Francis Marion

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Francis Marion

(born c. 1732, Winyah, S.C. — died Feb. 26, 1795, Berkeley county, S.C., U.S.) American Revolutionary commander. He fought the Cherokee (1759) and later served as a member of the provincial assembly (1775). In the American Revolution he commanded troops in South Carolina. After the surrender of Gen. Benjamin Lincoln to the British at Charleston, S.C. (1780), he slipped away to the swamps, gathered together his band of guerrillas, and began leading bold raids on British positions. For a daring rescue of American troops surrounded by the British at Parkers Ferry, S.C. (1781), he received the thanks of Congress. He was then appointed a brigadier general.

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US Military History Companion: Francis Marion

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(1732–1795), the “Swamp Fox,” Revolutionary War partisan leader

Marion looked frail and unmilitary, but he served brilliantly as a provincial lieutenant in the Cherokee War (1761), as a major defending Sullivan's Island (1776), and as a regimental commander in comte d’Estaing's attack on Savannah (1779). Escaping the British siege of Charleston in May 1780, he raised a partisan militia to oppose the occupation of his native South Carolina. His first operation (20 August) became his trademark: surprise night attack on a larger British‐loyalist force and then a skillful withdrawal. In this case he liberated 147 American prisoners. In December he became a brigadier general, commanding the militia of eastern South Carolina. He followed directives from theater commander Nathanael Greene but opposed cooperation with fellow partisan Thomas Sumter, whom he considered a plunderer.

Marion's perseverance, leadership, and cunning kept his force alive and earned him the sobriquet, the “Swamp Fox.” The partisans denied the British a secure base, terrorized the loyalists, decimated their militia, and forced British regulars to become constables instead of concentrating against Greene's army. During 1781, Marion's brigade fought twenty‐five engagements, captured Fort Watson, Fort Motte, and Georgetown, and led Greene's attack at Eutaw Springs. In the postwar period, Marion campaigned in the state assembly to restore former loyalists to society.

Bibliography

Hugh F. Rankin, Francis Marion: The Swamp Fox, 1973.
Clyde R. Ferguson, Functions of the Partisan Militia in the South During the American Revolution: An Interpretation, in W. Robert Higgins, ed., The Revolutionary War in the South: Power, Conflict, and Leadership, 1979

US Military Dictionary: Francis Marion

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Marion, Francis (1732-95) Revolutionary War soldier, born in St. John's Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. Marion was known as the “Swamp Fox” for his campaign of harassment against British detachments in South Carolina (1780)—he would strike swiftly and then seemingly melt back into the swamps. He subsequently commanded militia forces on the field at the battle of Eutaw Springs (1781). Earlier Marion had played an important role in repulsing a British assault against Charleston (1776) and in the patriot assault on Savannah (1779).

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Biography: Francis Marion

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Francis Marion (1732-1795), one of the great partisan leaders of the American Revolutionary War, was known as the "Swamp Fox" because of his craftiness in eluding pursuers in the Carolina swamps and his brilliant guerrilla operations.

Francis Marion was born in Berkeley County, S.C. He had little education and remained semiliterate to the end of his life. As a boy of 15, he went to sea for a year. After that, he turned to farming on the family land. In 1761 he took part in the war against the Cherokee Indians as a lieutenant of militia. He made something of a reputation by leading a successful attack against a strong Indian position. More importantly, he became familiar with the very special tactics of guerrilla warfare - using small forces, hitting and running, dispersing troops in one place and reforming them in another, and employing the element of surprise. When the campaign ended, he returned to farming, at first on leased land and then, in 1773, on a plantation of his own, Pond Bluff, near Eutaw Springs, S.C. Two years later he was elected to the provincial legislature and also accepted appointment as a captain in the second of two infantry regiments South Carolina raised at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War.

In the first several years of the war, Marion saw service in and around Charleston, S.C. In September 1775 he led his company in capturing the forts in Charleston harbor from the British. In the summer of the next year he joined in repulsing the English attempt to retake Charleston. Meanwhile he had been promoted to major in February 1776 and to lieutenant colonel in November. He spent the next two years skirmishing in the Charleston area and drilling militia troops. In November 1778 he took command of the 2nd Regiment; in November 1779 he led the regiment in an unsuccessful attack on Savannah. The following year was a disastrous one for the colonial cause. In May 1780 British forces retook Charleston, and in August they shattered the American army under Gen. Horatio Gates at the battle of Camden. This ended organized resistance by the Americans in South Carolina.

