During the Revolutionary War, Nancy Ann (Morgan) Hart was living with her family in Georgia’s Broad River Valley. She was a cousin of the Revolutionary War General Daniel Morgan.
A group of Tory soldiers came by the Hart house looking for food and demanded that she cook for them. As they entered the cabin, they placed their guns by the door before sitting at her table to eat. As they were drinking and eating, she began concealing some of their muskets.
Eventually she grabbed one of the remaining muskets and ordered the men to stay still. One soldier tested her, so she killed him. She grabbed another of the remaining muskets and held the remaining Tories in the cabin until her husband returned. According to early accounts, her husband wanted to shoot the soldiers, but she insisted that they be hanged.
Various versions of this story provide different details and some historians have dismissed this story as propaganda… but in 1912, construction crews working on the Elberton and Eastern Railroad near the original Hart cabin site found evidence that supports this story.
While grading a railroad site less than a mile from the old Hart Cabin site, the workers found six skeletons buried neatly in a row. A few of the skeletons’ necks were broken, which suggested they had been hanged. They were determined to have been buried for at least 100 years.
Sources:
History of Baldwin County Georgia
Georgia Encyclopedia
The Atlanta Constitution, December 1912.
The Official History of Elbert County, 1790–1935
Wikipedia
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Meet Timothy A. Mann, a passionate historian born and raised in the heart of Shelby County, Ohio where Tim’s roots run deep in the rich soil of American history. As the author of articles and books, including “Frontier Miscellany Concerning the Miami County Ohio Militia,” “Colonel John Mann, His Kith and Kin,” and “Frontier Militia – The War of 1812,” Tim’s literary contributions have enlightened and inspired countless history enthusiasts.
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