The Swamp Fox

by John Oller

  111“I hope you paid . . . addition you expect”: NG to FM, January 16, 1781 (NGP7:131).

  111“get all the good dragoon horses . . . pay particular attention to it”: NG to FM, April 27, 1781 (NGP8:161).

  111“ordinary . . . badly mounted”: FM to NG, January 18, 20, 1781 (NGP7:143, 165).

  111“a few more . . . be got”: FM to NG, January 9, 1781 (NGP7:86).

  111If Greene needed horses . . . merest rumor: Simms, 159–160; William Johnson, Life of Greene, 2:116.

  112“The crackers . . . material detriment”: George Hanger, An Address to the Army, in Reply to Strictures, by Roderick M’Kenzie . . . on Tarleton’s History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781 (London, 1789), 82n.

  112“we have never . . . decisive action”: Rawdon to Clinton, March 23, 1781, in The American Rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton’s Narrative of His Campaigns, 1775–1782, with an Appendix of Original Documents, ed. William B. Willcox (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1954), 501.

  112heavy buckshot . . . bird shot: FM to PH, August 17, 1780 (Gibbes, 11); James, 54, 70, 95; Lumpkin, 69.

  113converted as many infantry: James, 52; Moultrie, Memoirs, 2:223.

  113“like robbing Peter to pay Paul”: NG to PH, October 23, 1781 (NGP9:467).

  113On January 14 . . . reported his fear: FM to NG, January 14, 1781 (NGP7:121).

  113sent a hundred regulars: NG to FM, January 19, 1781 (NGP7:145); McCrady, 86n1. Greene’s action proved unnecessary, as the Tories were dispersed by a force of North Carolina militia before the regulars arrived. FM to NG, January 20, 1781 (NGP7:164).

  113Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee: Charles Royster, Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution (1981; repr., Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994), 14, 16–17; Buchanan, 352–353.

  114Lee arrived . . . Marion . . . expected to hold rank: Sherman, Calendar, 349–350; Jim Piecuch and John Beakes, “Light Horse Harry” Lee in the War for Independence: A Military Biography of Robert E. Lee’s Father (Charleston, SC: Nautical and Aviation Pub. Co. of America, 2013), 83, 86; FM to NG, January 20, 1781 (NGP7:165).

  114Greene chose not to weigh: NG to FM, January 25, 1781 (NGP7:194–195).

  114Lee dressed elegantly . . . solicitous of the lives: Royster, Light-Horse Harry Lee, 18–23; Buchanan, 353.

  115“He was reserved . . . common good”: Lee, Memoirs, 1:396.

  115had a hard time finding Marion: Ibid., 1:164.

  115reasons . . . as strategic as sentimental: Aiken, 177–178; Parker, 233; MacNutt, “Francis Marion and Georgetown.”

  116The best explanation: Gray, “Observations,” 149, 155.

  116skirted international law: Aiken, 188; Campbell to FM, January 21, 1781 (Gibbes, 15–16).

  116plan of attack . . . January 23 . . . set off: Lee, Memoirs, 1:248–250; Bass, Swamp Fox, 135; MacNutt, “Francis Marion and Georgetown.”

  117“You must proceed . . . leave it”: FM to John Postell, January 23, 1781 (James, 111).

  117reached Winyah Bay . . . retreated to Murray’s Ferry: Lee, Memoirs, 1:250–251; James, 51; MacNutt, “After the Fox in Georgetown”; Bass, Swamp Fox, 135–137; Lee to NG, January 25, 1781 (NGP7:198); Diary of Henry Nase, King’s American Regiment, January 25, 1781, transcribed by Todd Braisted from New Brunswick Museum, Archives Division, Nase Family Papers, lib.jrshelby.com/nase-diary.pdf. Marion’s sister, Esther, lived at Greenwich Plantation near Georgetown, which she inherited from her second husband, Thomas Mitchell. Boddie, Traditions, 207; 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), 69–70, 327, 523–524.

  117“Marion and Lee . . . their troops”: Lee, Memoirs, 1:251.

  117“I” completely surprised: Lee to NG, January 25, 1781 (NGP7:197).

  118“conceived with ingenuity”: Lee, Memoirs, 1:251.

  118“the little success . . . promises much”: FM to NG, January 27, 1781 (NGP7:207).

  118“two very enterprising officers”: Balfour to Clinton, January 31, 1781, Letterbook of Lt. Col. Nisbet Balfour, January 1–December 1, 1781, Society of the Cincinnati, Digitized Collections, 2012, societyofthecincinnati.org/collections/library/digitized_collections.