Marion now took to the swamps and to guerrilla warfare. With a small mobile force of 20 to 70 men, he embarked upon harassing operations, hitting British supply lines and cutting communications between their posts. "Fertile of stratagems and expedients" and moving like a phantom, he roamed the area between Charleston and Camden and along the Santee and Peedee rivers. In August 1780 he rescued 150 American prisoners being transported by the British; in September he scattered a force of Tories; in December he shot up a column of British replacements. Every effort to capture him failed. In the fall of 1780 Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton, one of England's ablest cavalrymen, pursued Marion relentlessly but could not catch him. After a 7-hour chase through 26 miles of swamp he said, "But as for this damn old fox, the devil himself could not catch him." Another pursuer, Lt. Col. John W. T. Watson, who searched for Marion in March 1781, explained his failure by concluding that Marion "would not fight like a gentleman or a Christian."

In December 1780 Marion, having been made a brigadier general of militia by the governor of South Carolina, began recruiting a brigade and establishing a base at Snow's Island at the confluence of the Peedee and Lynches rivers not far from the North Carolina border. From this place he operated in support of Gen. Nathanael Greene, who had come south to replace Gates in October and to restore American supremacy in the Carolinas. Marion took part in several operations in the summer of 1781 while continuing his guerrilla action. That September he reached the peak of his career at the battle of Eutaw Springs. In this fight, which ended with the British forces in retreat to North Carolina, Marion commanded the American right wing; this was the largest number of troops he ever commanded. His men, whom he had trained, fought superbly, and he led them with courage and coolness. To Congress, Greene reported, "the militia gained much honor by their firmness."

After Eutaw Springs, Marion went to the South Carolina Legislature as an elected representative in the session of 1781. He was reelected in 1782 and 1784. Between times, he returned to his brigade, leading it in several engagements. At the end of the war he married a wealthy cousin, Mary Videau, and settled down at Pond Bluff, where he died on Feb. 26, 1795.

Francis Marion
c. 1732 – February 26, 1795

Nickname	"The Swamp Fox"
Place of birth	Winyah, South Carolina
Place of death	Berkeley County, South Carolina
Allegiance	Continental Army, South Carolina Militia
Years of service	1757–1782
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel, Brigadier General

Family and early life

His grandparents were Benjamin and Judith Baluet Marion of Huguenot origin^[1], and Anthony and Esther Baluet Cordes. His parents Gabriel and Esther had six children: Esther, Isaac, Gabriel, Benjamin, Job, and Francis. Francis was the last born and was a puny child. Peter Horry, who served under Marion in the American Revolution, joked, "I have it from good authority, that this great soldier, at his birth, was not larger than a New England crab, and might easily enough have been put into a quart pot."

The family settled at Winyah, near Georgetown, South Carolina. Marion was born on February 26, 1732, at Goatfield Plantation in St. James Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. When he was five or six, his family moved to a plantation in St. George, a parish on Winyah Bay. Apparently, they wanted to be near the English school in Georgetown. In 1759, he moved to Pond Bluff plantation near Eutaw Springs, in St. John's Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. Francis Marion was fluent in French.

When Francis was 15, he decided to become a sailor. His imagination had been stirred by the ships in the Georgetown port. When he asked his parents' permission, they willingly agreed. They hoped a voyage to the Caribbean would strengthen his frail physique. He signed on as the sixth crewman of a schooner heading for the West Indies. As they were returning, a whale rammed the schooner and caused a plank to come loose. The captain and crew escaped in a boat, but the schooner sank so quickly that they were unable to take any food or water. After six days under the tropical sun, two crewmen died of thirst and exposure. The following day, they reached shore.

Despite his sea ordeal, Francis came back in better health. Peter Horry wrote, "His constitution seemed renewed, his frame commenced a second and rapid growth, while his cheeks, quitting their pale, suet-colored cast, assumed a bright and healthy olive." However, Francis was done with sailing after that one disastrous voyage.

