The Swamp Fox

by John Oller

  20named for his uncle . . . gifted him three: Boddie, Traditions, 3. Boddie’s recitation is somewhat at odds with a 1746 deed by which Marion’s mother, Esther, was given three slaves—June, Willoughby, and Peter—in trust by her brother. Mabel Louise Webber, ed., “Historical Notes,” SCHGM 15, no. 3 (July 1914): 145–147.

  20“I have it . . . quart pot”: Weems, 20.

  21Biggin: Cross, Historic Ramblin’s, 26, 143.

  21father moved the family: Boddie, Traditions, 13; Yeadon 2, no. 6 (August 1845): 123. Although many sources state that the move to Georgetown was to provide young Francis a public school education, the first public school did not open there for almost another twenty years. “Winyah Indigo School,” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Interior, National Park Service, October 3, 1988), www.nationalregister.sc.gov/georgetown/S10817722032/S10817722032.pdf.

  21After changing occupations: Boddie, Traditions, 15; Yeadon 1, no. 2 (April 1845): 275.

  21“embarrassed in his affairs”: Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department (Philadelphia, 1812), 1:395.

  21“necessitous circumstances”: Yeadon 1, no. 1 (March 1845): 219.

  21fend for themselves: Lee, Memoirs, 1:395.

  21Gabriel Marion died . . . became a sailor: Cross, Historic Ramblin’s, 277; James, 9; Simms, 15; Boddie, Traditions, 18–19.

  21had each married . . . the Allstons: Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 413, 420; Yeadon 2, no. 5 (July 1845): 51; Joseph A. Groves, The Alstons and Allstons of North Carolina and South Carolina (Atlanta: Franklin Printing, 1901), 42, 68, 320; Suzanne Cameron Linder and Marta Leslie Thacker, Historical Atlas of the Rice Plantations of Georgetown County and the Santee River (Columbia: South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, 2001), 148, 181–182.

  21“his visage . . . not captivating”: Lee, Memoirs, 1:396.

  21ship foundered: Weems, 20–21; James, 9; Simms, 16, 235n10; Boddie, Traditions, 19; Yeadon 2, no. 7 (September 1845): 202–203. Because the story originates with Weems, it may be considered apocryphal. There is, however, at least one newspaper report of a shipwreck in 1750 off the coast of Cape Lookout, North Carolina, in which “3 men and a boy” were saved and a Bermuda vessel was driven ashore. South Carolina Gazette, October 29–November 5, 1750. Marion, at age eighteen, conceivably could have been the youth.

  21returned to . . . his mother: James, 9.

  21Francis spent . . . rudimentary education: Boddie, Traditions, 16–18, 39. I am also indebted to Karen MacNutt for these observations and in particular the following addresses: “After the Fox in Georgetown,” 11th Francis Marion/Swamp Fox Symposium, Manning, SC, October 19, 2013, and “Francis Marion and Georgetown,” 9th Francis Marion/Swamp Fox Symposium, October 15, 2011, DVDs.

  22moved from Georgetown: James, 10; Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 412; Yeadon 2, no. 6 (August 1845): 126; no. 8 (October 1845): 265–266.

  22declining health: Boddie, Traditions, 22.

  22She would die . . . Job and Francis: Ibid., 23; Yeadon 1, no. 2 (April 1845): 275; Yeadon 2, no. 8 (October 1845): 266.

  22listed on the muster roll: Yeadon 2, no. 8 (October 1845): 265–266.

  22every able-bodied man: Jacobsen, “Conduct of the Partisan War,” 34; Pancake, This Destructive War, 50–51; Clyde R. Ferguson, “Functions of the Partisan-Militia in the South During the American Revolution: An Interpretation,” in Higgins, Revolutionary War in the South, 242.

  22Gabriel married . . . heiress: Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 415–416.

  22Belle Isle: Ibid., 416; Boddie, Traditions, 23.

  22English Santee . . . French Santee: Thomas Gaillard, “Copious Extracts,” 16; Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 416n.

  22“garden spot” . . . indigo: Ravenel, “Historical Sketch,” 39–41.

  23profitable crops at Hampton Hill: Boddie, Traditions, 24–25; Yeadon 2, no. 8 (October 1845): 267–268.

  CHAPTER 3: FRONTIER LESSONS

  24Oconostota . . . Lyttelton claimed a victory: Alan Calmers, “The Lyttelton Expedition of 1759: Military Failures and Financial Successes,” SCHM 77, no. 1 (January 1976): 10–26; John Oliphant, Peace and War on the Anglo–Cherokee Frontier, 1756–1763 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001), 54–55, 69–72, 76, 102–104, 109–112; Tom Hatley, The Dividing Paths: Cherokees and South Carolinians Through the Revolutionary Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 113–125; Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 418; Yeadon 2, no. 8 (October 1845): 268–272; Letter of Volunteers to Gov. William Henry Lyttelton, October 31, 1759, in The Writings of Christopher Gadsden, 1746–1805, ed. Richard Walsh (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1966), 12–13. See generally Daniel J. Tortora, Carolina in Crisis: Cherokees, Colonists, and Slaves in the American Southeast, 1756–1763 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2015), chaps. 3–4.

