Milly Francis

Milly Francis is the true story of the first woman to receive a special medal of honor from the U.S. Congress. Born in the Creek Nation of Alabama in around 1803, Milly was a first hand witness to the rise and fall of her father's religious movement and the Creek War of 1813-1814. By the time she was 15 years old, she had survived three wars and a desperate flight for survival to Spanish Florida. It was at that age that she saved the life of an American soldier named Duncan McCrimmon, a man who had come to Florida with Andrew Jackson's army to make war on her people during the First Seminole War of 1817-1818. Her act of mercy stunned a grateful nation and sparked a reconsideration of America's attitudes toward its original inhabitants, a process that continues to this day. In Milly Francis, Dale Cox has captured the story of a person, a time and a people. The story he weaves is touching, tragic, heroic and real.