Nancy Hart's Cabin - Elbert Co., GA
Posted by: Lat34North
N 33° 59.394 W 082° 44.952
17S E 338436 N 3762415
This historic marker to Nancy hart is located next to the replica of the Hart Cabin in the Nancy Hart State Park on River Road.
Waymark Code: WM89WD
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 02/24/2010
Views: 7
Nancy Hart's Cabin
Elbert County´s legendary Nancy Hart was born in the 1740s in the northeast. She married Benjamin Hart, and the couple moved south, along with her eight children, to the Broad River area of Elbert County around 1771. Her of American Indian neighbors knew her as "Wahatchee", meaning War Woman. They named the creek in the area "Wahatchee" in honor of her. Hart was described as tall, muscular, red-haired, fiery-tempered and cross-eyed. While living in this area, the Revolutionary War erupted and the incident making her famous occurred. She earned heroine status through various acts of bravery, including the event when a party five Loyalist from the British Camp in Augustine crossed the river and arrived at her cabin, demanding she give them food. She quickly pointed out that the family had only one remaining turkey due to the rest of the flock being killed by a previous group of "Tories". With that, one of the soldiers killed the lone turkey and demanded that Hart cook it. As she grudgingly prepared the meal, she listened to the soldiers talk and learned that they had killed her friend and neighbor, Colonel John Dooley. Hiding her anger, Hart brought out plenty of food and drink. She told stories and generously passed around plenty of whiskey. Hart sent her 13-year-old daughter Sukey, to spring for water but whispered instructions for her to blow the cockleshell warning the man in the field of danger at home. Meanwhile, as Nancy walked around her log cabin serving the men, she slipped the soldiers muskets through the chinks in the wall. She had disposed of all but three when one of the caught her. As the soldiers tried to rush her, Hart leveled her gun at them and dared the men to move. Because Hart was cross-eyed, the soldiers could not gauge the direction she was aiming. One man mistakenly thought her gun was pointed in a different direction and when he went for his gun, Hart shot him. The second soldier made a move and was likewise shot. The third soldier made his move and was also killed the Hart's gun. At that time, Ben Hart and the other men arrived and took the rest of the Tories outside to be shot. Hart relayed the story of the group having murdered Colonel Dooley and reportedly said,
"Shootin's too good for him. Hang' em!"