His father Thomas Marshall was Major of this Virginia regiment of Minute Men. Their appearance was calculated to strike terror into the hearts of an enemy. They were dressed in green hunting-shirts, home-spun, home-woven, and home-made, with the words, _Liberty or Death!_ in large white letters on their bosoms. They wore in their hats, buck-tails, and in their belts, tomahawks and scalping knives. Their savage, warlike appearance excited the terror of the inhabitants as they marched through the country. Lord Dunmore told his troops, before the action at the Great Bridge, that if they fell into the hands of the “shirt-men,” they would be scalped. To the honour of the “shirt-men,” it should be observed, that they treated the British prisoners with great kindness--a kindness which was felt and gratefully acknowledged. _Henry Flanders_ (_Arranged_) AT VALLEY FORGE Through the battles of Iron Hill, of Brandywine, of Germantown, and of Monmouth, John Marshall bore himself bravely. And through the dreary privations, the hunger, and the nakedness of that ghastly Winter at Valley Forge, his patient endurance and his cheeriness bespoke the very sweetest temper that ever man was blessed with. So long as any lived to speak, men would tell how he was loved by the soldiers and by his brother officers; how he was the arbiter of their differences and the composer of their disputes. And when called to act, as he often was, as Judge Advocate, he exercised that peculiar and delicate judgment required of him, who is not only the prosecutor but the protector of the accused. It was in the duties of this office that he first met and came to know well the two men, whom of all others on earth he most admired and loved, and whose impress he bore through his life--Washington and Hamilton. _William Henry Rawle_ (_Arranged_) SILVER HEELS Young John Marshall surpassed in athletics, any man in the Army. When the soldiers were idle at their quarters, it was usual for the officers to engage in a game of quoits or in jumping and racing. Then he would throw a quoit farther, and beat at a race any other. He was the only man, who with a running jump, could clear a stick laid on the heads of two men as tall as himself. On one occasion, he ran a race in his stocking feet with a comrade. His mother, in knitting his stockings, had knit the legs of blue yarn and the heels of white. Because of this and because he always won the races, the soldiers called him:-- “Silver Heels.” _J. B. Thayer_ (_Arranged_) WITHOUT BREAD _Told by John Marshall’s Sister_ He was then an officer in the American Army, and he came home for a visit, accompanied by some of his brother officers, some young French gentlemen. When supper time arrived, Mother had the meal prepared for them, and had made into bread a little flour, the last she had, which had been saved for such an occasion.