  118letters from Greene conveying: NG to FM, January 23, 25, 1781 (NGP7:173, 194–195).

  118Cowpens . . . Cornwallis had lost: Buchanan, 316–327; Swager, The Valiant Died, 36–44; Lumpkin, 132, 294–295; Patrick O’Kelley, “Nothing but Blood and Slaughter”: The Revolutionary War in the Carolinas, 1781 (Bradenton, FL: Booklocker.com, 2005), 3:34–49.

  119“The late affair . . . my heart”: Cornwallis to Rawdon, January 21, 1781 (CP3:251).

  1197th Regiment of Foot: Bass, Swamp Fox, 134; Bass, Gamecock, 122; Saberton, CP3:7; Cornwallis to Rawdon, January 1, 1781 (CP3:237); Cornwallis to Clinton, January 18, 1781 (CP3:35); Sherman, Calendar, 93.

  119Morgan prevented his men: Buchanan, 325.

  119orders to give no quarter: Wickwire and Wickwire, Cornwallis, 265.

  119“After this nothing will appear difficult”: NG to FM, January 25, 1781 (NGP7:194).

  120sent shudders through the Whig: Lee to NG, February 3, 1781 (NGP7:247–248).

  120Greene recalled Lee: Sherman, Calendar, 375; Bass, Swamp Fox, 138; Ichabod Burnet to Lee, February 2, 1781 (NGP7:234–235).

  120“You will cross . . . their retreat”: FM to John Postell, January 29, 1781 (James, 112–113).

  120carried off the mission: James, 52; Parker, 57, 60, 375; Memoirs of Tarleton Brown, a Captain in the Revolutionary Army (New York, 1862), 37–38; FM to NG, January 31, February 2, 1781 (NGP7:229, 239).

  121who had not had any rations: FM to NG, January 1, 1781 (NGP7:36).

  121“give my particular thanks . . . over the Santee”: NG to FM, February 11, 1781 (James, 113).

  121“nothing indeed appeared difficult”: James, 52.

  121“and concert . . . operations”: NG to FM, February 11, 1781 (James, 113).

  CHAPTER 14: HOUND AND FOX

  122Sumter had been absent . . . Articles of Confederation . . . Sumter had resigned: Buchanan, 293, 304–305, 312, 315; Thomas L. Powers, “In Defense of General Thomas Sumter,” SCAR 5, no. 2 (2nd ed. 2008): 33–34; Bass, Gamecock, 120–121; Conrad, NGP8:xv; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 350.

  122flattering letters . . . at his disposal: Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 163; Bass, Gamecock, 127; NG to Sumter, February 3, 1781 (NGP7: 245–246).

  123“If you can . . . best of consequences”: Sumter to FM, February 20, 1781 (Gibbes, 23).

  123Jeffries Creek . . . driven there by Rawdon: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 513, 695n1311; Rawdon to Cornwallis, February 15, 1781 (CP4:50); Smith, “Archaeological Perspectives,” 179–180.

  123effort to enlist . . . Captain William Snipes . . . under orders of Marion: FM to Isaac Huger, February 6, 1781 (NGP7:230n4); Huger to FM, January 28, 1781 (Gibbes, 18–19); Rutledge to FM, January 28, 1781 (Gibbes, 19); Rankin, 160–161.

  123proclamation . . . “put them to death”: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 518.

  123issued another order . . . took provisions: Ibid., 521.

  124Rawdon narrowly missed . . . three hundred: Rawdon to Cornwallis, February 15, March 7, 1781 (CP4:47, 49, 50).

  124“prevent Marion . . . much more”: Rawdon to Cornwallis, February 15, 1781 (CP4:50).

  124Marion did not receive . . . until February 26: FM to Sumter, February 26, 1781, reprinted in Bruce Gimelson, Autographs/Paintings/Americana, www.maineantiquedigest.com/adpage/4083); McCrady, 106.

  124two abortive missions: Bass, Gamecock, 129–130; McCrady, 106–107.

  124too strong for him to come: FM to Sumter, February 26, 1781 (Gimelson, Autographs).

  124He moved . . . without the same sense of urgency: Rankin, 163–165; Bass, Gamecock, 132.

  124struck near Fort Watson: Bass, Gamecock, 131–132; Parker, 172–173; McCrady, 108–109; Rawdon to Corn
wallis, March 7, 1781 (CP4:48). The sources differ as to the precise date and nature of this attack. For a defense of Sumter’s tactics, see Powers, “In Defense of Sumter,” 32.

  124“I shall wait . . . interview with you”: Sumter to FM, February 28, 1781 (Gibbes, 49).

