The Pennsylvania Rangers

By Marvis Parch

One of my ancestors fought in The American Revolutionary War. His son did also in a different military outfit. This screenplay/novella describes Captain Philips Pennsylvania Rangers and their action against Great Britain. In Western Pennsylvania, encroachment by the Iroquois Indians with British advisers involved unwanted visitation, skirmishes, and battles upon farms, frontier communities, villages and towns. In the late 1700's while the American and British forces battled each other in traditional tactics, the Iroquois, fought under a scalp bounty policy to prove kills and used stealth, terror, and surprise.
This historical novella is given dialogue while fictional, adds to the excitement and emotion of those who live in the arena of an ongoing war,
Much of the actual scenes, are left to the director to establish in the movie and to the reader's imagination' Fighting, imprisonment in a prisoner of war facility, escape, and prisoner of war exchange are described. .

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marvis Parch
• Release date: Oct 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310824876

Marvis Parch

Marvis Parch is my pen name.I have three children through my first wife who died in 1993. I got enough courage to marry again in 1997. Both of these women are angels. I got a Bonus Daughter in my 2nd marriage.I have been a practicing lawyer in Florida since 1971. Punta Gorda, a Florida Municipal Corporation used to have me as their sole & part-time Municipal Attorney for 15 years. I currently am a sole practitioner.I have three e-books available as follows:1. The Pennsylvania Rangers. During the American Revolutionary War an ancestor of mine fought in Captain Philips' Pennsylvania Rangers. This screenplay/novella provides a lifelike insight via a fictional history of their combat with the Iroquois, complete with British advisors. Author: Marvis Parch, my pen name.2. Snead's Ferry Tales. This is a volume of short stories. Author: Marvis Parch, my pen name.3. Foxy Chives. Removed from Smashwords, but available at Amazon: A war diary by J.M. Rooney, from the Vietnamese War, which the Vietnamese call the American War. In college, I had changed my major and got a draft notice in 1966, after being out of sequence in the eyes of the administration.The United States Marine Corps took me in. As you will see below, I had no choice.In late 1967 my Regimental Commander in Camp Pendleton, California, slapped me on my back and said "Lance-Corporal Rooney, you are a great instructor in artillery, you will never go to the war."Never say never.About three months later the Tet Offensive was launched on the South Vietnamese and their foreign allies.Three days later I was in Vietnam with the artillery battalion sent over with Regimental Landing Team 27.I found a battery training notebook in my pocket and started a war diary on the plane ride over.The cover of this book says that a college drop-out documents the 95% of the time that a combat Marine is not engaged in the terror of combat. If you want a description of combat I refer you to other authors.A year or two before completing this book, more than a handful of draft dodgers from the 1960's during a vacation in Vancouver, Canada, did conversations with me. They still regretted the options available to young men in America, during those days. For those who stayed in Canada, their option was to go into the military or go to Canada. Getting a 4-F classification from the Draft Board was not an option to them, obviously. Me too.Draft dodgers who came back to America have never crossed my path.At cocktail parties those males my age who contrived a 4-F status or got a bona fide rating were shunned by me.I was born on the Marine base, at Quantico, Virginia. My military dependent's card had not expired at the time I enlisted in 1966 and after my war experience, I became a civilian when my ready reserve time was over. Honorably Discharged. No longer was I a Government Mule, but still remain a military brat in America.Save any criticism unless you read this book, or have walked in our shoes. My Dad, a career Marine, would have killed me.We call the U.S.A., America. America is larger than the states. It is larger than the world. America is a place where you can dream and reach it by keeping your focus, and ignoring distractions and obstacles in your path.

Book preview

THE PENNSYLVANIA RANGERS – This screenplay puts together the history of an America Revolutionary War fighting unit in a fictionalized, but historical context. I was handed a pamphlet at my father’s funeral in 1979 that showed he was a descendant of a ranger in Captain Phillip’s Pennsylvania Rangers.

A new highway created a need to relocate the remains of those rangers who were buried together. Thus in the early 20th Century a reburial and dedication was done. The pamphlet was created for the rededication of the new resting place.

I used the pamphlet, Mr. Hale Sipe’s book The Indian Wars of Western Pennsylvania (2nd Edition 1931), and a cousin’s papers to confirm the names and dates.

The reader must use your imagination as a movie director would in this 21st Century in doing a film production about occurrences in the late 18th Century.

Enjoy this action filled account of this company of rangers and refer this screenplay on to any film magnate or connections in the entertainment industry you may have.

The Pennsylvania Rangers

INT - THE STUDY - DAY - FADE IN

THE PRESENT

Two large hands are chip carving a rifle stock. The chisel and rubber mallet work methodically and wood chips fly out on the glass desk top and some spill over the edge to the carpet. A cat is sleeping in one of the chairs in front of the desk.

Palm trees in the neighbor’s yard blow back and forth when looking out of the second story window. The occasional wind and the thump of the mallet are the only noise heard.

GRANDSON O.S.

Abuelo, what are you doing?

A young boy about ten or eleven years of age appears from around the corner and enters the study through the front door. His hair is jet black and his dark eyes sparkle.

GRANDFATHER

I am working on a musket, GRANDSON, see?

The GRANDFATHER lays the musket stock on the top of the desk. The study has a double bookshelf on one side and a Chinese wardrobe guards the front door. On top of the wardrobe a cup with pencils and chopsticks, a small Foo Dog collection, and a disarmed 60 mm mortar round sits next to a dish with keys and change in it.

GRANDSON

Is that from your grandfather?

The GRANDSON tilts the chair and the cat and wood chips land on the floor. The chair is brought close to the front of the desk and the cat jumps up on the other chair. The cat still has several wood chips clinging to his coat.

The side of the musket stock had the first two words: Capt. Phillips roughly carved out and the second two words: Penn. Rangers were penciled in, for future carving with the chisel and mallet.

GRANDFATHER

No, this musket is a replica of what

was being used in the Revolutionary War. . .

The GRANDFATHER leans over and picks up the barrel portion of the musket and hands it to the GRANDSON.

GRANDFATHER

. . . This is the barrel portion, look at the rifle grooves on the inside.

The GRANDSON puts the barrel vertically on the carpet and looks down into the tip. The GRANDFATHER puts a compact disk into the laptop computer to the side of the project on the desk top. Music begins. The screen saver: JUST ANOTHER PERFECT DAY IN PARADISE snakes across the desk computer monitor, in red.

GRANDFATHER

Help me.

He picks up the loose wood chips and places three or four small handfuls in a cardboard box on the other side of the desk top that reads: Revolutionary War Replica Flintlock Musket. The GRANDSON does one handful and picks some from the carpet and an equal amount from the cat’s fur and drops the chips in the open box.

GRANDSON

Who is Capped Phillips? . . . Is he a

relative of ours?

GRANDFATHER

No, not a relative. Capped is captain.

That is a rank above lieutenant, but

just below a major in the army. Captain

Phillips was the commander of a

company of Rangers out of Western

Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War.

The GRANDFATHER hands the stock to the GRANDSON and turns it over to show the carving on the other side: PHILIP SKELLY. Pointing to the name, the GRANDFATHER continues.

GRANDFATHER

That is your relative. He