igadier General Andrew Williamson, with three hundred men, was
encamped near Augusta. When Charleston fell, this officer, who was
already a traitor, though his treachery had not been avowed, called his
officers together, and expressed the opinion that it would be foolish
to further resist the King. He therefore advised them to return to their
homes, and there accept the protection which would be offered them. He
then abandoned his command, which was immediately disbanded. Shortly
afterwards Colonels Brown and Garrison, two partisans of the King's army
who had made themselves notorious by their cruelty to Americans, seized
Augusta. Brown had been tarred and feathered in Augusta just before the
breaking-out of the Revolution, and he made the patriots of that town
and of the country roundabout pay dearly for the indignities that
had been heaped upon him on account of his loyalty to the Crown. He
confiscated the property of the patriots, and issued an order banishing
all Whig families beyond the borders of Georgia.

Raiding parties were sent into the region in the neighborhood of Augusta
to compel the inhabitants to take the oath of allegiance to the King.
One of these parties entered the house of Colonel John Dooly, a gallant
officer, and murdered him in cold blood in the presence of his wife and
children. Colonel Dooly was the father of Judge Dooly, who became famous
in Georgia after the war.

A detachment of this murdering party found its way to Aunt Nancy Hart's
cabin. There were five Tories in the detachment, and Aunt Nancy received
them coldly enough. They told her they had come to inquire into the
truth of a report they had heard to the effect that she had aided a
well-known rebel to escape from a company of King's men by whom he
was pursued. With a twinkle of malice in her eyes, Aunt Nancy boldly
declared that she had aided her Liberty Boy to escape, and then she
described the affair.

She said that one day she heard the gallop of a horse. Looking out, she
saw a horseman approaching, and at once knew him to be a Whig flying
from pursuers. She let down the bars near her cabin, told him to ride
his horse right through her house, in at the front door and out at the
back, to take to the swamp, and hide himself the best he could. She then
put up the bars, entered her house, closed the doors, and went about her
business. In a little while a party of Tories rode up, and called to her
with some rudeness. She muffled her h