Lady Harriet Acland, Crossing the Hudson River to the American Lines, Presenting Her Safe Conduct

Pollard’s image celebrates a demonstration of British female courage that followed the American victory at Saratoga in 1777. When Lady Harriet Acland learned that her husband, Major John Dyke Acland, had been wounded and captured, she resolved to join him and care for him. Here, she crosses the Hudson at night, pregnant and accompanied by two servants and a chaplain holding a white flag. She proffers the British general John Burgoyne’s request for her safe passage to a suspicious American sentry, who will hold the group at gunpoint until dawn. When finally taken to General Horatio Gates, Lady Acland was allowed to stay and nurse her husband back to health.