While on a visit in 1781 to her [Nancy Craighead Richard Dunlap] sister, Rachel, wife of Dr. [David] Caldwell of Guilford, the latter's house was surrounded by armed Tories, for the purpose of seizing the Doctor, who was an ardent Whig and taking him to the British camp.
As they were about to leave the house with their plunder and their prisoner, Mrs. Dunlap, coming from another room, stepped up behind Dr. Caldwell leaned over his shoulder, and whispered to him, as if intending the question for his ear alone, asking him if it were not time for Gillespie and his men to he there. A soldier standing near heard the words, and in great alarm, demanded what she meant. The lady replied she was merely speaking with her brother.
In a moment all was confusion, the whole party were panic-stricken and in the consternation produced by this ingenious manoeuvre the Tories fled precipitately, leaving their prisoner and plunder. [Source]
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