Jody Hice: “I thank the Speaker and am grateful for the bipartisan support for this bill. I want to say a special thank you to the…”

“I thank the Speaker and am grateful for the bipartisan support for this bill. I want to say a special thank you to the ranking member, Mr. Bishop. It has been an honor to serve under him, both as the ranking member and the chairman of this committee. His leadership will be greatly missed. It has been an honor to serve with him and under his leadership, and I wish him the best in the years to come. Mr. Speaker, I think most Americans are very familiar with great military moments in our Nation's past and our history, and all of us could name different places where some of those memorable battles occurred. But many of the Nation's finest moments took place right here in our own backyard, and many people are not even aware of some of those battles. One of those took place in the other Washington, Washington, Georgia, in Wilkes County. As briefly was described, on February 14, 1779, there was a sizable force of British loyalists who collided with a small but ferocious band of American patriots. They were led by Colonel Andrew Pickens in the Kettle Creek area. They were outnumbered 2 to 1, and Colonel Pickens and his men suddenly attacked the Tory militia, catching them by surprise. It was a bloody battle, a severe battle, a brutal fight, but it ended up being one of the greatest victories in the southern campaign during the revolutionary time. This battle involved only a few hundred men, but the impact is enormous on the entire Revolutionary War.…”