General Francis Marion,

Irregular Life of an Irregular Warrior

By: Craig Campbell

2

Preface

Francis Marion is known to history as a premier fighter and battlefield innovator. In one

of the darkest chapters of the War for American independence his resolute personal courage and

leadership brought the best units in the British Empire to a standstill and kept the dream of

independence alive after the disastrous fall of Charleston, SC in 1780. When General Gate’s

army was destroyed at Camden there was no effective American force to oppose Cornwallis in

his conquest of the southern colonies. Marion’s irregulars tied down Cornwallis’ forces to deal

with an insurgency that bought time for General Washington to assemble another army under

Daniel Morgan and General Greene to combat the British main effort. If not for Francis Marion’s

ability to confound the British efforts in South Carolina, Lord Cornwallis and the British could

have very well succeeded in their overall strategy to sever the Carolinas, Georgia and possibly

Virginia from the emerging United States.

I dedicate this story to all American Patriots, living or dead.

I

3

Marion was born at his family's plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina, probably

in 1732. The family's youngest son, Francis was a small boy with malformed legs, but he was

restless, and at about 15 years old he joined the crew of a ship and sailed to the West Indies.

During Marion's first voyage, the ship sank, supposedly after a whale rammed it. The seven-man

crew escaped in a lifeboat and spent a week at sea before they drifted ashore. After the

shipwreck, Marion decided to stick to land, managing his family's plantation until he joined the

South Carolina militia at 25 to fight in the French and Indian War.1

Francis Marion was a typical man of his times; he owned slaves, and he fought in a brutal

campaign against the Cherokee Indians. Marion's experience in the French and Indian War

prepared him for more admirable service. The Cherokee used the landscape to their advantage,

Marion found; they concealed themselves in the Carolina backwoods and mounted devastating

ambushes. When Cherokee Indians rebelled in 1759 during the French and Indian War, he

volunteered for the militia and served as the first lieutenant in a company of light infantry. In

1761, at the climactic battle of Etchoe, Marion led 30 men in a several hour long diversionary

assault up a defile and against the flank of a strong Cherokee position. Two-thirds of Marion's

men fell dead or wounded under withering enemy fire, but the costly attack helped secure a

decisive victory. Marion emerged a hero to his fellow Carolinians. Two decades later, Marion

would apply these tactics against the British.2

1 Weems, M. L., The life of General Francis Marion: a celebrated partisan officer, in the revolutionary war, against

the British and Tories in South Carolina and Georgia. Edited by Brigadier General P. Horry. 2d edition, Baltimore,

W.D. Bell & J.F.Cook, 1814. p 2.

2 Weems. 249.

4

The Provincial Congress voted to raise three regiments after the Battles of Lexington and

Concord on April 19, 1775. Marion received his commission as captain in the second. His first

assignments involved guarding artillery and building Fort Sullivan in the harbor of Charleston,

South Carolina. His success at molding raw recruits into an effective and disciplined unit was

such that he was soon promoted to major, the regiment's second in command. Marion performed

valiantly when he saw combat during the Battle of Fort Sullivan in June 1776. Despite his

actions he remained at the fort, occupying the time by trying to discipline his troops, whom he

found to be a disorderly, drunken bunch insistent on showing up to roll call barefoot. In 1779,

they joined the Siege of Savannah under Gen. Lincoln, which the Americans lost.3

II

Marion's role in the war drastically changed after a peculiar accident in March of 1780.

Attending a dinner party at the Charleston home of a fellow officer, Marion found that the host,

in accordance with 18th-century custom, had locked all the doors while he toasted the American

cause. The toasts went on and on, and Marion, who was not a drinking man, felt trapped. He

escaped by jumping out a second story window, but broke his ankle in the fall. Marion left town

to recuperate in the country, with the fortunate result that he was not captured when the British

took Charleston that May.4

3 Weems, M. L., The life of General Francis Marion: a celebrated partisan officer, in the revolutionary war, against

the British and Tories in South Carolina and Georgia. Edited by Brigadier General P. Horry. 2d edition, Baltimore,

W.D. Bell & J.F.Cook, 1814. p 617.

