Post on 21-Jan-2017
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.