Marion began his military career shortly before his 25th birthday. On January 1, 1757, Francis and his brother Job were recruited by Captain John Postell for the French and Indian War to drive the Cherokee away from the border. In 1761, Marion served as a lieutenant under Captain William Moultrie in a campaign against the Cherokee. Peter Horry quoted a letter in which Marion spoke of this British-led campaign with sorrow:

"The next morning we proceeded by order of Colonel James Grant, to burn down the Indians' cabins. Some of our men seemed to enjoy this cruel work, laughing very heartily at the curling flames, as they mounted loud crackling over the tops of the huts. But to me it appeared a shocking sight. Poor creatures! thought I, we surely need not grudge you such miserable habitations. But, when we came, according to orders, to cut down the fields of corn, I could scarcely refrain from tears. For who could see the stalks that stood so stately with broad green leaves and gaily tasseled shocks, filled with sweet milky fluid and flour, the staff of life; who, I say, without grief, could see these sacred plants sinking under our swords with all their precious load, to wither and rot untasted in their mourning fields."^[2]

Service during the Revolution

In 1775, he was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress, and on June 21, 1775 was commissioned captain in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment under William Moultrie, with whom he served in June 1776 in the defense of Fort Sullivan and Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor.

In September 1776, the Continental Congress commissioned Marion as a lieutenant-colonel. In the autumn of 1779, he took part in the siege of Savannah, and early in 1780, under Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, was engaged in drilling militia.

Marion was not captured when Charleston fell on May 12, 1780, because he had broken an ankle in an accident and had left the city to recuperate.

After the loss in Charleston, the defeats of Gen. Isaac Huger at Moncks Corner and Lt. Col. Abraham Buford at the Waxhaw massacre (near the North Carolina border, in what is now Lancaster County), Marion organized a small troop, which at first consisted of between 20 and 70 men—the only force then opposing the British Army in the state. At this point, he was still nearly crippled from the slowly-healing ankle.

He joined General Horatio Gates just before the Battle of Camden, but Gates had no confidence in him and sent him (mostly to get rid of him) to take command of the Williamsburg Militia in the Pee Dee area and asked him to undertake scouting missions and impede the expected flight of the British after the battle. Marion thus missed the battle, but was able to intercept and recapture 150 Maryland prisoners, plus about twenty of their British guards, who had been en route from the battle to Charleston. The freed prisoners, thinking the war already lost, refused to join Marion and deserted.

However, with his militiamen, Marion showed himself to be a singularly able leader of irregulars. Unlike the Continental troops, Marion's Men, as they were known, served without pay, supplied their own horses, arms, and often their food. All of Marion's supplies that were not obtained locally were captured from the British or Loyalist ("Tory") forces.

Marion rarely committed his men to frontal warfare, but repeatedly surprised larger bodies of Loyalists or British regulars with quick surprise attacks and equally quick withdrawal from the field. After the surrender of Charleston, the British garrisoned South Carolina with help from local Tories, except for Williamsburg (the present Pee Dee), which they were never able to hold. The British made one attempt to garrison Williamsburg at Willtown, but were driven out by Marion at the Mingo Creek.

The British especially hated Marion and made repeated efforts to neutralize his force, but Marion's intelligence gathering was excellent and that of the British was poor, due to the overwhelming Patriot loyalty of the populace in the Williamsburg area.

Col. Banastre Tarleton, sent to capture or kill Marion in November 1780, despaired of finding the "old swamp fox", who eluded him by travelling along swamp paths. Tarleton and Marion were sharply contrasted in the popular mind. Tarleton was hated because he burned and destroyed homes and supplies, whereas Marion's Men, when they requisitioned supplies (or destroyed them to keep them out of British hands) gave the owners receipts for them. After the war, most of the receipts were redeemed by the new state government.

General Marion Inviting a British Officer to Share His Meal by John Blake White; his slave Oscar Marion kneels at the left of the group.

Once Marion had shown his ability at guerrilla warfare, making himself a serious nuisance to the British, Governor John Rutledge (in exile in North Carolina) commissioned him a brigadier-general of state troops.

