Anne Hennis

Anne Hennis was born in Liverpool England sometime in 1742. She was formally educated and knew how to read and write.  By the time she was 18 both of her parents had died and she struggled to survive.  She sailed to America in 1761 probably as an indentured servant. She lived with relatives in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.  In 1765 she married Richard Trotter an experienced soldier and frontiersman. They had one son, William.

Richard was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant on October 19l 1774.  When Anne learned of her husband’s death she left her young son with neighbors, and set out to avenge the loss of her husband.  She became known as “Mad Anne”. She was a strange site wearing buckskin leggings, petticoats, heavy leather boots, a man’s coat and hat, a hunting knife in a belt around her waist and a rifle slung over her shoulder.  She rode from one recruiting station to another, appealing to all she met to volunteer their services to the militia in order to keep women and children safe and fight for freedom from Indians and later, the British. 

Although Anne primarily rode up and down the western frontier, she also recruited for the Continental Army, and delivered messages between various Army detachments during the Revolutionary War. She often traveled as a courier on horseback between Forts Savannah and Randolph, a distance of almost 160 miles. She was well known and respected by the settlers along the route. 

On her rides Bailey often came across a group of Shawnee Indians. In one such encounter, Bailey was being chased by them and about to be caught when she jumped off her horse and hid in a log. Though they looked everywhere for her and even stopped to rest on the log, they could not find her. They gave up and stole her horse. After they left, Bailey came out of the log and during the night crept into their camp and retrieved her horse. 

After several years living on her own, Anne met John Bailey, a member of a legendary group of frontier scouts called the Rangers, who were defending the Roanoke and Catawba settlements from Indian attacks. He seemed to enjoy Mad Anne's rough ways, and they were married November 3, 1785. 

In 1791, Anne Bailey singlehandedly saved Fort Lee (now Charleston, West Virginia) from certain destruction by hostile Indians with a three-day, 200–mile round trip to replenish their supply of gunpowder. After hours of riding, she reached Fort Savannah at Lewisburg. There, gunpowder was quickly packed aboard her horse and one additional mount, before she reversed her direction and galloped back to Fort Lee.

With Anne's return, the siege was lifted, the attackers repulsed. For her bravery Anne was given the horse that had carried her away and brought her safely back. The animal was said to have been a beautiful black, sporting white feet and a blazed face. She dubbed him Liverpool, in honor of her birthplace. Anne Bailey was forty-nine years old when she made this famous ride. 

Again a widow, and in her late fifties, Anne went to live with her son but her love for riding and of the wilderness had not ceased. For many years afterwards she could be seen riding from Point Pleasant to Lewisburg and Staunton, carrying mail and as an express messenger.