Nancy Hart
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40 free Nancy Hart trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Nancy Hart is Georgia's best-known heroine of the Revolutionary War. A tall, sharp-tongued frontier settler, she is remembered for outwitting a band of Tory soldiers who walked into her log cabin and for slipping into enemy camps as a spy. Historians argue over how much of the legend is true, which is part of the fun. These questions follow the fun facts people look for about her: what she looked like, how the famous cabin story unfolds, who her relatives were, where she spent her old age, and how a lake and a Civil War militia came to carry her name. A few cover the writers who kept her story alive. The quiz suits Georgia history students, teachers planning a Revolutionary War lesson, and anyone who likes a tall tale with real evidence behind it. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In legend, which bird did Tory soldiers shoot at Nancy Hart's cabin and order her to cook?
A turkey
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.
Q 02What was Nancy Hart boiling at her fireplace when she scalded a Tory spy peering into her cabin?
Lye soap
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.
Q 03Cherokee neighbors are said to have called Nancy Hart "Wahatche", a name usually translated as what?
War Woman
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.
Q 04Which trait in descriptions of Nancy Hart made her fame as a crack shot all the more surprising?
Crossed eyes
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.
Q 05Hart County, honoring Nancy Hart, is the only one of Georgia's 159 counties with which distinction?
Being named for a woman
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.
Q 06Which Atlanta Journal reporter, later a famous novelist, wrote a newspaper sketch of Nancy Hart?
Margaret Mitchell
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.
Q 07At target practice, the Civil War militia named for Nancy Hart hit a hornet's nest and which animal?
A cow
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.
Q 08In 1912, workers building what unearthed a row of skeletons that seemed to confirm the Nancy Hart legend?
A railroad
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.
Q 09Nancy Hart's husband wanted to shoot the Tories she had captured, but which fate did she insist on?
Hanging
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.
Q 10Nancy Hart was a skilled hunter and herbalist, but which everyday skill did she never learn?
Reading
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.
Q 11Which hair color do early descriptions give Nancy Hart, the six-foot frontier heroine of Georgia?
Red
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.
Q 12Which disease had left its scars on the face of Georgia frontier heroine Nancy Hart?
Smallpox
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.
Q 13To spy on enemy camps, Nancy Hart is said to have often disguised herself as what?
A simple-minded man
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.
Q 21What was the first name of Nancy Hart's husband, a lieutenant in the Georgia Patriot militia?
Benjamin
Benjamin Hart was often away with his unit, which left Nancy to guard the cabin and their eight children on her own.
Q 22Nancy Hart's family settled in the early 1770s in the fertile valley of which Georgia river?
Broad
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.
Q 23Nancy Hart is usually said to have been born in the Yadkin River valley of which colony?
North Carolina
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.
Q 14In which state did Nancy Hart spend her final decades after leaving Georgia with her son John?
Kentucky
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.
Q 15Which senator and presidential candidate married into the wider family of Nancy Hart's husband?
Henry Clay
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.
Q 16Nancy Hart is said to have been a cousin of which Revolutionary War general?
Daniel Morgan
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.
Q 17Some accounts place Nancy Hart at which 1779 Patriot victory over Loyalists in upland Georgia?
Kettle Creek
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.
Q 18In the legend of Nancy Hart and the Tories, what did her daughter blow to summon the neighbors?
A conch shell
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.
Q 19What was the name of the young daughter who helped Nancy Hart outwit the Tories at her table?
Sukey
Sukey was her mother's accomplice that day and then ran to fetch her father and the neighbors.
Q 20After the Revolution, Nancy Hart reportedly forced her way into a meeting of which denomination?
Methodist
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.
Q 24The Nancy Harts, a female militia company of the Civil War, defended which Georgia town?
LaGrange
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.
Q 25Although they drilled with rifles all through the Civil War, the Nancy Harts mainly served as what?
Nurses
Nurses were badly needed once their town became a hospital center, and nearly every member took wounded soldiers into her own home.
Q 26Lake Hartwell, named in honor of Nancy Hart, was created by damming which river?
Savannah
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.
Q 27In the best-known story, how did Nancy Hart quietly disarm the Tories eating at her table?
Slid muskets through the wall
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.
Q 28When the widowed Nancy Hart returned to her old Georgia home, what had destroyed the family cabin?
A flood
A flood had washed the cabin away while the Harts were living on the Georgia coast, so she moved in with her son instead.
Q 29In stories about Nancy Hart, the Patriots hunted by the Tories are often called by which party name?
Whigs
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.
Q 30Nancy Hart's knowledge of frontier medicine made her sought after by neighbors in which role?
Midwife
Midwife was a natural calling for an expert herbalist who was also the mother of eight children.