Columbia County GaArchives Cemeteries.....Basil Neal Historical Marker
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Glenda W. Peterson and Kenny Peterson http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00030.html#0007331 Jan 2002
Date: January 10, 2002 
Submitted by: Glenda W. Peterson 
Historical Marker Reads: 
Basil Neal - Soldier of '76 
<----------1/2 mi.------------<<<<< 

"Happy Valley" homesite and burial place of Basil Neal, Revolutionary 
soldier lies one-half mile off the highway in the direction the arrow 
points. Basil Neal, or O'Neal, was born in Maryland in 1758. When he was 
17 years old the family moved to Virginia. There he grew into manhood and 
married a Miss Ellen Briscoe, daughter of an eminent Virginia physician, 
grandaughter of Colonel Stuart of New York, and great grandaugher of Lord 
Bromfield of England. Basil Neal fought heroically against the Indians 
and British before, during and after the Revolutionary War. In 1780 he 
came to Georgia and settled in Columbia County on this plantation where 
he built his home and called it "Happy Valley". After the death of his 
first wife, who borne him six children, Basil Neal married Miss Sarah 
Hull Greene, daugher of Captain McKeen Green, who also had served in the 
Revolutionary War under the command of General Nathanael Green, to who he 
was related. Six children also were born of the second marriage, 
including Basil Llewellyn Neal, who served in the Confederate Army as a 
flag bearer, was captured and imprisoned at Pt. Lookout, Md. He is buried 
near his father.