40 Fun Facts About Nancy Hart

In legend, which bird did Tory soldiers shoot at Nancy Hart's cabin and order her to cook?

A turkey, her prized gobbler, was the bird, and the meal became a trap. While the men ate and drank, Hart slipped their guns out of reach and took them prisoner.

What was Nancy Hart boiling at her fireplace when she scalded a Tory spy peering into her cabin?

Lye soap was bubbling on the fire, so Hart flung a ladleful through the crack where an eye had appeared. The scalded spy was tied up and handed to the local militia.

Cherokee neighbors are said to have called Nancy Hart "Wahatche", a name usually translated as what?

War Woman is the usual translation, though the word's meaning is not certain. The creek that ran below her cabin carries the same name.

Which trait in descriptions of Nancy Hart made her fame as a crack shot all the more surprising?

Crossed eyes are part of most portraits of Hart, yet the same accounts call her a skilled hunter and an excellent shot. They also make her about six feet tall.

Hart County, honoring Nancy Hart, is the only one of Georgia's 159 counties with which distinction?

Being named for a woman sets Hart County apart from every other county in Georgia. It was carved out of its neighbors in 1853, more than twenty years after her death.

Which Atlanta Journal reporter, later a famous novelist, wrote a newspaper sketch of Nancy Hart?

Margaret Mitchell profiled Hart years before she wrote Gone with the Wind. Readers complained that the article's heroines did not fit accepted standards of femininity.

At target practice, the Civil War militia named for Nancy Hart hit a hornet's nest and which animal?

A cow was among the early casualties, but the volunteers of the Nancy Harts drilled twice a week and became expert shots. Prizes went to the best markswomen.

In 1912, workers building what unearthed a row of skeletons that seemed to confirm the Nancy Hart legend?

A railroad was being graded near the old cabin site when the neat row of graves came to light. The bones were judged to have lain in the ground for at least a century.

Nancy Hart's husband wanted to shoot the Tories she had captured, but which fate did she insist on?

Hanging was her verdict, and the surviving Tories are said to have died on a tree near the cabin. In one telling she declared that shooting was too good for them.

Nancy Hart was a skilled hunter and herbalist, but which everyday skill did she never learn?

Reading was a skill Hart never acquired, for she was illiterate. Her talents lay elsewhere, and neighbors remembered that she, not her husband, ran the household.

Which hair color do early descriptions give Nancy Hart, the six-foot frontier heroine of Georgia?

Red hair topped a tall, rawboned frame, and neighbors knew her simply as Aunt Nancy. One early writer joked that she had no share of beauty.

Which disease had left its scars on the face of Georgia frontier heroine Nancy Hart?

Smallpox had marked her face, and one early account doubted she had ever had the chance to look into a mirror. The same writer granted that she would have admitted her plainness.

To spy on enemy camps, Nancy Hart is said to have often disguised herself as what?

A simple-minded man could wander through Tory camps unnoticed, so Hart played the part and listened. She passed what she learned to Patriot commanders.

In which state did Nancy Hart spend her final decades after leaving Georgia with her son John?

Kentucky became her home around 1803, when the family settled near relatives in Henderson County. She died there in 1830 and was buried in the family cemetery.

Which senator and presidential candidate married into the wider family of Nancy Hart's husband?

Henry Clay married Lucretia Hart, by family tradition a niece of Nancy's husband. The same clan gave Missouri senator Thomas Hart Benton his middle name.

Nancy Hart is said to have been a cousin of which Revolutionary War general?

Daniel Morgan shared her maiden name, and tradition makes the two cousins, though no record proves it. He routed a British force at Cowpens in January 1781.

Some accounts place Nancy Hart at which 1779 Patriot victory over Loyalists in upland Georgia?

Kettle Creek, fought on Valentine's Day, was the first major Patriot win in Georgia's back country. One tale has Hart's spying help the militia prepare for it.

In the legend of Nancy Hart and the Tories, what did her daughter blow to summon the neighbors?

A conch shell kept on a stump by the spring was the family alarm. Sent out for water, the girl sounded it to warn the neighborhood that Tories were in the cabin.

What was the name of the young daughter who helped Nancy Hart outwit the Tories at her table?

Sukey was her mother's accomplice that day and then ran to fetch her father and the neighbors.

After the Revolution, Nancy Hart reportedly forced her way into a meeting of which denomination?