  25The colonials resented: John T. Schlotterbeck, Daily Life in the Colonial South (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2013), 353.

  25fresh outbreak of hostilities: Oliphant, Peace and War, 110–111; Tortora, Carolina in Crisis, chaps. 6–7.

  26Montgomery set out . . . British muskets: Oliphant, Peace and War, 113–117, 123–132; Yeadon 2, no. 8 (October 1845): 274–275; Tortora, Carolina in Crisis, 118–128.

  26Montgomery’s expedition . . . caused South Carolinians to question: Tortora, Carolina in Crisis, 128–129; Oliphant, Peace and War, 132–134; Hatley, The Dividing Paths, 132–133.

  26the captors massacred: Robert J. Conley, The Cherokee Nation: A History (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005), 49; Fred Anderson, Crucible of War: The Seven Years’ War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766 (New York: Knopf, 2000), 463–465; Tortora, Carolina in Crisis, 131–133.

  26commanding officer was scalped alive: Anderson, Crucible of War, 465.

  26“stuffed earth . . . eat your fill’”: Ibid., 799n13.

  26James Grant . . . Marion was commissioned: Oliphant, Peace and War, 151; Anderson, Crucible of War, 466; Paul David Nelson, General James Grant: Scottish Soldier and Royal Governor of East Florida (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1993), 3–5, 33–35; Duane H. King, “A Powder Horn Commemorating the Grant Expedition Against the Cherokees,” Journal of Cherokee Studies 1, no. 1 (Summer 1976): 23, 30; Yeadon 2, no. 9 (November 1845): 333–336; “Officers of the South Carolina Regiment in the Cherokee War, 1760–1761,” SCHGM 3, no. 4 (October 1902): 202, 205.

  27danced the War Dance . . . “The camp . . . what it was”: Christopher French, “Journal of an Expedition to South Carolina,” Journal of Cherokee Studies 2, no. 3 (Summer 1977): 279–281 (May 16, 29).

  27white woodsmen dressed and painted: Tortora, Carolina in Crisis, 144, 148.

  27Grant’s men passed . . . after several hours of fighting: Ibid., 148–149; French, “Journal,” 283–284 (June 9, 10); “Journal of Lieutenant-Colonel James Grant, Commanding an Expedition Against the Cherokee Indians, June–July, 1761,” Florida Historical Quarterly 12 (1933): 27–29; Oliphant, Peace and War, 158–163; Anderson, Crucible of War, 466.

  27“was met . . . every soul to death”: French, “Journal,” 283–284 (June 10).

  27burned fifteen settlements . . . “to demolish . . . to starve”: “Journal of Grant,” 30, 35.

  27concluded a treaty: Yeadon 2, no. 9 (November 1845): 337; Oliphant, Peace and War, 140, 171–188; Anderson, Crucible of War, 467–468.

  28Weems paints . . . opened the pass: Weems, 22–23. See also Simms, 29–30. Simms cites a written autobiography of Peter Horry that has since been lost.

  28Grant did send . . . Moultrie’s first lieutenant: “Journal of Grant,” 28; Tortora, Carolina in Crisis, 149; “Diary of Alexander Monypenny: March 20–May 31, 1761,” Journal of Cherokee Studies 2, no. 3 (Summer 1977): 330 (May 31); Pennsylvania Journal (Philadelphia), July 9, 1761; Moultrie, Memoirs, 2:223.

  28“Our men . . . across the river”: The Papers of Henry Laurens, vol. 3, Jan. 1, 1759–Aug. 31, 1763, ed. Phi
lip M. Hamer and George C. Rogers Jr. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1972), 75.

  28one slightly wounded private: Pennsylvania Gazette, August 6, 1761 (quoting Grant headquarters report).

  28eleven soldiers were killed: “Journal of Grant,” 28.

  28only one of them a Carolina provincial: French, “Journal,” 285 (June 17).

  28“an active . . . soldier”: Moultrie, Memoirs, 2:223.

  28“distinguished himself . . . near Etchoee”: James, 10.

  28“slaughtering Indians for fun”: “Mel Gibson’s Latest Hero: A Rapist Who Hunted Indians for Fun,” The Guardian, June 15, 2000, www.theguardian.com/film/2000/jun/15/news.melgibson.

