ustion and dejection of spirits at the
loss of General Davidson at Cowan's Ford, as he dismounted at the door
of the principal hotel in Salisbury, indicated too clearly that he was
suffering under harassing anxiety of mind. Dr. Reed, who had charge of
the sick and wounded prisoners, while he waited for the General's
arrival, was engaged in writing the necessary paroles for such
officers as could not go on. General Greene's aids having been
dispatched to different parts of the retreating army, he was alone
when he rode up to the hotel. Dr. Reed, noticing his dispirited looks,
remarked that he appeared to be fatigued; to which the wearied officer
replied: "Yes, fatigued, hungry, alone, and penniless!" General Greene
had hardly taken his seat at the well-spread table, when Mrs. Steele,
the landlady of the hotel, entered the room and carefully shut the
door behind her. Approaching her distinguished guest, she reminded him
of the despondent words he had uttered in her hearing, implying, as
she thought, a distrust of the devotion of his friends to the cause of
freedom. She declared money he should have, and immediately drew from
under her apron two small bags full of specie, probably the earnings
of several years, "Take these, General," said she, "you need them and
I can do without them." This offering of a benevolent heart,
accompanied with words of kindness and encouragement, General Greene
accepted with thankfulness. "Never," says his biographer, "did relief
come at a more propitious moment; nor would it be straining conjecture
to suppose that he resumed his journey with his spirits cheered and
lightened by this touching proof of woman's devotion to the cause of
her country."

General Greene did not remain long in Salisbury; but before his
departure from the house of Mrs. Steele, he left a memorial of his
visit. Seeing a picture of George III. hanging against the wall, sent
as a present to a connection of Mrs. Steele from England, he took it
down and wrote with chalk on the back, "O George, hide thy face, and
mourn," and replaced it with the face to the wall. The picture, with
the writing uneffaced, is still in possession of a grand daughter.
Mrs. Steele was twice married; her first husband was a Gillespie, by
whom she had a daughter, Margaret, who married the Rev. Samuel E.
McCorkle, a distinguished Presbyterian minister; and Richard
Gillespie, who was a Captain in the Revolution, and died unmarried. By
her second husban