Horde attack on humanity’s ancestral home of Stromgarde was narrowly repelled on 5th July.

It was the manifest intention of warlord General Gumbo, the ‘Butcher of Hillsbrad’, to advance into the green hills of Arathi and so hold all the continent in his control. He was met at Thoradin’s Wall by soldiers of the Alliance under Captain Sam Lockewood, but they were flanked and surrounded from the direction of Hammerfall, falling back to the fortress of ancient Strom, there to withstand the onslaught of the barbarous foe.

Here upon the very foundation-stone of Arathor, at the holy crypt where the kings of old lie in eternal rest, did the Alliance power take on the savage Horde. The Stormwind 3rd Infantry and 5th Rifles, marines of the Royal Navy and northern Remnant veterans, were thick in the fray; there too was the famous 13th Regiment of old Lordaeron, whose flashing swords declared the defiance of their homeland. Finally they sallied out into the ruined city streets, though Captain Lockewood fell in the charge, whereupon Sir Karathos LeVance of the 13th (called "an efficient commander") assumed charge, and, gathering his forces, with cunning feint and bloody steel sent General Gumbo and his fearsome force running from the walls of ancient Strom, away to their lines to lick their wounds.

Although no Hordesman took one step into the church on that hill, its defence was at great cost. Though our casualties were moderate, Refuge Point was overwhelmed and entirely lost. It is fortunate that, only a few days before, Alliance commanders had determined the position to be indefensible, and ensured the evacuation of important supplies and troops.

Nevertheless, the small victory of this brave retort comes in a dire situation. Since the commencement of hostilities in the spring, following repeated attacks by the Horde into the provinces of Stormwind, the Alliance has persecuted with great zeal an invasion into the land of Arathi, almost breaking the prison-fortress of Hammerfall, but met with a crushing reply in the rape of Hillsbrad, the decimation of Southshore and now the fall of Refuge Point.

With our line of supply  cut, the fields of Hillsbrad desolate and most of Arathi under the enemy’s sway, there is now the increasing danger of a full-blooded incursion into the Eastern Kingdoms proper, such as we have not seen since the Second War. In that event the Dwarves will find themselves really in danger, and neutral Theramore sorely pressed to abandon its policy of toleration towards the Horde

But Sir Boen Goodwin, leader of His Majesty's reformed Brotherhood of the Horse, looks gladly on the coming days.  "We've not yet even begun the fight," he told the Herald. "The Alliance will not surrender its rightful lands easily...our morale remains the same."

Of the state of the Alliance, Knight-Commander Avari Lucien of the Order of the Silver Hand told the Herald that "old Friendships have proven themselves strong, and problems have revealed themselves; we will learn from this...despite the setbacks in the north, I believe we will emerge stronger from it." We can only pray she is right - nay, but we will do more than pray.

For it now falls to the nations of this once Grand Alliance, and most chiefly to their people – peasants, merchants, nobles, priests, and men of all estates – to resist this consequence, to defend and recapture humanity’s home, to liberate the whole oppressed land and in so doing avenge the deaths and silence the cries of the fallen.

"We've gained the momentum for now. We cannot let up the defence of our land ...I suspect we will be launching a assault in order to push them back and to give us time to heal." He added, "those lands are our birthright."

Captain Samuel Lockewood was on 7th July slain in the defence of Stromgarde against the Horde, and it is meet to give an account of his life until then, so that the reader may gain a clearer picture of the character of this man who gave his life for his King and his people.

He was born in Westfall some years before the First War. Much more about his early life the Herald cannot discover; for these are times which are quickly fading from living memory, and whose written record has suffered the characteristic destruction and erasure visited by the Orcs upon the realm, so that even the history of his life is cruelly shortened.

We do not even know his parantage, but that it was of the earth and common. But we may say that when he joined the army he claimed to be eighteen, and when he left it he was sixty-two, and that he stayed with it over all the compass of those years, only torn out of it by death. As a footman in the First War he advanced to the rank of sergeant, and led a squadron in the Second, after which he declined the offer of land that was at that time extended to veterans, and became a drill instructor in the new army which was to secure His Majesty's re-enthroned power over the lands of the south.

His climb through the ranks was slow, since his background was common and his politics fitting; sometimes his superiors disliked his attitude and found him too ready to slight them or the nobles of Stormwind. Yet after limited service in the Third War he was sponsored for comission by Lord Radley, 3rd Viscount DeMont, and as a Captain of the prestigious 3rd Heavy Foot, led his regiment into Northrend where it was almost wholly destroyed in the lamentable calamity at the Wrathgate.

It is only since then that His Majesty saw fit to organise and reform the 3rd Infantry, and found Lockewood a fit man to lead them against the savage Horde, against who he, like the King, had always the most remarkable antipathy – so that it would surely be pleasing to his family and his children, had he left any at all, that he died as he did: in combat, and dragging the foe along with him. No family survives, and in accordance with his spartan will his possessions will all pass into property of the Crown. That is fitting for a man about which we can write barely anything of a personal nature, so devoted was his entire person to the common good.

"Captain Lockewood was a brave man and he'll be greatly missed. His dedication to Stormwind was to be admired," said Sir Boen Goodwin of the Horse.

Samuel Lockewood is succeeded in command of the 3rd by Major James Montgomery Smythe.