4 Ibid. 859.

5

With the American army in retreat, things looked bad in South Carolina. Marion recruited

and took command of a militia and had his first military success that August when he led 50 men

in a raid against the British. Hiding in dense foliage, the unit attacked an enemy encampment

from behind and rescued 150 American prisoners. Marion's militia would continue to use

guerilla tactics to surprise enemy regiments, with great success even though being often

outnumbered. Because the British never knew where Marion was or where he might strike, they

had to scatter their forces, weakening them. By needling the enemy and inspiring patriotism

among the locals, Busick says, Marion "helped make South Carolina an inhospitable place for

the British. Marion and his followers played the role of David to the British Goliath."5

In November of 1780, Marion earned the nickname he's remembered by today. British

Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, informed of Marion's whereabouts by an escaped

prisoner, chased the American militia for seven hours, covering some 26 miles. Marion escaped

into a swamp, and Tarleton gave up, cursing, "As for this damned old fox, the Devil himself

could not catch him." The story got around, and soon the locals—who loathed the British

occupation—were cheering the Swamp Fox.6

Biographer Hugh Rankin described the life of Francis Marion as "something like a

sandwich—a highly spiced center between two slabs of rather dry bread." After the war, Marion

returned to the quiet, dry-bread life of a gentleman farmer. At 54, he finally married a 49-year

old cousin, Mary Esther Videau. He commanded a peacetime militia brigade and served in the

South Carolina Assembly, where he opposed punishing Americans who had remained loyal to

5 Busick, Sean; Simms, William, The Life of Francis Marion: The True Story of South Carolina's Swamp Fox, New

York, Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Foreword.

6 Ibid.

6

the British during the war. Championing amnesty for the Loyalists was "among the most

admirable things he ever did," says Busick.7 In 1790, Marion helped write the South Carolina

state constitution, and then retired from public life. After a long decline in health, Francis Marion

died at his plantation, Pond Bluff, on February 27, 1795.8

Francis Marion never commanded a large army or led a major battle. Histories of the

Revolutionary War tend to focus on George Washington and his straightforward campaigns in

the North rather than small skirmishes in the South. Nevertheless, the Swamp Fox is one of the

war's most enduring characters. "His reputation is certainly well deserved," says Busick.9

Though things looked bad for the Americans after Charleston fell, Marion's cunning,

resourcefulness and determination helped keep the cause of American independence alive in the

South.10

In December 2006, two centuries after his death, Marion made news again when

President George W. Bush signed a proclamation honoring the man described in most

biographies as the "faithful servant, Oscar," Marion's personal slave. Bush expressed the thanks

of a "grateful nation" for Oscar Marion's "service…in the Armed Forces of the United States."

Identified by genealogist Tina Jones, his distant relative, Oscar is the African-American cooking

sweet potatoes in John Blake White's painting at the Capitol. “Oscar likely helped with the

cooking and mending clothes, but he would also have fought alongside Marion. We have no way

of knowing if Oscar had any say in whether or not he went on campaign with Marion, though I

think it is safe to assume that had he wanted to run away to the British he could have easily done

7 Ibid. 8 Rankin, Hugh F., Francis Marion: the Swamp Fox, New York, Crowell, 1973. 9 Busick. 10 Ibid.

7

so."11 Historians know very little about Oscar, but the fact that he did serve with Marion in an

active combative capacity adds a new chapter to the Swamp Fox legend.12

III

By summer 1780, the American Revolutionary cause in the southern colonies appeared

close to being irretrievably lost. Having seized Savannah and most of Georgia, a 10,000-man

British army had marched on Charleston in May and adroitly trapped the main American field

army in the South. Following a six-week siege, the defenders capitulated, resulting in the loss of

6,700 Continental troops, state militia, and sailors; a larger haul of prisoners than the Americans

had taken when Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's British army surrendered at Saratoga in

