Chancy theme change

The theme of Smoking Story is mostly romantic, with some commentary about smoking. In Smoking Story Revisited there is more description and the style is more personalised. But also, the theme changes quite dramatically - it introduces the theme of British Redcoats!
Yes I know, this is irrelevant, it has absolutely nothing to do with the themes of romance and smoking. It’s deplorable, it reveals a lack of self-discipline etc. But it doesn’t have to be problem. The paragraph about the Redcoats can be deleted, it isn’t crucial to the story.
Alternatively, we can actually be irrelevant and lacking in self-discipline, we can use that paragraph as the start of a new story (see below), and see where it takes us. Who knows, it might, just might, lead to a novel. Not necessarily a historical novel - possibly one with a historical and supernatural theme. 
One last thing, I’ve continued with the personalised writing style.
`A little more about Private Alsop? He served with the army in India and America,  and was half-blinded at Saratoga when a Revolutionary musket ball passed across his face. He fell to his knees and blindly fired his musket into the knee cap of a passing Revolutionary, crippling him forever. Both survived the battle, and surprisingly, also survived the hasty surgery that was performed on them. Private Alsop later returned to England, frequented The Redcoat again and eventually married the landlord’s daughter.
He couldn’t remember the American that he had crippled. To him, the American was not a face, he hadn’t seen his face - he was just a bloody leg. Nor did the American remember him. To the American, he was not a face - he hadn’t seen his face, it was just a `mess of blood’, as he sometimes recalled it. ‘