It can well be a matter of pride to the Scotch-Irish Houstons that their ancestors, almost to a man, joined the fight for freedom in the Revolutionary War. They served with courage and honor on many battlefields during the long, bitter conflict from 1775 to 1782. Some served in the militia of the several provinces, others fought in George Washington’s Continental Army and a few were engaged in the small naval forces.

The Scotch-Irish were praised by Washington as his best fighting men. Their valiant spirit had been fortified through centuries of battling for freedom—never quite achieved. The Houstons and their compatriots had fought the Highland raiders in old Scotland, the Irish raiders and the Jacobites in Ulster, the Indians and French in America. But somehow, their arch enemies through the centuries had been the English. Here again they faced their ancient antagonists.

If there was any wavering as to where they owed their loyalty in the war, it was soon resolved by resentment of British atrocities which opened old wounds. Early in the conflict, the British occupied wide areas in the provinces, burned towns and pillaged farms, engaged Indians to fight their own subjects and paid the savages bounties for scalps of frontier settlers. One Hamilton, British governor of the Northwest Territory, was dubbed "the hair-buyer" because of bounties he paid the Indians for scalps of Americans.

The people of other national backgrounds were not always of the same mind as the Scotch-Irish. In some areas the Tories outnumbered the Patriots. Even before the British soldiers ar-