1777. Within three weeks, fast-moving British columns overran most of South Carolina. At a

camp on Deep River in central North Carolina, the Americans were trying to build a force to halt

further British advances and take back what had been lost. Fourteen hundred Maryland and

Delaware Continentals sent by George Washington formed the solid core of the new army,

supplemented by North Carolina and Virginia militia. Major General Horatio Gates, ironically

the victor at Saratoga, had taken command.13

Marion understood the vital importance of aggressiveness and audacity in sustaining

patriot morale and keeping the enemy off balance. But he was equally shrewd in assessing when

he should refuse battle. In July, a bedraggled band of about 20 refugees from South Carolina

11 Gray, Jefferson (Autumn 2011). "Up from the swamp: Francis Marion turned South Carolina's Low Country into

a quagmire for the British and became one of history's greatest guerrilla leaders." MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of

Military History 24 (1): 56–65. 12 Ibid. 13 Crawford, Amy, The Swamp Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian.com, July 01, 2007

8

rode into the Deep River encampment. Some were white, some black, and some were teenage

boys. All were raggedly dressed and miserably equipped. Several had been officers in a now

destroyed South Carolina Continental regiment, including their leader, Lieutenant Colonel

Francis Marion. Despite his rank, Marion presented an utterly unimpressive figure; short,

scrawny, homely, taciturn, and so crippled by a poorly healed ankle fracture that his black

manservant had to help him dismount from his horse.14

Marion explained to Gates that guerrilla warfare had become a useful adjunct to larger

political and military strategies; a role in which it complemented orthodox military operations

both inside enemy territory and in areas seized and occupied by an enemy. Early examples of

this role occurred in the first two Silesian Wars (1740–45) and in the Seven Years War (1756–

63), when Hungarian, Croatian, and Serbian irregulars, fighting in conjunction with the Austrian

army, several times forced the much vaunted Frederick the Great to retreat from Bohemia and

Moravia after suffering heavy losses. Francis Marion’s ragtag band of South Carolina irregulars

would depend heavily on “terrorist” tactics to drive the British general Lord Cornwallis from the

Carolinas.15

Colonel Otho Williams, Gates's adjutant, recorded afterward that the appearance of

Marion's group prompted general derision among the proud and confident northern troops. Gates

was only too happy to dispense with Marion by approving his suggestion that he and his men be

sent back to their native state to gather intelligence and harass the enemy.16

14 Ibid. 15 Chisholm, Hugh, Marion, Francis, Encyclopedia Britannica (11th Ed.). Cambridge University Press. 1911.

16 Ibid.

9

Shortly thereafter, Marion and his followers rode back to South Carolina and into legend.

During the next 13 months he proved himself a master at conducting partisan warfare and

handling irregular troops. He repeatedly defeated larger and better-equipped forces with few

losses, marking him as one of history's outstanding guerrilla leaders.17

But Marion's most extraordinary accomplishment may have been that in a struggle

marked by all the savagery of a civil war, during which he and his men were usually hungry and

hunted, and in the face of wanton destruction and occasional heartbreaking cruelties committed

by his enemies (including the capture and summary execution of his 16-year-old nephew,

Gabriel), he never lost control of his men or succumbed to the urge for vengeance. Instead, he

always correctly observed the established rules of war and maintained exceptional discipline

over his constantly fluctuating partisan force.18

In early December 1780, a frustrated Lord Cornwallis fumed in a letter to his superior,

Sir Henry Clinton, that "Col. Marion has so wrought on the minds of the people…that there was

scarcely an inhabitant between the Santee and the Peedee that was not in arms against us." In

recognition of his accomplishments, South Carolina's patriot governor-in-exile promoted Marion

to the rank of brigadier general in the state militia.19

Having failed to suppress Marion and his brigade, the British turned their attention to

protecting their line of communications from Charleston to their inland bases at Camden and the

frontier settlement of Ninety Six. They erected a series of fortified posts, including Fort Watson,

