An American Patriot

War tested his courage. Love gave him purpose.

Restless wanderlust first carried Thomas Elwell from the Virginia frontier into Lord
Dunmore’s War, but it was the fiery call of liberty that bound him to the American
Revolution. He survived starvation, disease, and the bitter cold of Valley Forge. He
fought through brutal combat, endured imprisonment by the British, and carried the
grief of losing his closest friend.

But amid the bloodshed, Thomas discovered something he never expected: hope. In
his darkest days, a courageous young woman named Elizabeth nursed him back to
strength, leaving him with a vision of life beyond the battlefield. Long after the war
ended, her memory would ignite a new kind of quest: one not for glory or vengeance,
but for love.

Told by his descendant, Keith Smith, An American Patriot: A Revolutionary War
Soldier’s Fight for Liberty and Love brings to life both the grit of America’s fight for
independence and the humanity that carried one soldier beyond the war.