English: Daniel McGirth's favorite horse was an iron-grey mare that he called “Grey Goose”. At Satilla, Georgia, a militia lieutenant, Clarke Christie, coveted the horse, and offered McGirt a lieutenant's commission, but he was refused. Not being able to get the horse by other means, Christie swore that he would have her by force. The threat led to a confrontation in which Daniel either struck the officer or threatened to do so. For this he was court-martialed and found guilty of striking an officer, a very serious offense, then publicly whipped with ten lashes and confined in the local jail. By the terms of his sentence, a second whipping was subsequently to be inflicted. Stung by this disgrace, McGirt determined to escape, and succeeded by dislodging the window bars of his cell with a broken trowel probably passed to him by a guard. Mounting “Grey Goose”, who happened to be tethered nearby, he dashed away, turning in his saddle as he rode off to hurl threats of vengeance.(The War for Independence and the Transformation of American Society: War and Society in the United States, 1775-83, by Harry M. Ward, p. 78