  29“We arrived . . . refrain from tears”: Weems, 24–25. In reviewing Weems’s text Horry did not take issue with his rendition of the letter. Salley, “Horry’s Notes.”

  29Peggy, was the “mustee” daughter: Yeadon 2, no. 6 (August 1845): 124–126.

  29Joseph Willis: Scott Withrow, “Joseph Willis: Carolinian and Free Person of Color,” in Carolina Genesis: Beyond the Color Line, ed. Scott Withrow (Palm Coast, FL: Backintyme, 2010), 148–153, 161–173; Randy Willis, “The Story of Joseph Willis,” Three Winds Blowing, 2015, threewindsblowing.com/story-of-joseph-willis.html.

  29grand jury and petit jury: John D. Stemmons and E. Diane Stemmons, compilers, South Carolina 1767 Jury List (Sandy, UT: Census Publishing), 79.

  30350 acres . . . continued to acquire: Yeadon 2, no. 8 (October 1845): 267; Boddie, Traditions, 37.

  30Gabriel . . . 140 slaves . . . 78,000 pounds: Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 418–419; Boddie, Traditions, 20–21.

  30By 1773 . . . Pond Bluff: Yeadon 2, no. 8 (October 1845): 267; F. M. Kirk, “Pond Bluff Plantation, Marion Family,” c. 1930s, www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~scbchs/pondbluff.htm.

  30plantation manager was the man June: Boddie, Traditions, 37.

  30he made out a will: Yeadon 2, no. 6 (August 1845): 126; Boddie, Traditions, 37–39.

  31“natural son” of Gabriel: Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 419–420.

  31crime to teach slaves: David J. McCord, ed., The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vol. 7, Containing the Acts Relating to Charleston, Courts, Slaves, and Rivers (Columbia, SC, 1840), 413, section XLV.

  32Gabriel made no provision for . . . William: Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 419; Last Will and Testament of Gabriel Marion, February 29, 1776, Ancestry.com. William’s mother was a Mary Marion, who was probably a first cousin of Gabriel and Francis. Last Will and Testament of Gabriel Marion [Jr.], October 21, 1780, Ancestry.com; Yeadon 1, no. 2 (April 1845): 276–277.

  32“regularly raping his female slaves”: “Mel Gibson’s Latest Hero.”

  CHAPTER 4: MANNING THE RAMPARTS

  33prominent French families . . . fought for the Tories: Johnson, Traditions and Reminiscences, 282–283; Frye Gaillard, Lessons from the Big House: One Family’s Passage Through the History of the South, A Memoir (Asheboro, NC: Down Home Press, 1994), 12, 18–22; Lambert, South Carolina Loyalists, 7, 113–115, 123n22.

  33His older brothers: Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 413–425; Journal of the Provincial Congress of South Carolina, 1776 (Charleston, SC, 1776), 130, 132; MacNutt, “After the Fox in Georgetown”; MacNutt, “Francis Marion and Georgetown”; Cross, Historic Ramblin’s, 215, 218; Groves, Alstons and Allstons, 68; Alexander S. Salley, compiler, South Carolina Provincial Troops, Named in Papers of the First Council of Safety of the Revolutionary Party in South Carolina, June–November, 1775 (Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1977), 76.

  33First Provincial Congress . . . Job and Francis . . . Gabriel: Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:14–16; Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 418–419, 425.

  34The wealthy Allstons . . . would later serve: Rogers, History of Georgetown County, 134; James, 82; Groves, Alstons and Allstons, 53, 76, 320; Linder and Thacker, Rice Plantations, 183.

  34Francis’s nephews: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 38, 615n191; Rankin, 10; Charles J. Colcock, “The Marion Family,” Huguenot Society 22 (1916): 46–47; Yeadon 2, no. 5 (July 1845): 55.

  34Isaac Marion . . . helped relay: Simms, 236n18; R. Howe to Isaac Marion, May 8, 1775; Isaac Marion to Dennis Hankins et al., May 9, 1775, in Robert W. Gibbes, ed., Documentary History of the American Revolution . . . 1764–1776 (New York, 1855), 90.

  34“Rice Kings”: Buchanan, 17–24.

  34Provincial Congress endorsed: Fraser, Patriots, 63–65; William R. Ryan, The World of Thomas Jeremiah: Charleston on the Eve of the American Revolution (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 30–34; Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:12–18.

  35“diligently attentive . . . arms”: Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:55.

  35Charleston rebels raided: Parker, 82, 87, 127.

  35rumors spread that the British: Fraser, Patriots, 67; Piecuch, Three Peoples, 64, 76–78.

  35“a few scalps taken by Indians”: Piecuch, Three Peoples, 39.

  35South Carolinians voted to raise . . . enemy of the state: Rankin, 8; Fraser, Patriots, 67; Buchanan, 91–92.

