Francis Marion

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Francis Marion (February 26, 1732–February 27, 1795) was a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army and later Brigadier General in the South Carolina Militia during the American Revolutionary War. He became known as the "Swamp Fox" for his ability to use decoy and ambush tactics to disrupt enemy communications, capture supplies, and free prisoners. His incorporation of guerilla tactics helped set the motions for later combat events in which fighting in open battlefields would decline in use. His occupation before the Revolutionary War was as a sailor.

Marion is considered one of the fathers of modern guerilla warfare, and is credited in the lineage of the United States Army Rangers.

Contents 1 Family and early life 2 Service during the Revolution 3 Popular culture 4 Controversy 5 Landmarks 6 Gravestone 7 See also 8 External links 9 References 9.1 Notes

[edit] Family and early life

Marion's family was of Huguenot ancestry. They settled at Winyah, near Georgetown, South Carolina where Marion was born. Marion was born midwinter, 1732, at Gayfield Plantation in St. James Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. When he was five or six, his family moved from Gayfield 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 both French and English.

His parents were Gabriel Marion and Esther Cordes Marion, both first-generation Carolinians. His grandparents were Benjamin and Judith Baluet Marion, and Anthony and Esther Baluet Cordes. Gabriel and Esther had six children: Esther, Isaac, Gabriel, Benjamin, Job, and Francis. Francis was last born and was a puny child. Peter Horry, who served under Marion in the American Revolution, jokingly said of him as a child: "I have it from good authority, that this great soldier, at his birth, was not larger than a New England lobster, and might easily enough have been put into a quart pot."

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 parent's 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 survived by escaping in a boat, but the schooner sank so quickly that they were unable to get any food or water. For five days, the tropical sun beat down on them. On the sixth day, two crewman 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 Gabriel 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 Cherokees. 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 grift, could see these sacred plants sinking under our swords with all their precious load, to wither and rot untasted in their mourning fields."^[1]

[edit] Service during the Revolution

In 1775 he was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress, and on June 21 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 escaped capture at the fall of Charleston on May 12, 1780, because he had broken an ankle in an accident and had left the city to recuperate.

After the capture of Charleston, and the defeats of Gen. Isaac Huger at Moncks Corner and Lt. Col. Abraham Buford at the Waxhaw massacre (near the North Carolina line, 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 broken 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 of Camden, but was able to intercept and recapture 150 Maryland prisoners, plus about twenty of their British guards, who had been enroute 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 Battle of Mingo Creek.

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

Col. Banastre Tarleton, sent to capture Marion, 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 these receipts were redeemed by the new state government.

Once Marion had shown his ability at guerilla 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, and in August he left his brigade and returned to his plantation.

After the war, Marion married his cousin, Mary Esther Videau.^[2] 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 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.

[edit] Popular culture

The Hollywood movie The Patriot (2000) is based very loosely on Marion's biography. The protagonist "Col. Benjamin Martin", played by Mel Gibson, was an amalgam of Gen. Marion, Gen. Andrew Pickens, Col. Thomas Sumter and Col. Daniel Morgan of Virginia.

A television version of Marion's exploits, a mid-1950s Walt Disney series called The Swamp Fox, was a less-successful follow up to Disney's Davy Crockett series. As with Crockett, it featured the lead actor (Leslie Nielsen) singing the show's theme song.

Swamp Fox is referred to in the TV series Knight Rider episode "Knightmares" as "the greatest tracker of all time".

In 2004 a graphic novel chronicled the adventures of the Swamp Fox, using animals in the roles of the historic characters. The work was released by Ambition Studios and was created and drawn by Jonathan Myers.

Robert Heinlein used the name Swamp Fox for a troop carrying ship briefly mentioned at the end of his novel Starship Troopers.

[edit] Controversy

Early drafts of the screenplay for The Patriot called Mel Gibson's character Francis Marion, but the name was changed to the fictional Benjamin Martin "to avoid some controversy and to allow for more dramatic storytelling." ^[3]

This controversy derives in part from comments made by British historian Christopher Hibbert at the time of the movie's release. 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." ^[4]

In a commentary published in the National Review, conservative talk radio host Michael Graham rejected Hibbert's criticisms:

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.^[5]

[edit] Landmarks

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 (see link below). 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 statute 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 2006 the U.S. House of Representatives approved a monument to Francis Marion, to be built in Washington, D.C. sometime in 2007–08. The bill, however, died in the U.S. Senate and was reintroduced in January, 2007.

[edit] Gravestone

His 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 HONOUR 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.

[edit] See also

• List of places named for Francis Marion
• Francis Marion University, a public institution of higher education in South Carolina, was named after the Swamp Fox.
• Early history of Williamsburg, South Carolina
• Oscar Marion, slave of Francis Marion and Revolutionary War soldier

[edit] External links

• The Online Books Page: Texts about Francis Marion
• Francis Marion National Forest
• Francis Marion University
• Mel Gibson's latest hero: a rapist who hunted Indians for fun The Guardian, June 15, 2000
• Response in defence of Marion at The National Review

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Bass, Robert D. Swamp Fox. 1959.
• Boddie, William Willis. History of Williamsburg. Columbia, SC: State Co., 1923.
• Boddie, William Willis. General Francis 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.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ W. Gilmore Simms: The Life of Francis Marion
2. ^ "Banner Description", Berkeley County Government. Retrieved on 2006-10-23.
3. ^ http://www.patriotresource.com/factfiction/people/benmarion.html
4. ^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Exclusive/0,,332358,00.html
5. ^ http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment062600b.html