When Gen. Nathanael Greene took command in the south, Marion and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee were ordered in January 1781 to attack Georgetown but were unsuccessful. In April, however, they took Fort Watson and in May, Fort Motte, and succeeded in breaking communications between the British posts in the Carolinas. On August 31, Marion rescued a small American force trapped by Major C. Fraser with 500 British. For this, he received the thanks of the Continental Congress. Marion commanded the right wing under General Greene at the Battle of Eutaw Springs.

In 1782, during his absence as State Senator at Jacksonborough, his brigade grew disheartened and there was reportedly a conspiracy to turn him over to the British. But in June of that year, he put down a Loyalist uprising on the banks of the Pee Dee River. In August, he left his brigade and returned to his plantation.

After the war, Marion married his cousin, Mary Esther Videau.^[3] His nephew Theodore had hinted to his uncle that it was time to get married. His relatives and friends informed him that Mary always listened with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes when anyone began reciting the exploits of the Swamp Fox. Marion was in love earlier with Mary Esther Simons but she refused his proposal and married Jack Holmes.^[4]

Marion served several terms in the South Carolina State Senate, and in 1784, in recognition of his services, was made commander of Fort Johnson, practically a courtesy title with a salary of $500 per annum. He was originally supposed to receive 500 English pounds a year, but economy-frightened politicians reduced his payment to 500 Continental dollars. He died on his estate in 1795, at the age of 63.

Modern opinions about Marion's character

Francis Marion (known as the Swamp Fox) was one of the influences for the main character in the movie The Patriot. In the film, the fictional character Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) describes violence he committed in the French and Indian war.

Around the time of The Patriot's release, comments in the British press challenged the American notion of Francis Marion as a hero. In the Evening Standard, British author Neil Norman called Francis Marion

a thoroughly unpleasant dude who was, basically, a terrorist.^[5]

British historian Christopher Hibbert described Marion as

... very active in the persecution of the Cherokee Indians and not at all the sort of chap who should be celebrated as a hero. The truth is that people like Marion committed atrocities as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the British. ^[6]

Hibbert also stated that Francis Marion had

a reputation as a racist who hunted Indians for sport and regularly raped his female slaves.^[7]

In a commentary published in the National Review, conservative talk radio host Michael Graham rejected criticisms like Hibbert's as an attempt to rewrite history:

Was Francis Marion a slave owner? Was he a determined and dangerous warrior? Did he commit acts in an 18th-century war that we would consider atrocious in the current world of peace and political correctness? As another great American film hero might say: "You damn right."

That's what made him a hero, 200 years ago and today.^[7]

Michael Graham also refers to what he describes as "the unchallenged work of South Carolina's premier historian Dr. Walter Edgar, who pointed out in his 1998 'South Carolina: A History' that Marion's partisans were "a ragged band of both black and white volunteers."

British historian Hugh Bicheno has compared General Marion with British officers Tarleton and Major James Wemyss and referring to the British officers as well as Marion said: “…they all tortured prisoners, hanged fence-sitters, abused parole and flags of truce, and shot their own men when they failed to live up to the harsh standards they set.” ^[8]

Amy Crawford, in "Smithsonian Magazine," wrote that modern historians such as William Gilmore Simms and Hugh Rankin have written accurate biographies of Marion, including Simms’ “The Life of Francis Marion.” ^[9] The introduction to the 2007 edition of Simms' book (originally published in 1844) was written by Sean Busick, a professor of American history at Athens State University in Alabama, who says that based on the facts, "Marion deserves to be remembered as one of the heroes of the War for Independence." ^[9]

“Francis Marion was a 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." ^[9]

In the 1835 novel Horse-Shoe Robinson by John Pendleton Kennedy, a historical romance set against the background of the Southern campaigns in the American revolution, Marion appears and interacts with the fictional characters. In the book, he is depicted as decisive, enterprising and valiant.

