Excerpt from Letters of Eliza Wilkinson: During the Invasion and Possession of Charleston, S. C. By the British in the Revolutionary War; Arranged From the Original Manuscripts Few records exist of American women either before or during the war of the revolution. Those perpetuated by history, though honorable, particularly to the Southern States, want the charm of personal narration. To those of us who dwell among her kindred, Eliza Wilkinson's letters present a most living picture; and they cannot fail to excite public interest at a period, when such anxiety is abroad to gather every relic of our part history before it floats away down the stream of time. At the season of writing her letters, Mrs. Wilkinson was a young and beautiful widow; her handwriting, where it is not defaced by the damps of time is clear and feminine. The letters were copied by herself into a blank quarto book, on which the extravagant sale-price marks one of the features of the times. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Teenagers were critical to the American victory in the Revolutionary War. Over half of the colonial population was under the age of 16. A draft of all boys between the ages of 16 and 19 was enacted to fill the ranks of the Continental Army, leaving their sisters to fill their places at home. These circumstances meant that teenagers played an essential role not only in combat but also on the home front. Israel Trask joined the militia at the age of 10; by the time he turned 12 he was serving at sea. Abigail Foote, a 15-year-old from Connecticut, wove cloth, sewed clothes, weeded the garden and made cheese, providing much needed clothing and food. Henry Yeager, 13, barely escaped hanging for his army role as drummer. Dicey Langston, 16 when the war began, risked her life to pass loyalist information to the Patriots. Future president Andrew Jackson was only 14 when he was captured and sent to jail at Camden. This book relates the Revolutionary War experiences of 23 teenagers. Drawing on firsthand accounts of young Americans from Massachusetts to South Carolina and from many different backgrounds--wealthy and poor, slave and free, Tory and Patriot--it provides a fascinating, varied look at America's fight for independence and teenagers' role in this struggle for liberty. Excerpts from journals and memoirs make up the body of the text. Appendices provide a chronology of events and a glossary of sailing terms.