On one occasion Robert Sallette is known to have spared the lives of two Tories, at least for a little while. Once when he and Andrew Walthour (for whom Walthourville in Georgia is named) and another man were riding along a narrow trail late in the afternoon, they met three other riders whom they suspected to be Tories. The plan that Sallette and his companions adopted to capture the men was very simple. Andrew Walthour, who was riding in front, was to pass the first and second men, Robert Sallette to pass the first. As Walthour came to the third man when Sallette had come to the second, and their companion to the first, the Liberty Boys seized the guns of the three simultaneously. The men had no opportunity either to fight or escape.
"Dismount, gentlemen!" said Sallette. Then he addressed himself to the leader. "What is your name?"
In reply to this, a fictitious name was given, as Sallette and his companions afterwards found out.
"Where is your camp?" asked Sallette.
"We are from over the river," answered the man, meaning the Altamaha.
"Where did you cross?"
"At Beards Ferry." This was where the Whigs and the Liberty Boys were most numerous.
"That is not true!" exclaimed Sallette.
Then he turned to the second man, asked the same questions, and received the same replies. He turned to the third man, asked the same questions, and received the same replies.
"If you do not tell me the truth," exclaimed Sallette to this last man, "I'll cut off your head!"