Excerpt from the Autobiography of Frederick Augustus Ross (ca. 1803)

1802-1804, Autobiographies & Biographies, Other Bodily Exercises & General References, Presbyterians, Virginia Historical Society

“[John Patton] told me that he had often seen five hundred men start off at a run through the woods—day as well as night—like so many red deer. Yet nobody ever got hurt. Then, men stood and jerked themselves most violently, holding to saplings trimmed up for this use….”