Basil Neal-Soldier of '76

"Happy Valley", homesite and burial place of Basil Neal, Revolutionary soldier, lies one-half mile off this highway in the direction the arrow points. Basil Neal or O'Neal, was born in Maryland in 1758. When he was 17 years old his family moved to Virginia. There he grew to manhood and married Miss Ellen Briscoe, daughter of an eminent Virginia physician, granddaughter of Colonel Stuart, of New York, and great-granddaughter of Lord Bromfield of England. Basil Neal fought heroically against the Indians and British before, during, and after the Revolutionary War. In 1780 he came to Georgia and settled in Columbia County on this plantation where he built his home and called it "Happy Valley." After the death of his first wife, who had borne him six children, Basil Neal married Miss Sarah Hull Green, daughter of Captain McKeen Green, who also had served in the Revolutionary War under the command of General Nathanael Greene, to whom he was related. Six children also were born of this second marriage, including Basil Llewellyn Neal, who served in the Confederate Army as a flag bearer, was captured and imprisoned at Ft. Lookout, Md. He is buried near his father.