  35Thomas Jeremiah: Piecuch, Three Peoples, 78–80; Farley, “The South Carolina Negro,” 76–77; Ryan, World of Thomas Jeremiah, 19, 56.

  35Marion tied for third . . . ranked second captain: A. S. Salley, ed., “Miscellaneous Papers of the General Committee, Secret Committee, and Provincial Congress, 1775,” SCHGM 8, no. 4 (October 1907): 190; Rankin, 9; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 1, 601n10, 602n20.

  36blue cloth coats: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 1; Fraser, Patriots, 74–75.

  36recruiting mission: Bass, Swamp Fox, 11.

  36“keep themselves . . . soldier-like manner”: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 11.

  36His first mission . . . surrender was made: Ibid., 14–15; Rankin, 10–11; Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:86–88; Ryan, World of Thomas Jeremiah, 46–48, 70–72; Parker, 103.

  36new American flag: Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:90–91.

  37Campbell . . . dissolved: Piecuch, Three Peoples, 17; Gordon, Battlefield History, 26.

  37Moultrie chose Marion . . . arsenal at Dorchester: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 26; Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:109–110.

  37Called back to Charleston . . . “except Capt. Wigfall”: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 33, 36; Rankin, 13.

  37John Wigfall would later switch sides: Rankin, 73–74, 83, 87; Lambert, South Carolina Loyalists, 287, 292–293; Saberton, CP2:64n6; Frank Moore, Diary of the American Revolution: From Newspapers and Original Documents, vol. 2 (New York, 1859), 276–278. Some sources give his name as Joseph.

  37Marion was recalled: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 33.

  37first land battle . . . ended Tory resistance: Ibid.; Parker, 247, 251; Edgar, Partisans and Redcoats, 33; Buchanan, 101–102.

  38new assignments . . . ordered on March 1: Rankin, 13–14; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 47.

  38William Campbell . . . had been lobbying Parliament: Rankin, 14; Edgar, Partisans and Redcoats, 35–36; Gordon, Battlefield History, 32, 36.

  38civilians began fleeing . . . defenders’ morale was boosted: Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:140–141; Fraser, Patriots, 84–86.

  39Charles Lee . . . Colonel Moultrie: Gordon, Battlefield History, 38–39; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 61, 71.

  39Marion . . . promoted from captain: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 47, 51.

  39working alongside slaves: Ibid., 618n219.

  39palmetto logs . . . only materials: Lumpkin, 13; Bill Izard, “The Palmetto State: Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina,” PorterBriggs.com, 2015, porterbriggs.com/the-palmetto-state-3.

  39“slaughter pen” . . . too easy: Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:141, 144.

  39“General Lee . . . than write one”: Henry Flanders, The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (New York, 1875), 540.

  40no one sell beer . . . surprise alarms . . . no oak trees: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 47, 618nn219–220, 619n228.

  40On June 28, 1776 . . . British were repelled with heavy losses: Lumpkin, 14–17; Buchanan, 12–15; Gord
on, Battlefield History, 40–44; Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:174–181.

  41two hundred casualties: Lumpkin, 281; Gordon, Battlefield History, 41, 43–44.

  41American losses . . . “a mulatto boy”: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 79.

  41“cool to the last degree”: Charles Lee, The Life and Memoirs of the Late Major General Lee (1813; repr., Bedford, MA: Applewood Books, 2009), 313.

  41passed a resolution . . . Continental Army: Moultrie, Memoirs, 1:183.

  41He did not . . . Shubrick: Salley, “Horry’s Notes,” 120.

  41Marion did perform a critical role: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 78; Rankin, 19.

  41teenaged nephew Gabriel: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 615n191; Elmer O. Parker and Georgia Muldrow Gilmer, American Revolution Roster Fort Sullivan (Later Fort Moultrie), 1776–1780: Events Leading to First Decisive Victory (Charleston, SC: Fort Sullivan Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1976), 217.

  CHAPTER 5: COMMANDER OF THE 2ND REGIMENT

  43lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Regiment: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 122–123, 185, 637n435; Gibbes2, 45.

  43“renounce . . . George the Third”: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 123.

  43slovenly . . . exceeding leaves: Ibid., 111, 202–203, 211, 307.

  43“runnin . . . intirely naked”: Ibid., 216.

  44Punishment could mean . . . remitted: Ibid., 211, 262, 282, 288, 290, 318, 320, 622n267, 626n306, 630n358, 636nn417, 419, 648n563.

  44more than one out of four men . . . 749 lashings: John L. Frierson, “Discipline by the Lash: The Order Books of Gen. Francis Marion,” Carologue: Bulletin of the South Carolina Historical Society 15, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 9, 12–13.