The Battle of Molahchearn, 28 November 1797

Fought on the plain of Molahchearn, in northern Gavshin province, on November 28, 1797, between the federal troops of Almorea's first president, Robert William Howard, and the amassed forces of Frasyrland province under the command of Governor Duncan Frasyr.

The battle marked the end of the Hinterland War, which had raged since January 1797, when Congress had attempted to impose a new governor on Frasyrland province. Clan Frasyr, the major social and political power in the province, rejected this attempt to impose control, and the governor ordered his competitor's assassination. After this outrage, President Howard marched northwards with a great army, numbering in the thousands and including a well-equipped artillery train.

Against the troops of the Federal Union, the council of Frasyrland called up the militia and sent the fiery cross through the wilds of the far north to summon the Nyssic farmers and crofters to battle. They came wearing no uniforms, poorly armed and fed, but ready to fight for the cause of Frasyr. In the summer of 1797, Howard's army burned Hinnevale, the capital of Frasyrland, turning the province's influential trading class decisively against the federal government. Archibald Lunreath, the chief burgess of the ruined port city, came to Governor Frasyr's camp and loaned him thousands of dollars to equip his men, as well as a force of well-paid foreign mercenaries.

In the autumn of 1797, which was unusually cold, Frasyr marched his refurbished army south into Gavshin province, where he defeated a force of local militia. Howard and the federal army were fast on his heels. When snowstorms struck northern Gavshin in early November, scattering hundreds of Frasyr's cold and hungry rebels, the president saw his chance. Frasyr's forces limped south towards the Ochiltree Peninsula but were caught at Molahchearn on the morning of November 28.

The fighting opened with musket fire between the federal advance troops and the rebels' Nyssic skirmishers, who were skilled in the use of hunting rifles. The federal soldiers, who were better-organized, advanced in tight formation and poured a devastating volley into the rebel line. After sustaining grievous losses, the skirmishers wavered and fled. Seeing his first line break, Governor Frasyr rallied his men on horseback and led them forward. Melee was joined in a clash of bayonets and swords. The Frasyrland men had an advantage over the federal troops in close-range combat, as many were armed with short blades which could easily parry attacks from a musket. Despite this disadvantage, the federal army enjoyed superior numbers and, as the carnage reached its peak, Howard committed the elite Republican Guard to the fray. The exhausted rebels broke and ran; many were run down and killed by eager federal cavalrymen. A group of about two hundred Frasyrland men, those sharing the surname of the governor, remained steadfast on the field until they were overwhelmed in hard fighting with the Guard. Governor Frasyr fought with no hope of escape and was killed, falling alongside his brother and many of Frasyrland's political and economic leaders.

Some of the Frasyrland men threw down their arms and were taken prisoner, but many more were killed by federal troops after surrendering. The federals stripped their enemies of food and possessions, as Nyssic ministers walked solemnly across the corpse-strewn field, attending to the dead and dying. Governor Frasyr's body was taken for burial in a local churchyard.

The battle ended Frasyrland's traditional independence from the Almorean government, and broke the power of Clan Frasyr forever. The province remained under military rule until 1802, while its rights to self-determination were restricted for many years after by the Proscription Act, which banned many families from voting or holding office due to their support for the Frasyr cause in the Hinterland War.

Besides the governor and his brother John, the last two male agnates of the original Clan Frasyr line which had chartered the province in 1690, notable casualties of Molahchearn included the chiefs of the Shaw, Finnell, and MacLair families, formerly powerful kindreds who would never recover their influence; the MacLair chief, Alexander "Eirmseach", was a noted Nyssic poet who was slain by federal cavalry after escaping the field. John Maxwelton, the leader of the province's High Council and a former congressman, was also killed in the battle.