17 Ibid. 18 Chisholm. 19 Ibid.

10

on the east side of the Santee, and Fort Motte, farther north, just west of the juncture of the

Congaree and Wateree rivers.20

General Gates incorrectly determined that his army could quickly dispatch the British

force at Camden. His army’s performance there could not have been much worse. Those of his

forces that were not killed or captured ran away as fast as they possibly could. Tarleton’s cavalry

pursued some of them twenty miles from the battlefield. By the New Year, Congress had

relieved Gates and sent Major General Nathanael Greene to command what was left of the main

American army in the South. Greene reached the army's camp near Charlotte, North Carolina, in

late November. He fully recognized the importance of coordinating his efforts with guerrilla

leaders Marion, Sumter, and Pickens. Greene is quoted as saying “one partisan was worth 10

militiamen” and wanted to support their efforts even at the cost of weakening his own small

army.21

Accordingly, in January 1781, Greene dispatched Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee and

Lee's Legion, the American equivalent of Tarleton's force comprising both infantry and cavalry,

to the Pee Dee with instructions to operate with Marion's brigade. Lee recorded in his memoirs

that it was “only thanks to a lucky encounter with one of Marion's foraging parties that he was

even able to find the guerrilla's camp.”22

Marion and Lee worked together on and off for the next eight months. They made an odd

pair. At 25, "Light Horse Harry" Lee, the future father of Robert E. Lee, was well-dressed,

20 Ibid. 21 Buchanon, John, The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas, John Wiley &

Sons, New York, 1997. pp 155-119. 22 Lee, Robert E. The Revolutionary War Memoirs Of General Henry Lee, New York, Da Capo Press, 1998. p 315.

11

convivial and dashing. Marion, in contrast, was nearly twice Lee's age, hooknosed, swarthy,

bowlegged, and personally reserved. He drank primarily a mixture of vinegar and water, and was

so indifferent to cutting a martial appearance that he loyally continued to wear his old leather 2nd

Regiment cap even after it was partially burned when a bed of pine straw on which he was

sleeping blazed up from a campfire spark.23

Despite these differences, the two men formed a highly effective partnership. Both were

daring and inventive, aggressive without being reckless, and careful with the lives of their troops.

These qualities were clearly displayed in late January, when they nearly captured the port of

Georgetown with a bold and complex operation that combined a night landing by a waterborne

commando force and an attack against the enemy land defenses. It was typical of Marion and

Lee that after taking the British commandant prisoner and overrunning much of the town, they

elected to withdraw when it became clear that a complete victory would require house-to-house

fighting and a potentially costly assault on the town's main redoubt.24

Lee rejoined Greene's army after the unsuccessful coup against Georgetown, and thus

Marion stood alone in March 1781 when the British made their third attempt to destroy his

command. Colonel Francis, Lord Rawdon, who took command of the occupying forces when

Lord Cornwallis moved north in pursuit of Greene's army, planned a two-pronged attack on

Marion's base on Snow's Island. The main striking force, 500 loyalist light infantry, militia, and

rangers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel John Watson, was to proceed east from the

fort carrying his name on the Santee River road north of Nelson's Ferry. A second force,

consisting of 300 New York loyalists under Lieutenant Colonel Welbore Doyle, was sent east

23 Ibid. 24 Lee. 316-350.

12

from Camden with orders to descend the Great Pee Dee River from the north, cutting off

Marion's avenue of retreat to North Carolina and serving as the anvil to Watson's hammer.25

But due to a lack of operational security, Marion was able to determine the object of this

campaign and crafted a counter to the British plans. Alerted to Watson's advance, Marion and

400 men laid an ambush along the Santee River road at Wiboo Swamp. When he approached on

March 7, Watson avoided stumbling into Marion's trap, but the British had the worst of a back-

and-forth series of charges and countercharges along the narrow causeway through the swamp.26

