Experience the American dream with today’s Patriots of the Past interview. I’m your host, John Gillespie.
It’s October 10, 1777. I’m on horseback with Ann Bailey who has been riding up and down the Potomac River recruiting for the Continental Army.
JG: “Ann Bailey, why are you so driven to fight the English?”
AB: “John, ever since the British killed my husband in ’74, I realized they mean no good to America and to freedom and I aim to fight until every last red coat is dead or gone from American soil.”
Fight Ann Bailey did until every last English soldier left America in 1781.
The Ann Bailey Memorial in West Virginia reads, “Here lies ‘Mad Ann’ Baily, heroine of the Virginia Frontier. Ann Hennis came to Virginia at age 19. She married Richard Trotter who was later killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 10, 1774. ‘Mad Ann’ dressed in buckskins and galloped off to avenge her husband’s death…”
John and Jan Gillespie are the founders of the Rawhide Boys’ Ranch; they have fostered 351 teenagers and wrote the book Our 351 Sons; they have also assisted numerous churches in developing youth programs and expanding their total church ministries. After running for U.S. Senate, John founded 1776 American Dream, which exists to demonstrate the vision of our founding fathers and help our generation of youth passionately embrace those values.
