(Editor’s note: To help promote the Swamp Fox Festival & Quilt Show this Saturday at the Hamilton-Sullins House, we are reprinting an article from the newspaper’s 200th Marion County anniversary edition on the county’s namesake, Francis Marion, known as “The Swamp Fox.” The article was written by former staff writer Mandye Green and published on Feb. 7, 2018.)
Marion County shares its name with Revolutionary War hero Francis Marion, a native of South Carolina, who proved his value as a military commander by ushering British occupation out of Charleston, S.C.
Francis Marion is a renowned war hero, and, like most heroes, his life has been embellished and glamorized for more than two centuries through movies and storytellers.
Aside from intense patriotism and bravery, Marion also made many decisions that modern society would find demoralizing, such as owning slaves and persecuting Native Americans.
The history
Francis Marion was born on Feb. 26, 1932, one of the six children born to Gabriel and Charlotte Marion, natives of South Carolina.
Marion spent his childhood on his family’s plantation, although he left briefly at the age of 15 to work on a ship heading for the West Indies. The ship never arrived. After reportedly being hit by a whale, the ship sank, and the crew escaped on a lifeboat. After this trip, Marion stayed at home on the plantation until the age of 25.
French and Indian War
Around the age of 25, Marion was recruited for the French and Indian War, beginning his life-long military career. Marion took part in a brutal onslaught against the Cherokee Native Americans in South Carolina.
During his time fighting the Cherokee warriors, Marion learned their fighting styles, which largely resembled guerilla warfare--attacking at random points intensely and then retreating quickly into surrounding forests and swamps.
He would later use this same fighting style against British occupiers during the Revolutionary War.
Marion worked his way through the ranks, serving well and earning for himself a reputation for bravery and skillfulness.
Marion’s involvement in this war, specifically his brutality against Native Americans, has made him a controversial war-hero, as some of the actions he committed in war are highly unpopular with modern opinions.
The Revolutionary War
After the French and Indian War, Marion was elected to the Provincial Congress of South Carolina, and in 1775, he was promoted to captain of his own regiment, the 2nd South Carolina Regiment.
Early during the Revolutionary War, Marion’s regiment built Fort Sullivan in Charleston and was stationed there during the advance of the British in the area.
Marion suffered an odd injury, which caused him to leave the area for medical treatment, and thus he was not present when the British invaded and took control of Charleston in May of 1780. This battle became known as America’s worst defeat in the Revolutionary War.
While at a dinner party with other military leaders, the host locked the doors to make toasts to the American forces, an act of treason which most traditionally locked their doors for.
Marion was so uncomfortable with the endless toasts that he jumped from a second-story window to escape the party, breaking his ankle. He had to leave Charleston for treatment and subsequently only heard about the capture of Charleston.
Upon hearing of the fall of Charleston and other major losses for Americans, Marion formed a militia of 50 men and attacked an encampment of British soldiers, freeing 150 American captives, all while still nearly crippled from his injury.
Marion instituted guerilla-style warfare, attacking fiercely from random directions in a hard-to-predict pattern, frequently taking on groups of British soldiers far larger than his group.
Marion also mimicked the tactics of the Cherokees to use the natural surroundings as protection and coverage, attacking fiercely and then withdrawing quickly, preventing the British from claiming very many lives. For this reason, Marion is known as one of the fathers of modern guerilla warfare.
During this war, Marion earned the nickname “Swamp Fox” by hiding and retreating through the swampy areas that were too rugged for the large British regiments to follow him through.
A British commander coined the nickname when, after being fed-up with Marion’s group causing intense losses, he followed the group for seven hours, covering more than 26 miles through a swamp. He is remembered as saying, “As for this old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him.”
Marion won many skirmishes and small conflicts throughout the South, and he proved himself in battle, later being promoted to brigadier general of Carolinian troops.
Marion was known for his accomplishments on the battle field, but he was also known for his ruthless punishment of loyalists during the war.
His heavy-handedness caused such a response from the community that British occupation became nearly impossible.
British Commander Lord Charles Cornwallis reported, “Col. Marion had so wrought the minds of the people, partly by the terror of his threats and cruelty of his punishments, and partly by the promise of plunder, that there was scarcely an inhabitant between the Santee and the Pee Dee that was not in arms against us.”
After his years of service in both wars, Marion went home and took a wife at the age of 54, his cousin, Mary Esther Videau, age 49. Marion had to rebuild his plantation as it had been burned to the ground during the fighting, and he lived out his few remaining years on the plantation, dying from illness at the age of 63 in 1795.
The legacy
Marion’s legacy and his victories have been glamorized by multiple sources, including M.L. Weems, the man who invented the story of George Washington and the cherry tree.
Because Marion’s life was similarly glamorized, other accounts of Marion, including the film The Patriot and the novel Horse-Shoe Robinson, convey an image of Marion that ignores his more brutal acts.
While Marion was a slave owner on his plantation, he garnered the loyalty of at least one of his long-time slaves who stood by him during the Revolutionary War, when escape would have been easy.
Some of Marion’s letters describe the loyalty and bravery of the favorite slave, Oscar Marion, who posthumously received a commendation from President George Bush for bravery and service in the war.
Marion was a successful commander, especially for the south during the Revolutionary War, but the true southern war hero did not receive as much national attention for his efforts in the war because he mainly fought smaller skirmishes in the south, as opposed to the more famous battles George Washington took part in.
See complete story in the Journal Record.
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