Watson and Marion clashed again two days later at Mount Hope Swamp, where Marion's

men had removed the bridge over the stream, but this time Watson blasted his way through the

defenses by loading his cannons with grapeshot. Watson then feinted as if he intended to

continue east along the Santee, but instead moved north and headed for the Lower Bridge over

the Black River.27

Marion guessed Watson's true intentions and sent a party of 70 mounted riflemen racing

across open country to beat him to the bridge. They arrived in time to destroy the span and block

the crossing. After the American marksmen frustrated several British attempts to ford the river—

Watson grudgingly conceded that “he never saw such shooting in his life.” Watson took refuge at

a nearby plantation where there were few trees to provide cover for Marion's men. Here he

remained for 10 days, perhaps hoping he would be reinforced by Doyle's command, the left hook

of the Tory offensive.28

25 Ibid. 26 Ibid. 27 Lee. 316-350. 28 Ibid.

13

The hunter had thus become the hunted. On March 15, Watson was reduced to asking

Marion for passes so that his wounded could be taken to Charleston, a request Marion granted.

By March 20, Watson's troops had exhausted their provisions, but Marion's skilled riflemen

made foraging impossible. So Watson and his men broke out, bolting for safety in Georgetown

30 miles away. Marion again sent a party of horsemen ahead to destroy the bridge over the

Sampit River, west of the town. When Watson's desperate troops reached the ruined bridge, they

plunged into the stream and splashed across just as Marion's main force came up and pounced

upon the rear guard. The Tories panicked and fled; 20 were killed and 38 wounded, while

Marion lost only a single man. Watson's command limped into Georgetown the following day,

its remaining wagons loaded with wounded.29

The humiliating rout of Watson's larger force in what became known as "the Bridges

Campaign" was Marion's most impressive accomplishment to date. But even as his command

celebrated its triumph over Watson, a messenger arrived with shattering news: Colonel Doyle's

regiment had discovered and destroyed the brigade's base at Snow's Island. All the weapons,

ammunition, and stores so laboriously accumulated there over the previous six months had been

burned or dumped into the surrounding rivers. Marion and his brigade at once set off for the Pee

Dee, determined to exact revenge. But Doyle burned his heavy baggage and retreated back to

Camden, very content to salvage some success from an otherwise embarrassing campaign.30

It was at this discouraging moment that Marion received the news that General Greene's

army, after a hard-fought battle against Lord Cornwallis at Guilford Courthouse, planned to

reenter South Carolina. Greene ordered Marion and Henry Lee to operate jointly against the line

29 Lee. 316-350. 30 Ibid.

14

of British forts between Charleston and Camden. Their first target was Fort Watson. This post

occupied an old Santee Indian mound that rose almost 30 feet above the surrounding plain. A

stockade crowned the mound, with abatis driven into its sloping sides. Only six weeks earlier,

Fort Watson had successfully withstood an attack by Thomas Sumter and his partisans, 18 of

whom were killed in the attempt.31

Although Marion and Lee had no cannons, they took the fort after an eight-day siege.

One of Marion's officers, Colonel Hezekiah Maham, conceived the idea of constructing a tower

made of logs laid in alternating crosswise layers until it was taller than the fort. Trees were

felled, the logs were readied, and the tower was erected in a single night. When dawn came and

the British discovered that American riflemen could now command the stockade's interior, they

promptly surrendered.32

The war in South Carolina had now reached its turning point. On April 25, Lord Rawdon

lost a quarter of his army in a costly attack upon Greene's forces at Hobkirk's Hill just outside

Camden. Two weeks later, he evacuated the town and marched south after burning many of its

buildings and destroying the supplies he could not take. Marion and Lee, meanwhile, reunited on

May 8 for an attempt on Fort Motte, the principal British supply depot between Charleston and

their strongholds upstate. Fort Motte consisted of a stockade that encircled the hilltop mansion of

Rebecca Motte, a wealthy planter's widow who was devoted to the patriot cause. Lee proposed

burning out the British by shooting flaming arrows into the house's dry cedar roofing shingles.

