept Clara, she be seven."

“Gone? Where’d they go?"

“My Martha, she passed six years ago ah typhus. Two of my boys, too. But the rest, they be gone cuz they’s free. Off to school in Philadelphia and DC and other places. I’m proud of them."

“Why are you here?"

“Cuz I’s has to. When Washington, he become president, he gave me and my family freedom for mah service in the Continent Army. I’s too old and too sat in my ways to work for somebody else soes I stays on and he pays me and provides for me even into my old age here, where I was born. My Clara is too young to go out with her sisters. She works in the house and the ladies there take care o’ her soes I don't have to."

With that, Joshua took Jr. into the kitchen in the big house and introduced him to his half sister, Clara. Junior was taken by how precocious and bright eyed that beautiful little girl was. He imagined what her sisters looked like. Maybe he could find a woman like that who was free that he could marry. Maybe.

Unfortunately, shortly after that while guarding the ramparts of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor, Captain Edding was struck by a cannonball from a British ship and died. Peggy cried for days when she learned three months later. She never knew that her Joshua had met his father at Mount Vernon.

Copyright 2025 © Ronald W. Hull

12/4/25