Tammuz 14

Francis Salvador of South Carolina (1747-1776), was the first Jew to die for the cause of American liberty. Salvador was born in London and as young man settled on a plot of family land in South Carolina. Within a year, he was elected to South Carolina's legislature, the first Jew to hold legislative office in any of the English colonies. At this time, the British were encouraging Cherokee Indian tribes to attack and massacre colonial settlements along the frontier. During one such attack, on Tammuz 14, Salvador mounted his horse and rode 28 miles to sound the alarm, earning him the title of "Paul Revere of the South." On a subsequent attack, Salvador led a small army of 330 men; he was shot by a Cherokee and promptly scalped. Salvador was only 29 years old, but he is remembered as a Jewish-American soldier and statesman.