Product Code Database
Brigadier General Francis Marion ( 1732 – February 27, 1795), also known as the "Swamp Fox", was an American military officer, enslaver planter, and politician who served during the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. During the American Revolution, Marion supported the Patriot cause and enlisted in the Continental Army, fighting against British forces in the southern theater of the American Revolutionary War from 1780 to 1781.
Though he never commanded a field army or served as a commander in a major engagement, Marion's use of irregular warfare against the British has led him to be considered one of the fathers of guerrilla and maneuver warfare, and his tactics form a part of the modern-day military doctrine of the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.
Marion rarely committed his men to frontal warfare but repeatedly attacked larger bodies of Loyalists or British Army with quick surprise attacks and equally sudden withdrawal from the field. After their capture of Charleston, the British garrisoned South Carolina with help from local Loyalists, except for Williamsburg, which they were never able to hold. The British made one attempt to garrison Williamsburg at the colonial village of Hilltown but were driven out by Marion at the Battle of Black Mingo.
A state-erected information sign at Marion's gravesite on the former Belle Isle Plantation shows that he was engaged in twelve major battles and skirmishes in a two-year period: Black Mingo Creek on September 28, 1780; Tearcoat Swamp on October 25, 1780; Georgetown (four attacks) between October 1780 and May 1781; Fort Watson on April 23, 1781; Fort Motte on May 12, 1781; Quinby Bridge on July 17, 1781; Parker's Ferry on August 13, 1781; Eutaw Springs on September 8, 1781; and Wadboo Plantation on August 29, 1782. Cornwallis observed, "Colonel 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 River and the Pee Dee that was not in arms against us."Wickwire pp. 190–91
Once Marion had shown his ability at guerrilla warfare, making himself a serious nuisance to the British, Governor John Rutledge commissioned him as a brigadier general of militia. Marion fought against Black Loyalist working or fighting alongside the British. He received an order from Rutledge to execute all Black people suspected of carrying provisions or gathering intelligence for the British "agreeable to the laws of this State".Young p. 74
In January 1782, he was elected to the South Carolina General Assembly at Jacksonborough and left his troops to take up his seat.Cate p. 164 During his absence, Marion's men grew disheartened, particularly after a British sortie from Charleston, and there was reportedly a conspiracy to turn him over to the British. But in June of that year, he put down a Loyalist rebellion on the banks of the Pee Dee River. In August, Marion left his unit and returned to his slave plantation, Pond Bluff. In 1782, the British Parliament suspended offensive operations in America, and in December 1782, the British withdrew their garrison from Charleston. The Treaty of Paris brought the war to an end.
These enslaved people, together with the 10 field hands, went back with him to Pond Bluff. After the war, Marion borrowed money to purchase more slaves for his plantation.Risjord p. 93 At the age of 54, Marion married his 49-year-old cousin, Mary Esther Videau. Marion served several terms in the South Carolina State Senate. In 1784, in recognition of his services, he was made commander of Fort Johnson, a sinecure with an annual salary of $500 (at the time, privates in the First American Regiment were paid $6.67 a month). He died on his plantation in 1795, at the age of 63, and was buried at Belle Isle Plantation Cemetery in Berkeley County, South Carolina. TripAdvisor
Hans Conried portrayed Marion in an episode of the Cavalcade of America television series, "The Swamp Fox", which was broadcast on October 25, 1955. Walt Disney Productions produced The Swamp Fox, an eight-episode mini-series about Marion that aired from 1959 to 1961. It starred Leslie Nielsen as Marion, and Nielsen was also one of the singers of the theme song.
Marion was one of the influences for the main character of Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) in the 2000 movie The Patriot, which, according to Crawford, "exaggerated the Swamp Fox legend for a whole new generation." The contrast between the film's depiction of Marion "as a family man and hero who single-handedly defeats countless hostile Brits" and the real-life Marion was one of the "egregious oversights" that Time magazine cited when listing The Patriot as number one of its "Top 10 historically misleading films" in 2011.Webley, Kayla (January 26, 2011). "Top 10 Historically Misleading Films, 1. The Patriot, 2000". Time. In the film, Martin describes violence that he committed in the French and Indian War. Around the time of the film's release, comments in the British press challenged the American notion of Marion as a hero. In the Evening Standard, the British author Neil Norman called him "a thoroughly unpleasant dude who was, basically, a terrorist."Neil Norman (June 20, 2000). "Mel's vendetta against England". Evening Standard.
Concurrently, the 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." According to The Guardian, "it seems that Marion was slaughtering Indians for fun and regularly raping his female slaves". "Mel Gibson's latest hero: a rapist who hunted Indians for fun". The Guardian. June 15, 2000. Retrieved May 2, 2021. The English historian Hugh Bicheno compared Marion's behavior with British officers who also served in the Southern Colonies during the war, including Tarleton and James Wemyss. Referring to Marion, Tarleton, and Wemyss, Bicheno wrote that "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."Rebels and Redcoats, Hugh Bicheno, Harper Collins, 2004, London p. 189. According to Crawford, the biographies by historians William Gilmore Simms ( The Life of Francis Marion) and Hugh Rankin can be regarded as generally accurate. The introduction to the 2007 edition of Simms's 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." Crawford commented:
Numerous locations in the U.S. are named after Francis Marion, including the Francis Marion National Forest near Charleston, South Carolina. The city of Marion, Iowa. holds an annual Swamp Fox Festival. Marion County, South Carolina, and its county seat, the City of Marion, are named for Marion. The city features a statue of General Marion in the town square, and has a museum which includes many artifacts related to Francis Marion; the Marion High School mascot is the Swamp Fox. Francis Marion University is located nearby in Florence County, South Carolina. The Swamp Fox is a wooden roller coaster located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In Washington, D.C., Marion Park is one of the four large parks in the
/ref>
The Francis Marion Hotel is a historic hotel in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Within the hotel is a restaurant called the Swamp Fox. The municipalities of Marion in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and Marion Center, Pennsylvania, are named for Francis Marion. Marion County, Indiana (of which the city of Indianapolis is a part), is named for the general, as are Marion Counties in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia, and more than 30 townships in nine states. The Military Junior College Marion Military Institute in Marion, Alabama, has an organization called Swamp Fox which is attributed to Francis Marion. The marionberry is named after the county in Oregon and so derives its name from him.
The 169th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Air National Guard, located about 12 miles east of Columbia in Eastover, South Carolina, boasts the title "Home of the Swamp Fox" and has an image of the face of a fox painted on the body of their F-16 Fighter Jets. The South Carolina State Guard, the successor to the South Carolina Militia, charters the Swamp Fox Explorer Post 1670 through the national division of Exploring (Learning for Life) for youth 14 to 20 years of age. In 1994, Marion was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.
In 2006, the United States House of Representatives approved a monument to Francis Marion, to be built in Washington, D.C., sometime in 2007–2008. 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 the omnibus Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, which passed both houses and was enacted in May 2008. Although a site at Marion Park was selected, it was not built before authorization expired in 2018. Some local residents opposed a monument to a slaveowner. The U.S. Navy was home to the USS Francis Marion, a Paul Revere-class attack transport. The ship served as the flag for COMPHIBGRU 2 (Commander Amphibious Group 2). For many years, Submarine Squadron Four at the Charleston Naval Base called itself the Swamp Fox Squadron.
|
|
