Excerpts from secondary sources about
and the Battle of Guilford Court House
"Keren-happuch
(Norman) Turner was so notable a personage as to deserve special
attention. She claimed descent from William the Conqueror, it is
said, and she came to be like a Clara Barton, Flora Macdonald, or
Florence Nightingale. Maryland became her home before the Revolution,
and her sons and grandsons entered the American army.
'I expect you to fight,'
said she to her young soldiers, 'for it is your duty; but I cannot
let you go until you give me your promise, each one of you, that you
will keep me informed of your whereabouts and your needs, and send
for me if you are wounded.'
'The promise was made to
this mother and grandmother,' says The Delienator
of January, 1917, 'and the sons went forth to battle. At the battle
of Guilford Court House the Turner boys fought under General Greene,
and one of the sons [sic
- grandsons]
received a fearful wound. Word was sent to his mother [sic
- grandmother] and
she came to him riding on horse-back all the way from her home in
Maryland. Placing him in a log-cabin on the Guilford battle-ground,
in a crude bed on the floor, she secured tubs in which she bored
holes. These tubs she suspended from the rafters and filled with cool
water from the 'Bloody Run' which flows nearby. The constant dripping
of water on the ghastly wounds allayed the fever and saved her son's [sic
- grandson's] life...
Tradition says that Mrs.
Turner made the journey with a baby in arms, and on its death she
buried it by the roadside; also that she lived to the extreme age of
one hundred and fifteen years.'"
From "The
Morehead Family of North Carolina and Virginia" by John Motley Morehead.
"...James Turner
Smith volunteered at seventeen to fight in the Revolutionary War. He
was critically wounded at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in North
Carolina and lay neglected for hours with his thigh completely
shattered. Finally he was moved to a log home near the battlefield,
where doctors planned to cut the leg off. But Smith would not consent
to the amputation. As word of the bloody battle spread to Maryland,
his grandmother Kerenhappuch Norman Turner, 90, rode all the way on
horseback to be with him, where she nursed him and others back to
health. She bored holes in large tubs mounted to the rafters above
him. The tubs were kept full of cool water and allowed to drip,
continuously cleansing his wound. Today there is a monument at
Guilford Battleground to the memory of Kerenhappuch Turner's spirit
and courage.... It was a year before he could be moved, but James
Turner Smith recovered and married Constantia Ann Ford. Of their five
children, only James Norman and his twin Charles Allison survived to adulthood."
From
"History of DeWitt County, Texas", edited by Patsy Goebel,
Cuero, Texas.
Kerenhappuch
Turner Monument
Battle of
Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
near Greensboro,
North Carolina
Photo courtesy
of the National
Park Service
"Among the brave
soldiers in the campaign through the Carolinas, including the great
battle of Cowpens, Kings Mountain, and the famous retreat across the
great rivers of North Carolina to the Speedwell Iron Works on
Troublesome Creek, were General Green settled his army after the
battle, were the sons and grandsons of a brave woman, who was not
only the 'Mother of a Brave Patriot,' but who herself rendered
material service to the cause. etc... This was Kernhappuck Norman
Turner, wife of James Turner, said to be a descendant of William the
Conqueror. Possessed of the courageous spirit of her husband, as well
as noted for her skill in nursing the sick, and her wisdom, tact, and
energy --- She loved her children with a true mothers devotion, but
she loved her county also. Sending forth her sons to the defense of
this country, she exacted from them the promise that she should be
kept informed of their whereabouts and needs that she might continue
to minister to them. One of
these sons [sic
- grandsons] received
a fearful wound in the Battle of Guilford Court-House. But the brave
woman cam to him, riding on horseback all the way from her home in
Maryland, and herself, alone, nursed him back into life and service."
From an
"Extract from American Monthly for Feb. 1893, pp 205-206,"
Article written by Mrs. Theodore Whitfield of Richmond, VA.
