Martha Bratton, Heroine With a Heart

One of the favorite Revolutionary War tales in my home state, South Carolina, is of Martha Bratton’s heroics—and forgiveness. The wife of rebel Col. William Bratton, she was at her log cabin home with her small son when a force of Tories and British regulars rode up one evening, asking for her husband. He was off with the American army of Gen. Thomas Sumter, she replied. She didn’t know just where they were.

The antagonists pressed, and Mrs. Bratton’s final response as to the colonel’s whereabouts is classic in the annals of South Carolina history: “I have told the simple truth and could not tell if I would, but now I add, that I would not if I could.”

An infuriated soldier fetched a reaping hook from the wall and pressed it to her neck. She refused to answer further. Happily, a Tory officer rushed to her defense, knocking down the brute with the reaping hook. The soldiers withdrew.

The next day, Col. Bratton and others surprised the Tory/British encampment nearby and killed more than 90 of the enemy. Tory Capt. John Adamson—the man who’d rescued Martha from execution—was among the wounded . . . and Martha Bratton herself helped nurse him back to health.