Fourth Generation Inclusive

One morning, while the army of Cornwallis was marching through this section, Mrs. Gee was intent on household cares in her kitchen, when she was startled by the entrance of an armed Negro in British uniform, who ordered her to cook breakfast for him. There was no resisting the command, for she was alone in the house, and on the premises were only two or three young Negroes. She set about preparing the meal, making it as elaborate as possible, in order to secure delay; and, while it was cooking, she managed to slip out, and give this message to an intelligent boy: ‘Run to John Lomax and tell him to come here just as quick as he can, and to come with his gun!’ But it seemed to her that bread and meat never baked so fast before, and do what she would — the Negro all the while urging her with brutal words to hurry up — she was obliged to dish up the food. But just as her unwelcome guest had seated himself at the table, his musket across his knees, John Lomax, strode through the door, and presented a gun at his head. Lomax kept the British Negro captive till all the army of Cornwallis had passed, and then gave him up to the authorities at Fayetteville. John Lomax was a free Negro thoroughly imbued with the patriotic sentiments of his white friends and neighbors, and devoted all his life to the Gee family.

From W.J. Fletcher, The Gee Family (1937).