- Goring writes a letter, dated June 17, 1775, from Cambridge, to his mother and sister:
- The company is on the move.
- They don't know their destination or purpose, but they've fallen in line with a bunch of wagons carrying empty barrels.
- Those barrels make him think how much it would stink to die for empty barrels, since the dead—without their souls—are a lot like empty barrels.
- They're led to Cobble Hill, and then to Charlestown Mill Pond, where they fill the barrels with water and bring the barrels back to the hill.
- This is all done at night; he can see men everywhere working to build things—they're fortifying the Hill in one night, and it's a crazy amount of work.
- In the middle of all this work, he sees Octavian in the middle of digging.
- He doesn't call out to him though, because he notices how silent everyone is and how there's a white man with a cane overseeing Octavian and his group.
- The next morning, men start taking up arms, ready to defend the fort they've just built.
- Goring's company is in charge of bringing water to everyone.
- Then dawn comes and everyone just stops because their fort is open for anyone to see.
- As the sun rises, they see people scurrying around on the ships, crying out because they've just seen the militiamen on Bunker Hill.
- The militia are all ready: company after company, made up of regular villagers, looking down at the Bay, ready to defend their homeland.
- The Brits start firing cannons at them.
- Goring tells Shun that there will never be another morning like this one.
- The Adjutant tells his company—which controls the provisions—to fall back to Cambridge, and as Goring's company returns, he can hear the fighting starting up.
- While on the road, he also sees Octavian in his new group.
- Octavian holds up his hands, which are blistered and bloody, and—for the first time—he smiles at Goring.
- That's because he's finally found his cause.
- Goring holds his hand out to Octavian, but Octavian's Corporal orders him back in line.
- Goring's now back at camp and only hears confusing reports of how the Redcoats are in Charlestown and trying to storm the Hill.
- Goring then ends the letter with a Biblical line asking the Lord to help guide them to establish their work through their hands.