Abstract:
When Colonel Thomas Lenoir was captured at the Battle of Camden he was imprisoned in Lord Cornwallis' camp. Prisoners there were underfed and suffered greatly. Lenoir's oldest daughter Martha, twelve at the time, heard of the misery and rode off to the camp with a basket of food for her father. Her stout bravery impressed Cornwallis and he set her father free. Upon returning to the plantation, Thomas Lenoir forged a pair of gold earrings for his daughter, which became the subject of a well-known North Carolinian tale.