News:

We need volunteers in sales, marketing, PR, IT, and general "running of an organization." 
Maximize your Appleseed energy to make this program grow, and help fill the empty spots
on the firing line!  An hour of time spent at this level can have the impact of ten or a
hundred hours on the firing line.  Want to help? Send a PM to Monkey!

Main Menu

Kentucky Long Rifleman at the Battle of New Orleans: Lt. Ephraim Brank

Started by CarrollMS, May 01, 2022, 12:16:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

CarrollMS

BLUF:  What can a single rifleman do in a battle?


Ramblin Wreck told the story of Lt Ephraim McLean Brank at the Wilmington, OH Appleseed on Sunday, and read from this eyewitness account below. In 1901 the letter was published in a Kentucky History and Lt Brank was identified, but the story had been passed orally by Brank and his men for years.  (see artwork attached)



"We marched in solid column in a direct line, upon the American defenses.  I belonged to the staff; and as we advanced, we watched through our glasses the position of the enemy, with that intensity an office only feels when marching into the jaws of death.  It was a strange sight, that breastwork, with a crowd of beings behind, their heads only visible above the line of defense.  We could distinctly see their long rifles lying on the works, and the batteries in our front, with their great mouths gaping toward us.  We could also see the position of General Jackson, with his staff around him.  But what attracted our attention most, was the figure of a tall man standing on the breastworks, dressed in linsey-woolsey, with buckskin leggings, and a broad-brimmed felt hat that fell round the face, almost concealing the features.  He was standing in one of those picturesque, graceful attitudes peculiar to those natural men dwelling in forests.  The body rested on the left leg and swayed with a curved line upward.  The right arm was extended, the hand grasping the rifle near the muzzle, the butt of which rested near the toe of his right foot.  With the left hand he raised the rim of the hat from his eyes and seemed gazing intently on our advancing column.  The cannon of the enemy had opened on us and tore through our works with dreadful slaughter; but we continued to advance, unwavering and cool, as if nothing threatened our progress.


The roar of cannon had no effect upon the figure before us; he seemed fixed and motionless as a statue.  At last he moved, threw back his hat rim over the crown with his left hand, raised the rifle to the shoulder, and took aim at our group.


Our eyes were riveted upon him; at whom had he leveled his piece?  But the distance was so great, that we looked at each other and smiled.  We saw the rifle flash and very rightly conjectured that his aim was in the direction of our party.  My right-hand companion, as noble a fellow as ever rode at the head of a regiment, fell from his saddle.


The hunter paused a few moments without removing his gun from his shoulder.  Then he reloaded and assumed his former attitude.  Throwing the hat rim over his eyes and again holding it up with the left hand, he fixed his piercing gaze upon us as if hunting out another victim.  Once more the hat rim was thrown back, and the gun raised to his shoulder.  This time we did not smile, but cast glances at each other, to see which of us must die.


When again the rifle flashed, another one of our party dropped to the earth.  There was something most awful in this marching on to certain death.  The cannon and thousands of musket balls playing upon our ranks, we cared not for, for there was a chance of escaping them.  Most of us had walked as coolly upon batteries more destructive without quailing, but to know that every time that rifle was leveled toward us, and its bullet sprang from the barrel, one of us must surely fall; to see it rest motionless as if poised on a rack, and know, when the hammer came down, that the messenger of death drove unerringly to its goal, to know this, and still march on, was awful.  I could see nothing but the tall figure standing on the breastworks; he seemed to grow, phantom-like, higher and higher, assuming, through the smoke, the supernatural appearance of some great spirit of death.  Again died he reload and discharge, and reload and discharge his rifle, with the same unfailing aim and the same unfailing result; and it was indescribable pleasure that I beheld, as we neared the American lines, the sulphurous cloud gathering around, and shutting that spectral hunter from our gaze.


We lost the battle; and to  my mind, the Kentucky rifleman contributed more to our defeat than anything else; for while he remained in our sight our attention was drawn from our duties; and when, at last, he became enshrouded in the smoke, the work was complete; we were in utter confusion, and unable, in the extremity, to restore order sufficient to make any successful attack - the battle was lost."


McElroy's footnote, page 365, following this quotation, reads:  This manuscript is marked ‘Kentucky Rifleman in battle of New Orleans, Durrett Collection.  The hero here described was E. M. Brank, of Greenville, Kentucky.'  The manuscript referred to is not signed but gives the name of E. M. Brank as the hero of the sketch.  The late Z. F. Smith informed me that this description was first printed about the year 1820 in one of George Robert Gleig's books on the campaigns of the British at Washington and New Orleans.  I have not had access to any of these works by Gleig and am unable, therefore, to refer the reader to the quotation in the original.  At any rate, this interesting description was quoted as early as 1832 by Walter Walcott in The Republican of Boston, and later republished, but slightly changed, by various Kentucky papers, clippings of which are still preserved by Rockwell S. Brank and other descendants of E. M. Brank.


Trivia- Brank is my distant 8th cousin once removed.  :F





"Pro Libertate"
Distinguished,
Known Distance,
Rimfire KD 200

ArmyVet

QuoteWe saw the rifle flash and very rightly conjectured that his aim was in the direction of our party.  My right-hand companion, as noble a fellow as ever rode at the head of a regiment, fell from his saddle.


The hunter paused a few moments without removing his gun from his shoulder.
That would be the 6th step, "Follow Through" (credit to  Ramblin' Wreck) :)
My favorite Appleseed story by far!
The difference between a novice and a master: the novice does it until they get it right. The master does it until they can't get it wrong.

Guntuckian

Thanks for sharing!  A most excellent example of what just one Rifleman can do!
--------------------------------------------------
1st Appleseed:           04/20/2013 - Palm Bay, FL
Rifleman:                   02/01/2014 - Palm Bay, FL
Cleared 1st Redcoat:   02/02/2014 - Palm Bay, FL
1st KD:  Palm Bay 8/14
1st IBC:  Dunnellon 4/15
Palm Bay 4/17 KD Rifleman
Palm Bay 10/20 Rimfire KD Rifleman
NRA Certified (Rifle and Pistol Instructor, RSO)

O.___.                            
  )V        O.___.                    
  /%       ( V       ,____    O.___.
/  %      o/L         ,___--- V

Ramblin' Wreck

I love this story. I try to never miss an opportunity to read it.
Wreck
"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."  ― Samuel Adams

KD Requal Huntsville 11/13/22 with scoped Service Rifle 47/50
25m Requal 2/1/2020 with AR15 scored 247
25m Requal 4/17/2021 with .22 bolt gun - 237
61 KD and UKD events run/worked as of 1/18/22

You can't miss fast enough to qualify.

Without a heritage every generation starts over.

Beware an old man who still shoots iron sights.

"War is when your Government tells you who the enemy is. Revolution is when you figure it out for yourself" - unknown

Captain

There's things that gnaw on a man worse than dyin'. - Open Range

Abu Josh

Excellent!  I'll have to include that in class before I take my Cadets to the Chalmette Battlefield for a history field trip to "walk the ground."

Regards,
Abu Josh
"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats
in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin."
-Samuel Adams

Rifleman:  30 Oct 2011, Dulzura, CA