One fall afternoon in 1744 eight-year-old Dan Morgan lay flat on his stomach along a river near his home in New Jersey Colony. He had come to watch a group of beavers build a dam across the river.

By and by the beavers were frightened by a squealing pig and disappeared in the water. The pig came running toward Dan, chased by two young bullies in the neighborhood, named Peach and Lem. Dan rushed to protect the pig and had a fierce fight with the two bullies. After this happened, no bully wanted to fight Dan Morgan again.

The Morgan family lived in a cabin and Dan was the only child. Dan's father had a job of smelting iron in a furnace. While Dan was still a small boy, his mother died and his father started a new furnace in Pennsylvania. Then for several years he worked for his father in the furnace.

When Dan was sixteen years of age he decided to migrate to Winchester, Virginia. He hoped to join his good friends, Henry and Molly Morris, who had moved to Virginia some years before. When he finally reached Winchester, however, he was disappointed to find that they had moved on.

A friendly man at an inn helped Dan secure a job as a wagoner in Winchester. In this job Dan helped to make wagons and drove wagon loads of goods through the forests. Soon he became known as the best wagoner in the community, but he was never satisfied to be a wagoner. Rather, he looked forward to the time when he could live in a large house and wear fancy clothes.

When the French and Indian War began, Morgan enlisted to fight with the British and Colonists. He helped haul food and other supplies to General Braddock, who later was killed. Then he organized a company of rifle rangers and helped to overcome the enemy Indians in the Winchester area.

During the Revolutionary War, Morgan fought all the way from Canada to South Carolina. The British on all fronts came to fear him and his daring riflemen. Finally, near the end of the war, he won a noted victory at Cowpens, South Carolina. This virtually ended the war in the South.

In his later years Morgan helped to subdue the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania and served a term in Congress as a Representative from Virginia. The rest of the time he lived in retirement as one of the noted heroes of his day. 

From the dust jacket of the reprint