This dramatic print depicts sisters-in-law Grace and Rachel Martin disguised in their husbands’ clothing successfully intercepting at gunpoint a dispatch intended for British troops near their South Carolina home. The two women then brought the stolen information to the American forces. When the intercepted British troops later sought refuge in the Martin homestead, the women’s mother-in-law Elizabeth Martin successfully diverted the soldiers’ attention away from Grace and Rachel. Author Elizabeth Ellett related the exploits of the three women in the first volume of Women of the American Revolution (New York, 1848).
In Disguise: Cross Dressing and Gender Identity, Women Soldiers [2]
Read about their daring exploit in Elizabeth Ellett’s Women of the American Revolution [3].
Elizabeth Marshall (1727-1797) is 8th great-grandmother of MKS in the Knight branch.
Grace Waring (1758-20) is 7th great-grandmother of MKS in the Knight branch.
Rachel Clay (1763-1840) is wife of 8th great-uncle of MKS in the Knight branch.
References:
[1] Elisabeth, Grace and Rachel Martin, Lithograph, Claude Régnier (Lithographer), Felix Octavius Carr Darley (Artist), 1853.
[2] In Disguise: Cross Dressing and Gender Identity, Women Soldiers, Library Company of Philadelphia.
[3] The Women of the American Revolution, Volume I, Chapter XXI, by Elizabeth F. Ellet, Baker and Scribner, New York, 1850.