Methodist worshippers had shut the door on outsiders, so Hart cut the fastening with her knife and walked in. A governor wrote that she then fought the Devil as hard as the Tories.

What was the first name of Nancy Hart's husband, a lieutenant in the Georgia Patriot militia?

Benjamin Hart was often away with his unit, which left Nancy to guard the cabin and their eight children on her own.

Nancy Hart's family settled in the early 1770s in the fertile valley of which Georgia river?

Broad River country was a raw frontier when the Harts arrived. The Creek and Cherokee had held the land until a treaty of 1773 opened it to settlers.

Nancy Hart is usually said to have been born in the Yadkin River valley of which colony?

North Carolina is the usual answer, though some researchers argue for Pennsylvania. Even her birth year is a guess, with claims running from 1735 to 1747.

The Nancy Harts, a female militia company of the Civil War, defended which Georgia town?

LaGrange was surrendered by the Nancy Harts in April 1865 to a Union colonel who happened to be named Oscar LaGrange. In return, his troops spared most private homes.

Although they drilled with rifles all through the Civil War, the Nancy Harts mainly served as what?

Nurses were badly needed once their town became a hospital center, and nearly every member took wounded soldiers into her own home.

Lake Hartwell, named in honor of Nancy Hart, was created by damming which river?

Savannah River water backs up behind Hartwell Dam to form a lake on the state line. The nearby city of Hartwell and a state highway also carry Hart's name.

In the best-known story, how did Nancy Hart quietly disarm the Tories eating at her table?

She slid muskets through the wall, using a chink between the logs to pass them outside one by one. Caught in the act, she turned the next gun on her guests.

When the widowed Nancy Hart returned to her old Georgia home, what had destroyed the family cabin?

A flood had washed the cabin away while the Harts were living on the Georgia coast, so she moved in with her son instead.

In stories about Nancy Hart, the Patriots hunted by the Tories are often called by which party name?

Whigs was a label borrowed from the British party that opposed royal power. The famous cabin story begins with a Whig fleeing past Hart's door with Tories close behind.

Nancy Hart's knowledge of frontier medicine made her sought after by neighbors in which role?

Midwife was a natural calling for an expert herbalist who was also the mother of eight children.

Nancy Hart's cabin site lies not in Hart County but in which neighboring county, famed for granite?

Elbert County holds the replica cabin, on River Road near the spot where the original stood. Its seat, Elberton, calls itself the granite capital of the world.

In one spy tale, Nancy Hart crossed a river on a raft of logs lashed together with what?

Grapevines held the raft together, the story goes, as she crossed to find an enemy camp for Georgia's troops and then crossed back with the news.

Nancy Hart's story first saw print in 1825, during which Revolutionary War hero's tour of America?

Lafayette was touring the United States when a Georgia newspaper printed her exploits, more than forty years after the events. Hart was alive at the time, living far away with her son.

Which Southern author retold Nancy Hart's exploits in his 1896 book Stories of Georgia?

Joel Chandler Harris, creator of the Uncle Remus tales, gave Aunt Nancy a full chapter. He wrote that fable and invention had touched neither her character nor her deeds.

Hartwell Dam, which forms the lake honoring Nancy Hart, was built by which federal body?

Army Corps of Engineers crews raised the dam between 1955 and 1962 to tame the river and generate hydropower. A survey had first urged dams there back in 1890.

The replica of Nancy Hart's cabin in Georgia reuses which part of the original frontier building?

Chimney stones recovered from the first cabin were built into the replica, which a patriotic society put up in the 1930s near the original site.

Which militia leader, later founder of the Trans-Oconee Republic, commanded Nancy Hart's husband?

Elijah Clarke led the Georgia militia in which Hart's husband was a lieutenant. The state later named a county after him, and his son John became governor of Georgia.

Which Georgia governor recalled Nancy Hart in his 1855 book about the state's early settlers?

George Gilmer, twice governor of Georgia, came from a family that knew Hart. His book is the origin of the tale that she burst uninvited into a prayer meeting.

Before leaving Georgia for good, the widowed Nancy Hart lived with her son John near which city?

Athens lay close to the Oconee River land where her son had settled. The stay was short: around 1803 the whole family left the state to join relatives.

Which national magazine brought the Nancy Harts militia wide attention with a 1904 article?

Ladies' Home Journal told the militia's story nearly four decades after the war. The only firsthand account had come in 1896, from a member who was eighteen when the town surrendered.