n North Carolina, which ended in a
fiasco, has already been narrated. Flora was soon aroused to the fact
that the battle was against them, and her husband and one son were
confined in Halifax jail. It appears that even she was brought before
the Committee of Safety, where she exhibited a "spirited behavior."[177]
Sorrows, indeed, had accumulated rapidly upon her: a severe typhus fever
attacked the younger members of the family and two of her children died,
a boy and a girl aged respectively eleven and thirteen, and her
daughter, Fanny, was still in precarious health, from the dregs of a
recent fever. By the advice of her imprisoned husband she resolved to
return to her native country. Fortunately for her she secured the favor
and good offices of Captain Ingram, an American officer, who promised to
assist her. He furnished her with a passport to Wilmington, and from
thence she found her way to Charleston, from which port she sailed to
her native land, in 1779. In this step she was partly governed by the
state of health of her daughter Fanny. Crossing the Atlantic with none
of her family but Fanny--her five sons and son-in-law actively engaged
in the war--the Scottish heroine met with the last of her adventures.
The vessel in which she sailed engaged a French privateer, and during
the conflict her left arm was broken. So, in after years, she truthfully
said that she had served both the House of Stuart and the House of
Hanover, but had been worsted in the cause of each. For some time she
resided at Milton, where her brother built her a cottage: but on the
return of her husband they again settled at Kingsburgh, where she died
March 5, 1790.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 176: Memoir General Stark, 1831, p. 252.]

[Footnote 177: Captain Alexander McDonald's Letter-Book, p. 387.]

CHAPTER XV.

DISTINGUISHED HIGHLANDERS IN AMERICAN INTERESTS

The attitude of the Highlanders during the Revolutionary War was not of
such a nature as to bring them prominently into view in the cause of
freedom. Nor was it the policy of the American statesmen to cater to
race distinctions and prejudices. They did not regard their cause to be
a race war. They fought for freedom without regard to their origin,
believing that a just Providence would smile upon their efforts. Many
nationalities were represented in the American army. Men left their
homes in the Old World, purposely to engage in the cause of
Independence, some of whom gained immort