Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Elliott, Susannah

ELLIOTT, Susannah, patriot, b. in South Carolina about 1750. Her maiden name was Smith. She was descended from one of the oldest families of the colony, left an orphan at an early age, was educated by Rebecca Brewton Motte, and married Barnard Elliott, a colonel in the Revolutionary army. On 28 June, 1776, after the battle of Fort Moultrie, she presented to Col. Moultrie's regiment two standards, embroidered by her own hands, saying that the soldiers' gallant behavior entitled them to the highest honors, and that she had no doubt they would stand by the colors as long as they should wave in the air of liberty. At her plantation she had a secret apartment in which two American officers were hidden safely from the British, who searched the house, and found neither the patriots nor the family silver, which was buried in a marsh and disinterred after the war.