Mrs. Motte endorsed the plan and even supplied a high-powered African bow owned by her late

husband. When several well-placed bowshots ignited the shingles and a few rounds from a lone

31 Ibid. 32 Lee. 316-350.

15

cannon brought by Lee's command made it impossible for the British to douse the flames, Fort

Motte surrendered.33

The British position in South Carolina rapidly crumbled. Between April 18 and May 14,

three more British forts capitulated. At the end of May, Marion and his brigade appeared before

Georgetown and started digging siege trenches. But the British and loyalist garrison and its local

supporters boarded three ships in the harbor and sailed away to Charleston. Marion marked the

bloodless victory with a few uncharacteristic self-indulgences: a new dress uniform, a

refurbished wardrobe, and a pair of mules to carry his baggage.34

In July 1781, the British abandoned Ninety Six, their last remaining post deep in the

interior of South Carolina. Marion's brigade distinguished itself on raids conducted outside of

Charleston in July and August, and again when it fought as a regular unit with Greene's army in

the Battle of Eutaw Springs on September 8. There, the Americans came close to victory before

falling into disorder and withdrawing. But the smaller British army suffered 40 percent

casualties, effectively wrecking its offensive capability.35

For the remaining 15 months until the British evacuated Charleston in December 1782,

the fighting was limited mostly to insignificant encounters between foraging parties on the

outskirts of Charleston. Marion displayed a robust good sense about putting his men in harm's

way unnecessarily during this final phase of the war. Urged to attack British troops who had

landed upriver from Charleston to obtain water, he replied, "If ordered to attack, I shall obey, but

33 Ibid. 34 Bass, Robert D, Swamp Fox; the life and campaigns of General Francis Marion, New York, Holt, 1959. 35 Ibid.

16

with my consent, not another life shall be lost….Knowing, as we do, that the enemy are on the

eve of departure, so far from offering to molest, I would rather send a party to protect them."36

IV

General Nathanael Greene wrote to Marion just after the fall of Fort Watson. Greene

noted that Marion, despite fighting against superior foes, had kept "alive the expiring hopes of an

oppressed militia." Green continued: "To fight the enemy bravely with the prospect of victory is

nothing, but to fight with intrepidity under the constant impression of defeat, and to inspire

irregular troops to do it, is a talent peculiar to you."37 Marion’s talent was his own innate ability

to fight on without the certainty of overall victory. He risked literally all he held dear; his land,

his lifestyle, his reputation and finally his own existence. If there is one man amongst the listed

American patriots of his day that deserves all the accolades of being one of the men that enabled

the cause of independence it is none other than Francis Marion.

V

Francis Marion not only championed the cause of a defeated army but kept the light of

hope alive in contrast to a darkness of tyranny expressed openly by a combination of foreign and

domestic forces. He used his wits and his knowledge of the local terrain to enable him to conduct

an effective fight against a vastly superior force. Banastre Tarleton, as good a cavalier as he was,

36 Weeks. 37 Gray, Jefferson (Autumn 2011). "Up from the swamp: Francis Marion turned South Carolina's Low Country into

a quagmire for the British and became one of history's greatest guerrilla leaders." MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of

Military History 24 (1): 56–65.

17

could not manage to capture or defeat this rebel. The fact that North Carolina was not

immediately lost to the American cause is a direct result of the amount of success attained by the

abilities of Marion and his irregulars. His operations not only confounded arguably one of

Europe’s finest commanders but stymied the efforts of American Loyalists to even recruit and

retain any sizeable forces to support Cornwallis and his army.

Locally in South Carolina he is provided the accolades deserved, nationally he is given a

second rate seat in the review of great leaders responsible for the Revolution’s success. If the

southern colonies are not able to resist the British invasion and occupation, we have two

countries here in the North American continent; the independent country of north of the Mason

Dixon line and the British domain south of it. Canada and the southern colonies would be in

effect the bread of a sandwich restricting the expansion of the Free states in between. What fails

to happen in American history is only open to speculation but the western expansion of slave

states or Free states is obviously in question.

