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Show WOMEN WHO HELPED i TO FREE COUNTRY Numerous Instances Where the Wive and Daughters of Patriots Showed Themselves Worthy a Share of the Glory. WOMEN gave their services in manifold ways during the Revolutionary Rev-olutionary war. Elizabeth Zane, at the siege of Fort Fincastle later Fort Henry on the present site of Wheeling, W. Va., crossed a zone of fire swept by the rifles of 500 savages sav-ages carrying an apronful of powder from an auxiliary blockhouse to the main works, the fresh supply of ammunition am-munition saving the garrison from the necessity of surrender. Catherine Schuyler, wife of the famous fa-mous general, set fire to a vast acreage acre-age of wheat fields on the Schuyler estate to prevent them from falling into the hands of Burgoyne upon his advance from Fort Edward to Saratoga. Sara-toga. Mrs. Esther Reed of Philadelphia defied the British, who were at that time in possession of her home city, by clothing and raising funds for the American army at Valley Forge. Upon her death the work was continued by Mrs. Sarah Bache, daughter of Benjamin Ben-jamin Franklin. Hundreds of other Philadelphia women secretly co-operated. The wives of most of the commanding command-ing generals notably Martha Washington Wash-ington and Mrs. Nathaniel Greene accompanied their husbands in every campaign, and did everything in their power to alleviate the hardships of the soldiery. Mrs. Washington even went through the cruel winter at Valley Val-ley Forge, where her ministrations are said to have saved many lives. Still other women went into British prisons and prison ships to save the sick and wounded American prisoners. Mrs. Elizabeth Jackson, mother of Andrew Jackson, in fact, died from prison fever contracted while engaged in this work of mercy among the .merican captives at Charleston. Mary Draper invented the pewter bullet, which came into use after the supply of lead was exhausted, and thousands of patriotic women the country over surrendered their prize pewter utensils to be melted up for ammunition. Mrs. Rebecca Motte, whose splendid mansion between Charleston and Cam-lea, Cam-lea, S. C, was turned into a fort by .he British, instructed the besieging A-mericans to set the structure afire 3y shooting blazing arrows on to the oof. The result was that the British were smoked out, though the mansion Itself was reduced to ashes. But the most bizarre service of all was rendered by Handy Betty Hager, i known also as Betty the Blacksmith, who refitted guns and artillery for the I patriotic armies. Betty was a natural i mechanic, whose latent abilities were J Jeveloped in the employ of Samuel Leverett, a blacksmith-farmer living near Boston. Prior to the battle of Concord, the patriots of the surrouDding country bad been preparing themselves for the conflict for months. Guns of all types matchlocks, flintlocks, smoothbores, blunderbusses and what not, some of which had not seen service for three r four generations came piling into the Leverett shop, and while Leverett himself could be observed by any passing tory to be busily engaged in shoeing horses, his unsuspected assistant assist-ant was working in a secret chambor making the neighbors', antiquated old firearms serviceable once moro. Betty kept up this volunteer work throughout the whole course of tho war, never accepting' a single copper for her labor. To Betty and her employer, em-ployer, likewise, belongs the credit of putting the first captured British cannon can-non into action. On the retreat from Concord the British left six brass cannon can-non behind them, thoughtfully spiking the touchholes so that they could not be discharged. Betty and Leverett, however, patiently pa-tiently drilled out tho spikes at thn rate of one a week, and in no long time the British found the beleaguering beleaguer-ing Americans driving them out of Boston at the mouths of their own, cannon. |