Battle of the Farm House

Battle of the Farm House
Timeline:	1632 series
Part of The Thirty Years' War
Date May 25, 1631 Location Grantville Result Decisive UMWA victory
Belligerents
United Mine Workers of America	Count Tilly's mercenaries
Commanders and leaders
Dan Frost (WIA) Mike Stearns	Unknown

The Battle of the Farm House was the first "battle" engaged in by the citizens of Grantville after the Ring of Fire event transported the town back to 1631 Thuringia. It took place roughly a half an hour after Grantville "landed" in the past.

The battle was a three phase engagement. The first phase was the unprovoked attack on Grantville Police Chief Dan Frost and a tag-along group of UMWA miners investigating smoke seen down the road away from town. The party investigated in the direction that had been south and east of Grantville, when Dan Frost was knocked down by a terrified girl who was being chased by two mercenaries and would-be rapists. Although Frost was hit in the shoulder by a musket ball, he gunnned the two down in turn. He then deputized the UMWA miners with him, including Mike Stearns, and left Stearns in charge.

After sending Frost back to Grantville for medical care, the posse headed across the small cliff left at the edge of the divide between what had been West Virginia and what was the corresponding outside terrain of Thuringia towards a burning farm they glimpsed through the foliage. After arming themselves, the group formed a military-like skirmish line to "hunt" for the source of the smoke. They came across more soldiers raping a woman and torturing her husband by pinning his hands with knives to his own front door. This began the second "phase", as the posse rescued the brutalized couple after killing the mercenaries in a short pate of gun play. Doctor James Nichols, an out-of-town wedding guest, tended to the man while Stearns and the miners tended the woman and tried to piece together some idea of what is going on, taking in the different construction, technology, terrain, and direction of the sun.

Four more soldiers arrived on horseback, but fled when confronted by the Americans. These soldiers were supposed to be guards for Doctor Balthazar Abrabanel and his daughter Rebecca, whose coach was being pursued by more mercenaries. Adding to the tension, Doctor Abrabanel was having a heart attack. When the driver of the coach abandoned it, Stearns approached the carriage, while the cavalry troop pursuing the carriage appeared in the distance. After Stearns communicated with Rebecca, he realized her father's immediate physical distress, and called Doctor Nichols over to help Doctor Abrabanel. He also realized that the approaching troops intended to harm the Abrabanels. Stearns quickly set up an ambush, initiating the third "phase". The mercenaries charged in and were obliterated by the superior fire power of the up-timers.

The four rescued cvilians were taken back to Grantville. Rebecca Abrabanel had been raised mainly in England and was able to communicate to the people of Grantville (despite period and dialect differences) as to the local situation and date. A backhoe loader was used to bury the dead mercenaries at the farm house, and a warning plaque is placed on the mass grave.