The French Revolution is a byproduct of the success of the American Revolution. If the

American experience is only half a success, arguably the French event does not take place.

Without a force to oppose the British in the Carolinas, Cornwallis has no reason to advance into

Virginia and be trapped at Yorktown. The French and the Americans have their alliance but it is

arguably an ambiguous treaty and the former northern colonies might have found themselves

free of English domination but now under the new thumb of French political and economic

domination. Julius Caesar comments that the “history of warfare often turns on the smallest of

circumstances.”38 Francis Marion, like Herman at the Tuetoburgerwald against the Roman army

38 Caesar, Julius, The Commentaries.

18

of Varus, made a historical impact way beyond the immediate results gained by himself and his

little band of irregulars. Rome may have occupied Germany, but it never conquered and

assimilated it as a true province.

Major Rogers and his famous Rangers are sometimes held up to the American people as

the gold standard of indigenous forces waging irregular warfare against a more powerful foe.

Rogers had Great Britain as an ally and could rely on the British army and local militia to “hold

the fort” so to speak while he campaigned in enemy territory. Little is remembered of Roger’s

actions during the Revolution. He not only did not side in open rebellion with the British but

offered his services to the crown. He found himself on the losing side of the conflict and even

elected to migrate to England after the war. Casting Rogers as a traitor is out of the question, he

never had divided loyalties. He was an indisputably loyal subject to the crown of England

forever.

The American 21st century army infantry school teaches many of Roger’s principles of

irregular warfare as tactical doctrine. Roger’s “standing orders” are still taught to each Ranger

School class that passes through Ft. Benning, GA. The US Army could well use a detailed study

of the actions, persistence and recruiting abilities of Francis Marion to be the preferred modern

standard in the line of prudent lessons learned of how to resist in the face of foreign enabled

subjugation. Francis had to win the hearts and minds of defeated neighbors and strangers alike.

He was at one time the most wanted armed rebel in the British Empire. You cannot put him on a

par with a “Robin Hood” in a death struggle with English tyrants but many correlations could be

made with one huge exception; Marion was real.

19

He only “stole” from his enemies and redistributed to his own men for the pure sake of

basic existence. If his armed revolt fails and he is captured, he is a mere recipient of the King’s

justice; if he is successful, he is a revered folk hero held in the highest respect by all. His little

band of rebels in swamp forest are all that stand between freedom and complete foreign

subjugation. History is continuously made by such stubborn, uncompromising men that do not

yield in the face of overwhelming odds or circumstances. One man’s rebel is another man’s

freedom fighter. Depending on where your individual loyalties lie, William Wallace is either an

evil barbarian flaunting the laws of king and crown or he is a noble patriot waging endless

warfare on a tyrannical overlord bent on complete subjugation of the people. Francis Marion was

either going to be a martyr for the cause or an elected hero of the revolution.

Separating myth from legend and fact from fiction is difficult in light of the movie “The

Patriot.” Marion’s biographers in the 19th century even wrote in 1807 to Peter Horry, the South

Carolina officer on whose memoir the book was based. "I have endeavored to throw some ideas

and facts about Genl. Marion into the garb and dress of a military romance.” Francis Marion’s

character became the stuff of legend much in the way of King Arthur and the Quest for the Holy

Grail. 39

Francis Marion in his own words lays out his case for the conduct of civil war in his

native South Carolina. No doubt, his character and the conduct of his insurgency endeared him to

friend and foe alike. He said:

“But, far differently, let us act the generous part of those who, though now at

variance, are yet brothers, and soon to be good friends again. And then, when

39 Weems.

20

peace returns, we shall be in proper frame to enjoy it. No poor woman that we

meet will seem to upbraid us for the slaughter of her husband; no naked child, for

robbing him of his father; no field will cry against us for a brother's blood. On the

contrary, whenever the battles which we are now fighting, shall recur to our

thoughts, with the frightened enemy grounding their arms and crying for quarter,

we shall remember how we heard their cries and stopped the uplifted sword. Joy

will spring in our bosoms, and all around will smile with approbation. — The

faces of the aged will shine upon us, because we spared their sons; bright-eyed

females will bless us for their surviving husbands: and even the lips of the

children will lisp our praises.40

Marion’s method of war would be an instrument of peace. His experience in fighting native

peoples understandably motivated his beliefs that once a force is defeated, do not do all the

injury you can, they may become your friends and allies. Catawba Indians fought with Marion at