"It
is
for me to tell you something of the brave woman in honor of whose
memory we today unveil on this sacred spot the first monument ever
erected on American soil to a Revolutionary heroine - its granite
crowned with a handsome statue, and emblazoned with words of
everlasting bronze. In song and in story - 'in
thoughts that breathe and in words that burn'
- have been told again and again the story of the virtues, the brave
deeds, the sacrifice, the suffering, and the heroism of the men who
fought, bled, and died in that terrible war for Independence; but the
story of the privation, the suffering, the daring, and the dying of
the grand reserve army of that war is yet untold and unsung. The
women, by their lonely hearthstones, surrounded by helpless children,
in the primeval forests, without mail or telegraph or railroad to
bring them tidings of the absent loved ones their griefs, their
sorrow, their suspense, their anxiety, their agony their death borne
without a murmur. They died not in the exciting and exulting rush of
battle. Theirs was the long slow, wasting, lingering death - a
thousand deaths. Sometimes it was cold-blooded murder; sometimes it
was the cold, piercing, cutting dagger of helpless grief; and
sometimes they fell under the crushing burden of domestic care and
trouble. Their battles were fought in the darkness and loneliness and
silence of their homes. They heard not the martial music which
thrilled heroes; they felt not the elbow touch which heroes feel in
the mad rush of battle. There was never a shout or cheer to give them
courage and strength. There were no medals awarded to them; no
promotions were bestowed to stimulate them. Theirs was a lonely march
to death - and yet how bravely and how patiently they fought to the
end no tongue or pen can ever tell. These were heroines - and whilst
in village, hamlet, town, and city, from ocean to ocean, we have with
stone and brass built memorials of every name, size, and kind in
honor of our heroes - the mothers, the wives, and the daughters of
that awful time, who toiled and suffered and died for their country,
are 'unwept,
unhonored, and unsung.' Not only did they suffer and fight and toil
thus in their lonely and desolate homes, but these ministers of
compassion, these angels of pity, whenever possible, went to the
battlefields to moisten the parched tongues, to bind the ghastly
wounds, and to soothe the parting agonies alike of friend and foe,
and to catch the last whispered messages of love from dying lips. Not
since Aaron stood between the living and the dead has there ever been
a ministry so gracious, so patient, so self-sacrificing, so tender,
so gentle, and so faithful as was that of the heroines of the Revolution.
Among the brave women
who hastened to the field of the battle of Guilford Courthouse to
minister to the wounded and the dying was Mrs. Kerenhappuch Turner,
whose sons and grandsons were with General Greene in this battle.
Mrs. Kerenhappuch Turner was the wife of James Turner, one of the
early settlers of Maryland, possessed of his courageous spirit, as
well as noted for her skill in nursing the sick, and her wisdom,
tact, and energy. She loved her children with the devotion of a true
mother, but she loved her country also. Sending forth her sons to the
defense of their country, she exacted from them the promise that she
should be kept informed of their whereabouts and their needs, that
she might continue to minister to them. One of these sons [sic
- grandsons] received
a fearful wound in the battle of Guilford Courthouse, but the brave
mother [sic
- grandmother]
came to him, riding on horseback all the way from her home in
Maryland, and herself nursed him back into life and service. Placing
him in a log cabin, near this spot whereon we now stand, upon the
floor, beneath the bare rafters, she bored holes in tubs which she
suspended from these rafters above the ghastly wounds, and keeping
these tubs filled with cool water, from the 'Bloody
Run'
near by, the constant dripping upon the wound allayed the fever, and
she thus improvised a treatment as efficacious as the 'icepack'
of modern science.
One of her daughters,
Elizabeth, married Joseph Morehead, of North Carolina, of Scotch
ancestry, and her descendants have ever been noted for their love of
country and public spirit. Another daughter, Mary, married Charles,
the brother of Joseph Morehead, and left offspring in the West. Of
these, Gov. Charles S. Morehead, of Kentucky, and his cousin, Gov.
James Turner Morehead, of the same State, have been eminent
statesmen, having served not only as Governor, but also in the Senate
of the United States from that State.
The North Carolina
branch of the family has given to this State the late Gov. John M.
