The "Lighthouse Army of Two"

This is Scituate Lighthouse, located on the south shore of Massachusetts.  According to the site New England Lighthouses, some interesting history about the light…

During the War of 1812, British warships frequently raided New England coastal towns. On June 11, 1814, British forces plundered and burned a number of vessels at Scituate. Keeper Bates fired two shots from a small cannon, angering the captain of a British warship as it departed.

Less than three months later, Keeper Bates and most of his family were away, leaving 21-year-old Rebecca and 15-year-old (or, according to some accounts, 17-year-old) Abigail in charge. The sisters were horrified to see a British warship anchored in the harbor. In a magazinearticle many years later, Rebecca was quoted:

“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” says I to my sister, “Look here, you take the drum and I’ll take the fife.” I was fond of military music and could play four tunes on the fife — Yankee Doodle was my masterpiece. . . . “What good’ll that do?” says she. “Scare them,” says I. “All you’ve got to do is call the roll. I’ll scream the fife and we must keep out of sight; if they see us they’ll laugh us to scorn.”

The British thought the sound of the fife and drum signaled the approach of the Scituate town militia, and they hastily retreated. Thus was born the legend of Scituate’s “Lighthouse Army of Two.”

Sony NEX 6, edited in Lightrooom 4

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