were active in the American service. She thus became liable to some share in the enmity exhibited by the Royalists to another matron against whom the charge, "She has seven sons in the Rebel Army," was an excuse for depredations on her property. If Jane Thomas had but five sons she saw to it that her daughters married men who were both brave and efficient patriots.
Mrs. Thomas was a woman of considerable beauty, with black eyes and hair, fair complexion and a countenance sprightly and expressive. Soon after the close of the war Colonel Thomas and she removed to the Greenville District where they resided until their death.
MARTHA BRATTON.
The year 1780 was a dark period for the patriots of Carolina, and in this time of trial none bore the distress or aided the cause with more courage and sagacity than shrewd Colonel Bratton and his wife. Mrs. Bratton was a native of Rowan County, North Carolina, where she married William Bratton, a Pennsylvanian of Irish parentage, who resided in the York District in the state of South Carolina. Although Charleston surrendered, and General Lincoln and the American army became prisoners of war, the inhabitants of York District were offered British protection if they would swear allegiance to the crown. But almost to a man they refused to give their paroles, preferring resistance and exile to subjection and inglorious peace. Many of them banded themselves together under such men as Colonel Bratton, and harassed the victorious enemy by sudden and desultory attacks. They were unpaid, and depended on their own exertions for everything necessary to carry on the warfare. British officers and troops were dispatched to every nook and corner of South Carolina to banish every Whig with the utmost disregard of conditions, but the largest detachment of these was met and attacked by the party under the command of Colonel Bratton. From that time on a price was set on this patriot's head. It was at this time that the heroism of the wife of Colonel Bratton was nobly displayed. While her husband was at the front one night a British officer rudely entered her house demanding where her husband was.
"He is in Sumter's army," was the undaunted reply. The officer then essayed persuasion and proposed to Mrs. Bratton that she induce her husband to come in and join the Royalists, promising that he should have a commission in the royal service. Mrs. Bratton answered staunchly that she would rather see him remain true to duty and his country even if he perished in the American Army. Enraged at this he sought by violence to get the information that might endanger her husband's safety. He even stood by while one of the common soldiers, seizing a reaping hook that hung near them on the piazza, brought it to her throat with the intention of killing her. She would undoubtedly have died, taking the secret of her husband's hiding place with her to the grave, had not the officer second in command interposed and compelled the soldier to release her.
Mrs. Bratton was then ordered to prepare supper for the British and it may be conceived with what feelings she saw her house occupied by the enemies of her husband and her country and found herself compelled to minister to their wants.