Morehead, one of the greatest, if not the greatest Governor our State
has yet produced, who was a great leader of the old Whig party, and
the greatest internal improvement man the State has yet known and his
brother, Hon. James Turner Morehead, one of the greatest and most
distinguished lawyers of his day in this State, and who at one time
represented this District in Congress, where he could have remained
indefinitely but for his positive refusal to remain in Congress. He
preferred his profession, to which he was devoted.
The late Governor
Morehead is survived by one son, Maj. J. Turner Morehead, now of New
York City. The only surviving sons of the late Hon. James Turner
Morehead are Col. James T. Morehead, one of the leading and most
distinguished members of the Greensboro bar, who, like his father, is
devoted to his profession, preferring it to political honors, and
Maj. Joseph M. Morehead, who is now, and has been for some years, the
acting President of the Guilford Battle Ground Company. It was the
latter who conceived the idea of erecting the beautiful monument
which we dedicate and unveil today in honor of the memory of
Kerenhappuch Turner. The conception of this idea was submitted by him
to his patriotic kinsman, Maj. J. Turner Morehead, of New York City,
who like all members of this distinguished family, is noted for his
public spirit, and who, with enthusiasm as well as with purse and
brain, joined President Morehead in the execution of the idea under
the auspices of said Company. These two men are, therefore, entitled
to the honor of erecting here the first monument ever built in
America to a Revolutionary heroine - an honor of which they may well
be proud, and which entitles them to the gratitude of every man who
loves his country. They have set an example worthy of imitation,
which it is to be hoped will stimulate others to like manifestation
of patriotic and filial piety. We honor ourselves in honoring the
brave and good woman of whom I speak today.
Her long ride, her
gentle touch, her tact, her skill, and her heroic service, saved the
life of her son [sic
- grandson].
It was an ancient Roman, touched perhaps by a transient gleam of
Christian truth, who said when he turned aside from a career of
Asiatic conquest that he would rather save a human life than become
master of all the dominions of Mithridates. This is but one life of
which history and tradition tell us. How many were saved by the
tender ministry of the brave women of that awful time will never be
known. The history of the part enacted by them in that great struggle
has never been written. I salute the Daughters of the American
Revolution, who honor us today with their presence, and bid them
godspeed in their pious and patriotic work of rescuing from oblivion
the history of those heroic days. They can render their sex and their
country no greater service than that of rescuing from oblivion those
records and traditions which tell us of the glorious deeds and
godlike sacrifices of the brave women of those days.
It is fit, Mr.
President, that the Daughters of the Revolution should join with us
in the tribute we pay today to one who glorified her sex in her
homely toils and in her angelic ministry upon this battlefield, where
valor wrote in crimson letters 'the
purple testament of bleeding war.'
It is meet, too, that on
this sabbath of our government this uncounted multitude should come
and share with us the honor of dedicating to a brave woman this
beautiful monument, around which in the coming years youth and age
shall gather and linger to read its story, and to study the annals
emblazoned by the Christlike services of the heroines of the
Revolution. Then, upon this holy ground, whereon fell the tears of
our mothers and the blood of our fathers in the starless night of
their supreme effort, let us reverently uncover in the presence of
this most fitting and beautiful memorial to the memory of a
Revolutionary mother.
'The bravest battle that
was ever fought.
Shall I tell you where
or when?
On the maps of the world
you will find it not,
'Twas fought by the
mothers of men.
Nay, not with cannon or
battle shot,
With as word, or nobler pen;
Nay, not with eloquent
word or thought,
From mouths of wonderful men.
But deep in a walled-up
woman's heart,
A woman that would not yield,
But bravely, silently
bore her part -
Lo, there is that battlefield.
No marshaling troops, no
bivouac song,
No banner to gleam and wave;
But, oh, these battles
they last so long -
From babyhood to the grave.
Yet, faithful still as a
bridge of stars,
She fights in her
walled-up town;
Fights on and on in the
endless wars,
Then silent, unseen,
goes down.'"
From "Mrs. Kerenhappuch Turner - A Heroine of 1776," an address by G. S. Bradshaw Esq. at the unveiling of the Kerenhappuch Turner monument at the Guilford Court House Battle Ground on 4 July 1902.
