Nestled deep in the North Georgia mountains on the South Caroline and Georgia state line, just northeast of Athens and just South of Toccoa lies a very interesting county. I’m talking about Hart County.
Image by National Geographic
Hart County is named after a woman by the name of Nancy Hart. Nancy Ann Morgan was born around 1747 and is a Revolutionary War hero. The neighboring native Americans had great respect for Nancy and even referred to her as “War Woman” or “Wahatchee” in Cherokee.
She married a man by the name of Benjamin Hart and together in 1771, they obtained a 400-acre land grant 25 miles southeast of Hartwell and they built a log cabin home.
Legend states that Nancy served as a spy for General Elijah Clarke and occasionally even disguised herself as a man. The most famous story about Nancy occurred during the Revolutionary War when 7 British soldiers arrived at her cabin near Wahatchie Creek. Her normal hostility toward the British was replaced that day by a cordial manner and she even offered the soldiers a meal. Meanwhile, while she was doing this, she sent her daughter to the spring for water and she sent her with a conch shell to blow which would signal a summoning for help.
The British soldiers began to drink, while Nancy kept a good eye on them and their muskets that were carelessly stacked in the corner.
Nancy managed to sneak two of the muskets into a space in the wall but by the time she got to the other muskets she had been caught by the British. One of the British soldiers ran after her but she was an expert marksman and dropped him to the floor another British soldier followed and she shot and injured him. The rest of the soldiers remained from provoking Nancy. Maybe it was the fact the she was 6 feet tall and red headed or maybe it was the fact that she was armed and they weren’t. Either way Nancy kept them contained while she waited on her husband and his friends to arrive.
Although this was said to be a legend, after a work crew building the railroad unearthened the truth, it is safe to say that this was not in fact a legend but in fact the truth!
Nancy worked tirelessly on helping her newborn country doing so many things, from tying logs up with grapevines to be able to cross the Savannah River to collect the badly needed information to even dressing up as a man and protending that she was crazy just to get into the British Camp and to collect vital information on the British troop movements.
Nancy was even related to Daniel Boone and Colonel John Dooley
The natives even named the creek that ran by her home “Wahatchee” after Nancy which is now apart of the Georgia State Park Nancy Hart State Park and the replica cabin can be seen today and the original stones from the chimney of the original were used in the remaking of the cabin as well.
The representation of Nancy Hart may be seen on the Hart County Seal. The seal was designed by Robert W. Knowles and was adopted as the official seal on May 8, 1990.
Gracie Latrelle 
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