 While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods and he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home. He found his wife had already been buried and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779 without ever finding his family.