Harriet Ackland
(AmericanRevolution.org) Lady Harriet was the wife of Major Ackland, an officer in Burgoyne's army. She accompanied him to Canada in 1776 and in the disastrous campaign the following year, from Canada to Saratoga. Beautiful and admired as she was, and accustomed to all the refinements and luxuries incident to rank and fortune, her delicate frame ill calculated to sustain the various hardships she had undergone, she yet shrank not from her husband's perils and privations in transversing the dreary wilderness. When he lay ill at Chambly, at a miserable hut, she was very assisduous in giving him attention, even in the midst of fatigue and discomfort. When he was wounded at Hubbarton, she hastened from Montreal, where she had been first persuaded to remain, and crossed Lake Champlain, resolved to leave him no more.
On the advance of the army to Fort Edward, the tent in which Lady Ackland had lodged took fire, the light being pushed over by a pet Newfoundland dog, and she and her husband made their escape with the utmost difficulty. No hazards dissuaded Lady Ackland from her purpose. Not only did she take great care of her husband, but she won admiration of the army by her amiable deportment; continually making little presents to the officers belonging to his corps, whenever she had anything among her stores worth acceptance; and receiving in return every kind attention which could mitigate the hardships she daily had to encounter.
In the decisive action on the seventh of October, Lady Ackland was again in the tumult of battle. During the heat of the conflict, tortured by anxiety, she took refuge among the wounded and dying. Her husband, commanding the grenadiers, was in the most exposed part of the battle, and she awaited his fate in awful suspense. The Baroness Riedesel, and the wives of two other field officers, were her companions in apprehension. One of the officers was brought in wounded, and the death of the other was announced. In the midst of the heart-rending scenes that followed, intelligence came that the British army was defeated, and that Major Ackland was desperately wounded and a prisoner.
To learn the rest of the story, click on the above link at Women of the American Revolution--Harriet Ackland.
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