Sarah Dillard's Ride: A Story of the Carolinas in 1780
Sarah Dillard's Ride: A Story of the Carolinas in 1780
1780. The Carolina backcountry is in ruins. Gates has fallen to Cornwallis at Camden. Sumter's men are scattered. The Revolution in the South looks finished. Into this darkness rides Sarah Dillard. Two boys, Nathan Shelby and Evan McDowells, set out hunting near Gilbert Town and stumble into catastrophe: captured by Major Ferguson's British troops, they overhear a plot to massacre the patriots encamped at Greene's Spring. While they plot their desperate escape, the real hero emerges: Sarah Dillard, who mounts her horse and rides through enemy lines to warn her husband and his men. The clock is ticking. The danger is absolute. And everything depends on courage. This is old-fashioned adventure at its finest, written for children but unafraid to show them the real cost of liberty. James Otis crafted this in the late nineteenth century as an act of remembrance, preserving a woman's ride from legend into literature. It endures because it tells the truth about Revolutionary War heroism: it wasn't generals and battles, it was farmers and wives and children choosing danger over silence. Perfect for readers who love historical adventure, quiet courage, and stories where the fate of everything hinges on one ride through the dark.