Landmarks

Main article: List of places named for Francis Marion

The Francis Marion National Forest near Charleston, South Carolina is named after Marion, as is the historic Francis Marion Hotel in downtown Charleston. Numerous other locations across the country are named after Marion. The city of Marion, Iowa is named after Francis, and the city holds an annual Swamp Fox Festival and parade every summer. Marion County, South Carolina, and its county seat, the City of Marion, are named for General Marion. The City of Marion features a statue of General Marion in its town square, has a museum that includes many artifacts related to Francis Marion, and the Marion High School mascot is the Swamp Fox. Francis Marion University is located nearby in Florence County, South Carolina. In Washington, DC, Marion Park is one the four "major" or large parks in the Capitol Hill Parks constellation. The park is bounded by 4th & 6th Streets and at the intersection of E Street and South Carolina Avenue in southeast Washington, DC.^[10] The town of Marion, IN as well as Marion, North Carolina, Marion, MA, formerly Sippican, Marion, Virginia, Marion, Illinois, and Marion, Alabama, are also named after Francis Marion. Marion County, Indiana which the city of Indianapolis is a part of, is also named for the general, as are Marion County, Alabama; Marion County, Arkansas; Marion County, Kentucky; Marion County, Ohio; Marion County, West Virginia; Point Marion, Pennsylvania; Marion County, Florida; and Marion County, Illinois. The Junior Military College Marion Military Institute located in Marion, Alabama has an organization called Swamp Fox which is attributed to Francis Marion. Marion County, Oregon is also named after Francis Marion and the marionberry is named after the county.

In 2006 the United States House of Representative approved a monument to Francis Marion, to be built in Washington, D.C. sometime in 2007–08. However, the bill died in the Senate and was reintroduced in January 2007. The Brigadier General Francis Marion Memorial Act of 2007 passed the House of Representatives in March 2007, and the Senate in April 2008. The bill was packaged into a the omnibus Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, which passed both houses and was enacted in May 2008.

Gravestone

Marion's grave stone reads:

Sacred to the Memory

of
BRIG. GEN. FRANCIS MARION
Who departed his life, on the 27th of February, 1795,
IN THE SIXTY-THIRD YEAR OF HIS AGE
Deeply regretted by all his fellow citizens
HISTORY
will record his worth, and rising generations embalm
his memory, as one of the most distinguished
Patriots and Heroes of the American Revolution:
which elevated his native Country
TO HONOR AND INDEPENDENCE,
AND
Secured to her the blessings of
LIBERTY AND PEACE
This tribute of veneration and gratitude is erected
in commemoration of
the noble and disinterested virtues of the
CITIZEN;
and the gallant exploits of the
SOLDIER;

Who lived without fear, and died without reproach

He is buried at Belle Isle Plantation Cemetery, Berkeley County, South Carolina.

External links

References

"Marion, Francis". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
Bass, Robert D. Swamp Fox. 1959.
Boddie, William Willis. History of Williamsburg. Columbia, SC: State Co., 1923.
Boddie, William Willis. Marion's Men: A List of Twenty-Five Hundred. Charleston, SC: Heisser Print Co., 1938.
Boddie, William Willis. Traditions of the Swamp Fox: William W. Boddie's Francis Marion. Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Co. 2000.
Busick, Sean R. A Sober Desire for History: William Gilmore Simms as Historian. 2005. ISBN 1-57003-565-2.
Simms, W.G. The Life of Francis Marion. New York, 1833.
Myers, Jonathan. Swamp Fox: Birth of a Legend. Ambition Studios, 2004.

Notes

^ Xavier Eyma, Les Trente-Quatre Étoiles de l'Union Américaine, Bruxelles, Leipzig [etc.] A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven et cie. 1862, p. 44.
^ W. Gilmore Simms: The Life of Francis Marion
^ "Banner Description". Berkeley County Government. http://www.co.berkeley.sc.us/county_council/banner_desc.php. Retrieved 2006-10-23.
^ The Simons folder at the SC Historical Society, Letters of James SIMONS, probably a letter from Harrier Hyrne Simons to Mary Simons (Mrs. Horatio Allen)
^ Neil Norman: Mel's vendetta against England. Evening Standard online, June 20, 2000
^ Mel Gibson's latest hero: a rapist who hunted Indians for fun The Guardian; United Kingdom June 15, 2000
^ ^a ^b Guest Comment
^ Rebels and Redcoats, Hugh Bicheno, Harper Collins, 2004, London p. 189.
^ ^a ^b ^c The Swamp Fox, By Amy Crawford, Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian.com, July 01, 2007, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/fox.html
^ National Park Service - Marion Park: http://www.nps.gov/cahi/historyculture/cahi_marion.htm

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