Kerenhappuch Norman Turner

Heroine of the Battle of Guilford Court House Image: Statue of Kerenhappuch Norman Turner Guilford Court House National Military Park Historians are undecided about the exact birth date of Kerenhappuch Norman, but it is assumed that she was born in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, in about 1715. She was the daughter of a well known tobacco planter, Isaac Norman, Jr. and his wife, the former Frances Courtney. Kerenhappuch Norman married James Turner, the son of a prominent family and also a tobacco planter, in Spotsylvania County in 1733. Deed records show that following the wedding, Isaac Norman gave 50 pounds and 100 acres of his home plantation to his daughter and her new husband.

Marion Lumpkin Cobb

Wife of General Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb was born April 10, 1823. at Cherry Hill, the family plantation in Jefferson County, Georgia. His parents were John and Sarah Rootes Cobb, who were married at Fredericksburg, Virginia. His family moved to Athens, Georgia, while he was still a child, and he lived there for the rest of his life. Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb Confederate Politician Brigadier General in the Confederate Army Horace Bradley, Artist Thomas R. R. Cobb graduated from the University of Georgia first in his class in 1841, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1842. During the 1840s and 1850s, Cobb and his older brother Howell Cobb – future Congressman and Secretary…

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Abigail Morgan

Wife of Revolutionary War General Daniel Morgan Daniel Morgan was born in 1736 in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Lloyd) Morgan. After quarreling with his father, Daniel left home at the age of 16. After working at odd jobs in Pennsylvania, he moved to the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, where he worked as a farm laborer and teamster – a driver of a team of horses doing hauling. General Daniel Morgan Morgan was a large man and poorly educated, but also strong and not afraid of hard work. He saved enough money to buy his own wagon and team at the age of 19, and transported supplies to the frontier posts of Virginia. A legendary brawler…

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Lucy Lambert Hale

Fiancee of Lincoln Assassin John Wilkes Booth In 1862, Lucy Lambert Hale began a romantic relationship with famous stage actor John Wilkes Booth. Another of her admirers was Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest son of President Abraham Lincoln. Lucy Lambert Hale was born January 1, 1841, in Dover, New Hampshire, the second eldest daughter of John Parker Hale and Lucy Hill Lambert Hale. John Parker Hale served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845 and in the U.S. Senate from 1847 to 1853 and again from 1855 to 1865. Lucy was described as pretty, precocious, sweet and good. Lucy attended a boarding school in Boston. At the age of 12, she was receiving poems from William Chandler, a…

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Nancy Morgan Hart

Georgia Heroine of the Revolutionary War Nancy Morgan Hart Painting by Louis S. Glanzman According to Revolutionary lore, Nancy Hart famously outwitted a group of Tories who had invaded her home. She served them liquor, and once they were drunk, filched their weapons, which she used to shoot two of the men and hold the rest captive until help arrived. Nancy Morgan was born in the Yadkin River Valley of North Carolina in 1753. She grew up to be a very tall, muscular woman with red hair, blue eyes and a smallpox-scarred face. Nancy was feisty and had a quick temper. Local Cherokees referred to her as war woman. She was illiterate but ran her household well and was knowledgeable…

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Elizabeth Saunders Taylor

Wife of Lt. Colonel Walter Herron Taylor: Aide to General Robert E. Lee Elizabeth Selden Saunders was the daughter of United States Navy Captain John L. Saunders and Martha Bland Selden Saunders During the Civil War, she lived during the war with the family of Lewis Crenshaw in Richmond, Virginia, where she worked at the Confederate Mint and the Confederate Medical Department. Image: A week after Appomattox, a series of photographs were taken on the back porch at General Robert E. Lee’s home in Richmond by Mathew Brady’s firm. As General Lee wore his uniform for the last time, he posed with his oldest son Major General George Washington Custis Lee and Colonel Walter Taylor (right), husband of Elizabeth Saunders…

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Emily Geiger

South Carolina Heroine of the Revolutionary War Emily Geiger Monument Inscription: Heroine of the Revolutionary War Captured while delivering secret message From Gen Greene to Gen Sumter Held captive at Fort Granby July 3, 1781 During the Revolutionary War, the Carolina colonies were invaded by the British in 1781. Patriot Generals Nathanael Greene, Thomas Sumter, Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, and Francis Marion were waging an all-out campaign to rid South Carolina of the British. General Greene had spent 28 days trying to capture the fort at Ninety-Six, South Carolina, but had been forced to retreat when he discovered that British General Lord Francis Rawdon was coming with reinforcements. General Greene felt that Rawdon’s men were vulnerable to attack, but…

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Mary Jane Hale Welles

Wife of Union Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles Mary Jane Hale was born June 18, 1817, in Glastonbury, Connecticut, the daughter of Elias White Hale and Jane Mullhallan Hale. Her father graduated from Yale College in 1794, and practiced law in Mifflin and Centre Counties, Pennsylvania. Gideon Welles was born July 1, 1802, in Glastonbury, Connecticut. He was a member of the seventh generation of his family in America. His original immigrant ancestor, Thomas Welles, arrived in 1635 and was the only man in Connecticut’s history to hold all four top government offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. Welles earned a degree at the American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy at Norwich, Vermont. He studied law, but soon…

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Mary Sumter

Wife of Patriot Militia General Thomas Sumter General Thomas Sumter Charles Willson Peale, Artist Mary Cantey was born in 1723. Thomas Sumter was born August 14, 1734, in Louisa County, Virginia, the son of William and Patience Sumter. Educated in common schools, Thomas worked in his father’s gristmill, and after his father’s early death, cared for his mother’s sheep and plowed his neighbor’s fields. It has been said that Thomas Sumter was a wild boy. He gambled, went to cockfights, and horse races. When the Indians started causing problems, he joined the Virginia militia and served as a sargeant during the Cherokee War of 1760-1761. He accompanied Lieutenant Henry Timberlake on an arduous peace mission to the Overhill Cherokee towns…

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Martha Bratton

Patriot and Heroine of the Revolutionary War Historic Brattonsville Revolutionary War historic site that includes the log cabin home of Martha and William Bratton in South Carolina Martha Robertson was born about 1750 in Rowan County, North Carolina. Not much is known about her early life, but her acts of heroism during the Revolutionary War are very well known. Martha Robertson married William Bratton, a Pennsylvanian of Irish parentage, who lived in the York District of South Carolina, just below the North Carolina border. In the troubled times that preceded the American Revolution, the Brattons’ courage and deportment gave them great influence among their neighbors and friends. The year 1780 was a dark period for the patriots of South Carolina,…

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