Revolutionary Reader: Reminiscences and Indian Legends

by Sophie Lee Foster

Captain John Freeman was a native Georgian, a Revolutionary soldier, he was present at the siege of Charlestown and Savannah, a participant in the battles of Cowpens, King's Mountain and Guilford Court House, at the battle of Kettle Creek, and also at the capture of Augusta in Georgia.

In most of his adventures in the Revolutionary war, Captain Freeman had with him a colored boy named Ambrose, who lived to a very great age and was well known to the younger generation as "Uncle Ambrose." He had his own cabin in Athens, Georgia. Incidents in regard to him were handed by tradition. He had on his left arm the scar of a sabre cut, made by British dragoons when General Tarleton's men were attacking and endeavoring to get away with the American trooper's horses that had been left at the camp, and which it was in part, the duty of the boy Ambrose to keep. The British dragoons had possession of the horses for awhile and Ambrose a prisoner also, but by a rapid retaliation the horses and servants were recovered. Old Ambrose used to tell about having been present at the siege of Savannah, when Count Pulaski, one of the American Generals, was killed. He said that he was back in the edge of the pine, or timber when the American army charged on the British fort and breastworks. He described Pulaski as mounted on a spirited horse, with a great white plume in his hat, and how gallantly he led the Americans in their advance. He saw Pulaski when he fell from the horse, and was present at the point to which he was brought back, mortally wounded.

CHAPTER THIRD.

"Blessed with that charmed certainty to please
How oft her eyes read his;
Her gentle mind, to his thoughts, his wishes, inclined."

Anonymous.

As might be guessed, in a few short months after crossing the creek together on horse-back, Captain John Freeman led Kathrine Carlton to the altar.

In regard to her after-life, she was a wonder for those times, a great reader and a fine housekeeper, a fine raconteur; yet with all, the soul of hospitality. She had a healthy, strong mind; was imperious in her bearing, a devoted member of the church, a power in her family, and section.

Captain Freeman was a wealthy man, and took her at times in a carriage to the Mountains of North Carolina on a pleasure trip.

She bore him one child, Rebecca, of a temperamental nature, and of deep piety like her mother. This child was the author of many lovely poems.

Captain Freeman did not live to be very old. After his death Mrs. Freeman met losses which she bravely bore, Rebecca married Shaler Hillyer and from this union sprang all the Georgia Hillyers. And to this day "Grandma Freeman" is almost a sainted word in the family, so strong was her character and so deep her love for others. She lived to be eighty-nine years old. In her bedroom was an old time tall clock that Captain Freeman had brought over from England when he brought his blue china dishes. As she drew her last breath, a beloved niece looked at the clock but it had stopped. That clock is still owned by one of her descendants, and it is not a legend but a fact, that when anything important happens, in the family, if it is running, it stops, if it is not running, it strikes.