Ft. Sullivan against the British.41 Ill will begets more ill will. The Crusaders created more

enemies than allies with their newly conquered peoples when they used oppressive taxation,

torture, murder and slaughter to put a final stamp on their conquests. Hitler’s army marching

through the Ukraine in 1941 could have been received as liberators and not conquerors. The

American army in Vietnam probably did a better job recruiting for the Communists every time

they used a Zippo lighter to burn down a village that had stood a thousand years. Every time

40 Weems. 2650. 41 South Carolina Historical Society, Divers accounts of the Battle of Sullivan's Island in His Majesty's Province of

South Carolina, the 28th June 1776, Charleston: The Society, 1976.

21

British forces burned property or mistreated the Carolinians, they had, in effect, become the best

recruiters for Marion’s band.42

Marion will always be remembered by the freedom loving people of South Carolina

because he fought to protect them, gave them hope and even offered fair terms to his enemies. A

cruel man with poor morals, evil intentions, and zero tolerance for opposing opinions could have

exposed the American South to a bloodbath of epic proportions. It is easy to see in retrospect

why Cornwallis and his cause failed here in the south. If the choice of leadership proposed to the

population was the rule of fear by force under Bannister Tarleton or the merciful rule of law and

representative government by Francis Marion and like-minded men, there is in effect no choice

to make. Brutal autocracy versus republican virtues does not a serious argument make.

Military occupations are always hard on the people whose lands are occupied. Iraq and

Afghanistan are just two of the most recent examples of western democracies attempting to

stabilize a turbulent Muslim area that has no history of democratic rule. Fighting wars in

someone’s house is as personal and brutal as it gets. Marion proves that you can win the war and

still lose the peace. Marion’s passion for order and cleanliness antagonized many, including one

of his own officers who ranted that Marion was an “ugly, cross, knock kneed, hook-nosed son of

a bitch.” Yet men flocked to serve under him, not because he was endearing, but as he tended to

succeed.43

42 Ferling. 474. 43 Buchanon, John, The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas, John Wiley &

Sons, New York, 1997. p 155-119.

22

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Works Cited

Borick, Carl P., A Gallant Defense: the Siege of Charleston, 1780, Columbia: University of

South Carolina, 2003.

Buchanon, John, The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas,

John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1997.

Busick, Sean; Simms, William, The Life of Francis Marion: The True Story of South Carolina's

Swamp Fox, New York, Kessinger Publishing, 2004.

24

Crawford, Amy, The Swamp Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian.com, July 01, 2007

Gray, Jefferson (Autumn 2011). "Up from the swamp: Francis Marion turned South Carolina's

Low Country into a quagmire for the British and became one of history's greatest guerrilla

leaders." MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History 24 (1): 56–65.

Chisholm, Hugh, Marion, Francis, Encyclopedia Britannica (11th Ed.), Cambridge University

Press. 1911.

Ferling, John, Almost A Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence, Oxford

Press, 2007.

Lee, Robert E. The Revolutionary War Memoirs Of General Henry Lee, New York, Da Capo

Press, 1998.

Moultrie, William, Memoirs of the American Revolution, New York, Applewood Books, 2009.

South Carolina Historical Society, Divers accounts of the Battle of Sullivan's Island in His

Majesty's Province of South Carolina, the 28th June 1776, Charleston: The Society, 1976.

Weems, M. L., The life of General Francis Marion: a celebrated partisan officer, in the

revolutionary war, against the British and Tories in South Carolina and Georgia. Edited by

Brigadier General P. Horry. 2d edition, Baltimore, W.D. Bell & J.F.Cook, 1814.