Marion commanded the right wing under General Greene at the Battle of Eutaw Springs. For this action he received the thanks of the Continental Congress. On August 31, Marion rescued a small American force trapped by 500 British soldiers, under the leadership of Major C. Thereby they succeeded in breaking communications between the British posts in the Carolinas. In April they took Fort Watson and in May they captured Fort Motte. When Major General Nathanael Greene took command in the South, Marion and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee were ordered in January 1781, to attack Georgetown but were unsuccessful. He received an order from the governor of South Carolina to execute any blacks suspected of carrying provisions or gathering intelligence for the enemy "agreeable to the laws of this State".
Marion fought freed slaves working or fighting alongside the British. Once Marion had shown his ability at guerrilla warfare, making himself a serious nuisance to the British, Governor John Rutledge commissioned him a brigadier general of state troops. After pursuing Marion's troops for over 26 miles through a swamp, Tarleton supposedly said "as for this old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him." Based on this tale, Marion's supporters began to call him "the Swamp Fox". The British made repeated efforts to neutralize Marion's force, but Marion's intelligence gathering was excellent and that of the British was poor, due to the overwhelming rebel presence in the Williamsburg area.Ĭolonel Banastre Tarleton was sent to capture or kill Marion in November 1780. 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 SeptemTearcoat Swamp on OctoGeorgetown (four attacks) between October 1780 and May 1781 Fort Watson on ApFort Motte on Quinby Bridge on JParker's Ferry on AugEutaw Springs on Septemand Wadboo Plantation on August 29, 1782.Ĭornwallis 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 and the Pee Dee that was not in arms against us." Tarleton 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. After the surrender of Charleston, the British garrisoned South Carolina with help from local Tories, except for Williamsburg, which they were never able to hold. Marion rarely committed his men to frontal warfare but repeatedly bewildered larger bodies of Loyalists or British regulars with quick surprise attacks and equally sudden withdrawal from the field. Marion operated from a base camp on Snow's Island in Florence County. Unlike the Continental troops, Marion's Men, as they were known, served without pay, supplied their own horses, arms and often their food. Marion showed himself to be a singularly able leader of irregular militiamen and ruthless in his terrorizing of Loyalists. Marion thus missed the battle, which was a British victory. Gates sent Marion towards the interior to gather intelligence on the British enemy. Marion joined Major General Horatio Gates on July 27 just before the Battle of Camden, but Gates had formed a low opinion of Marion. 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. Army Rangers and the 75th Ranger Regiment. Though Marion never commanded a large army or led a major battle, his use of irregular methods of warfare makes him one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare and maneuver warfare, and he is noted as an ancestor of the U.S.
Acting with the Continental Army and South Carolina militia commissions, he was a persistent adversary of the British in their occupation of South Carolina and Charleston in 17, even after the Continental Army was driven out of the state in the Battle of Camden. Julia Rush Cutler Ward (great-niece), Julia Ward Howe (great-great-niece), Samuel Ward (great-great-nephew)įrancis Marion ( c. 1732 – February 27, 1795), also known as the Swamp Fox, was a military officer who served in the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783).
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