ther and his neighbors would soon arrive. Directed by her mother,
the girl took the remaining musket and carried it out of the house. The
Tories, seeing that no time was to be lost in recovering their arms,
proposed to rush upon Aunt Nancy in a body and overpower her. But the
War Woman was equal to the occasion. She fired again, and brought down
another Tory. As she did so, the daughter, acting on her orders, handed
her another musket. Then, taking position in the doorway, she called on
the men to "surrender their ugly Tory carcasses to a Whig woman."

[Illustration: Aunt Nancy captures the Tories 085]

The Tories agreed to surrender, and wanted to shake hands to make the
bargain binding; but Aunt Nancy kept her position in the doorway until
her husband and his friends made their appearance. The Whigs wanted
to shoot the Tories; but Aunt Nancy, whose blood was up, declared that
shooting was too good for them. "They've murdered John Dooly," she
exclaimed; "now let them hang for it!" Thereupon the Tories were taken
out and hanged. The tree from which they swung was still standing as
late as 1838, and was often pointed out by old people who had lived
through the troubled times of the Revolution.

One day Aunt Nancy met a Tory going along the highway. She engaged him
in conversation, diverted his attention, and suddenly seized his gun and
wrenched it away from him. She then ordered him to take up the line of
march for a fort not far distant. Not daring to disobey, the man marched
before her, as many others had been compelled to do, and she turned him
over to the commander of the fort.

When Augusta was in the hands of the British, and their raiding parties
had been driven in by the Americans under Colonel Elijah Clarke, it
became necessary for that commander to get some positive information
in regard to the intentions of the British. At this juncture Aunt Nancy
came to the rescue. She disguised herself as a man, and went boldly into
the British camp. She remained there for several days, pretending to be
crazy. In this way she secured a great deal of important information,
and made haste to carry it to Colonel Clarke.

Aunt Nancy was once left in a fort with several other women and a number
of small children, her own among the rest. The men had gone out in
search of supplies. They had not expected an attack, and had left only
one of their number, a young man, to protect the women and children.
Suddenly a party of Tories