Early Life
Frances Marion (1732-1795) was a plantation owner living in the low country of South Carolina when the American Revolution started. He had proved that he was a tough fighter while serving as a lieutenant in the militia during the Cherokee War of 1760-61. During an attack on one of the main Cherokee towns, he had led the advance party ahead of the main force of British regulars and provincial troops against a pass held by the Cherokees. Only nine of his original thirty men were left after the battle but the pass had been cleared. He was obviously viewed as a local leader since he was elected to the provincial Congress of 1775.

American Revolution
Marion joined the South Carolina Continentals when the American Revolution (1775-1783) started and saw a great deal of service, helping to repel the British attempt to capture Charleston in 1776, and taking part in the failed Franco-American siege of Savannah in 1779.  

However, he would have been captured along with the rest of the garrison when Charleston surrendered on May 6, 1780 if he had been a heavy drinker. He had attended a men-only dinner party held by Captain Alexander McQueen, which was essentially an excuse to get roaring drunk. McQueen had locked all of the first floor windows and doors to prevent anyone from wimping out, which was apparently customary in the days before fire regulations and common sense. A non-drinker, Marion had little interest in being surrounded by incoherent drunks and absconded through the second floor window. His ankle was fractured, and he was declared unfit for duty so he was ordered to leave the city in early April.

Once his ankle recovered, he gathered a small band of followers and joined the small rebel army that was gathering in North Carolina. The commander of the army, Major General Horatio Gates, was so unimpressed with the small, dark man and his ragged men that he sent Marion’s band to South Carolina, officially to gather intelligence, but actually to stay out of the way. While this may have been hurtful to Marion’s pride, it ensured that he avoided the slaughter at Camden, where a second rebel army was lost on August 16.

Partisan Leader
Gates' lack of character judgment would benefit the Patriot cause since Marion would prove to an ideal guerrilla. He had no taste for luxuries, he did not mind never sleeping in the same bed two nights in a row, and he had no fear of being outnumbered. Furthermore, he knew that fortifying any position was a death wish and he ensured that his men were mounted on good horses so that they could move fast. Most important, he had that anal fixation with security that is the key to survival for a guerrilla leader. However, even a successful guerrilla still faced the same problem as Washington, namely how to stop militia from becoming bored and going home. The militia should not be considered lazy, most of them were married men whose families would starve if they did not plant and harvest crops at specific times.

Now that there was no organized force to oppose the British, Marion operated as a guerrilla in the lower part of South Carolina, the low country and the coastal plains, mainly the swamps of the Pee Dee River. He knew this area intimately since his plantation was four miles from Eutaw Springs, and a love of hunting and fishing had given him an excellent knowledge of the local swamps and fields. Marion won two quick victories in two weeks and became such a problem that in September Cornwallis sent a powerful force under Major James Wemyss to hunt him down. However, Marion simply went to ground and waited until the British tired of fruitless riding around the countryside. As soon as Wemyss rejoined the main army, Marion returned to hunting Tories, making it abundantly clear that Loyalist units could not handle him without the support of British regulars.

Fed up of reading reports of Tory units being destroyed by Marion's partisans, Cornwalis decided in November to unleash Banastre Tarleton. Well aware that Tarleton had cut his way through numerous bands of partisans who had been caught in the open, Marion did not take the danger lightly, so he led his men to hide in the swamps. After a week of frustration, Tarleton called off the hunt, saying that he would not follow that “damned old fox” into the swamp, so Marion became known as the Swamp Fox.

When Major General Nathanael Greene took command of the Southern Department in October, Marion proved that he was the rare guerrilla leader who was able to cooperate with regular troops, which was more than could be said for his fellow partisan leader, Thomas Sumter, who often appeared to be more interested in maintaining his status than in actually defeating the British. Greene sent Light Horse Harry Lee and his Legion of 300 men to help Marion make life miserable for the British and the two men developed an excellent working relationship. Their constant raiding of British outposts and loyalist units meant that Cornwalis knew that his rear was not secure, which combined with Daniel Morgan’s army threatening the line of British outposts stretching across South Carolina, prevented Cornwalis from invading North Carolina.

By April 1781, Greene’s strategy of drawing Cornwalis to overextend his supply chain paid off when Cornwalis abandoned the Carolinas to invade Virginia with the goal of eliminating Greene’s source of supplies. With the main British army gone from South Carolina, it became the happy hunting time for the partisans. Greene skillfully coordinated the efforts of his Continentals and partisan leaders like Marion, Andrew Pickens, and Elijah Clarke during a whirlwind campaign that forced the British to abandon all of South Carolina except for Charleston by late July.

Post-Revolution Life
Marion ended the war as a brigadier general and later served in the State Senate, but he had little interest in a political career. Unlike many of his fellow partisans, he strongly opposed the confiscation of Tory property, living up to the maxim of forgive and forget. This was especially laudable since he himself had suffered greatly during the war and he owned little property by the end of the war. However, the state legislature gave him the position of commandant in Fort Johnston in Charleston Harbor and his fortunes improved when he married his wealthy cousin in 1786. It was the first marriage for either of them and while it was not always smooth, it lasted until they died.

Related Movies:

The Patriot (2000)
Directed by Roland Emmerich, starring Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger
A peaceful farmer, haunted by his savagery during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), wants to remain neutral during the American Revolution but the death of his son drives him to become a guerrilla. (please click here to read the review)

Further Reading:

The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas-John Buchanan, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

The author’s descriptions of the terrain show that he has spent a great deal of time visiting historical sites in the Carolinas, which bring the terrain to life for the reader, although the overly detailed descriptions can be a bit distracting at times. Although it focuses on the Carolinas Campaign (February 1780 to August 1781), the author provides brief but insightful biographical sketches and portraits of all of the major leaders in the South on either side in order to provide more depth. It is not a one stop examination of the Carolinas Campaign since it ends with the battle at Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, hence the name. Buchanan is the rare historian who is an excellent researcher and an entertaining writer, and he has produced a superb book that sets the standard for other works in the field.

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