  124less than a day’s march . . . Sumter took flight . . . Marion had made his way: McCrady, 110; Bass, Gamecock, 132–134; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 516–518.

  125“so far out of the way . . . come with a few”: Sumter to FM, March 4, 1781 (Gibbes, 27–28).

  125when Marion did not come . . . Major Thomas Fraser . . . to the Waxhaws: Bass, Gamecock, 134–135; Rawdon to Cornwallis, March 7, 1781 (CP4:48–49).

  125His men also believed . . . long talk: Bass, Gamecock, 135; Gray, “Observations,” 152.

  125“no assistance from Genl. Marion”: Sumter to NG, March 9, 1781 (NGP7:417).

  125blame Marion directly: Sumter to FM, March 28, 1781 (Gibbes, 44–47).

  126“press him to the utmost”: Rawdon to Cornwallis, March 7, 1781 (CP4:49).

  126John Watson Tadwell-Watson: Walter T. Dornfest, “John Watson Tadwell Watson and the Provincial Light Infantry, 1780–1781,” SCAR 4, no. 2.1 (April–June 2007): 47–48; Marg Baskin, “John Watson Tadwell Watson (1748–1826),” ibid., 61–62; Robert D. Bass, “John Tadwell-Watson, Builder of Fort Watson,” Independent Republic Quarterly 12, no. 2 (Spring 1978): 10–11; Saberton, CP2:199–200n39.

  126“I know I do not . . . Colonel Watson”: Cornwallis to Rawdon, December 13, 1780 (CP3:209).

  126“plague”: Cornwallis to Tarleton, December 18, 1780 (CP3:352).

  126He did not relish . . . shrugged his shoulders: Dornfest, “John Watson,” 48.

  127Leslie dropped off . . . ancient Indian mound: Ibid., 49.

  127“a movement is intended . . . the movement”: Balfour to [Saunders], March 5, 1781, Saunders Papers, UNB.

  127The plan . . . lethal pincer movement: James, 55; Bass, Swamp Fox, 143. One Marion scholar has recently questioned the traditional view that Rawdon simultaneously ordered the two-pronged attack and has suggested that Doyle’s movement, which began about two weeks later than Watson’s, was perhaps an opportunistic afterthought based on fresh intelligence of the camp’s location. Smith, “Archaeological Perspectives,” 230n48. Although that is possible, the strong British desire to keep the plan secret from the outset seems more consistent with a creative, two-pronged pincer attack than with a movement by Watson alone. The British would not have expected a singular movement by Watson to remain hidden from Marion’s scouts for long, and indeed, Marion discovered it fairly quickly.

  Another researcher offers a slight twist on the traditional view, suggesting that although Watson and Doyle did not coordinate their movements (due to Doyle’s much later departure), Watson was carrying out a delaying action to keep Marion occupied while Doyle marched to Marion’s base at Snow’s Island. Parker, 174, 442, 504n516.

  127On March 7 . . . Blakely’s Plantation: Diary of Henry Nase, March 6–7, 1781; Watson to FM, March 7, 1781 (Gibbes, 29). Most sources state that Watson left the fort on March 5 and that the ensuing engagement at Wyboo Swamp was on March 6. Nase’s diary, however, is the most contemporaneous record of these events, and he places them at March 7 and 8, respectively.

  127a formidable force: Dornfest, “John Watson,” 49; James, 55; Aiken, 126; Sherman, Calendar, 417; John Watson, “Narrative,” transcribed by Donald J. Gara, SCAR 4, no. 2.1 (April–June 2007): 57–58; Clark, Loyalists in the Southern Campaign, 1:105; “Notes and Queries,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 36, no. 2 (April 1912): 256. Both Bass and Rankin identified Watson’s own unit as the famed Buffs, the 3rd Regiment of Foot, but that crack outfit did not arrive in Charleston until June 1781. Bass, Swamp Fox, 117, 143; Rankin, 165; Sherman, Calendar, 93; Dornfest, “John Watson,” 50. In a later article Bass corrected his earlier writings to point out that the forces Watson commanded against Marion were brigades of Provincial Light Infantry. Bass, “John Tadwell-Watson,” 11–12.

  128camped along the Santee . . . Zach Cantey: FM to Balfour, March 7, 1781 (Gibbes, 29); FM to Watson, March 7, 1781 (ibid., 30); Bass, Swamp Fox, 143, 200; Ames, Cantey Family, 15–16, 44; James, 5; Weems, 176.

  128three or four hundred horsemen: James, 56; Simms, 140; Watson, “Narrative,” 58. One of Marion’s soldiers put his force at two hundred. Memoirs of Tarleton Brown, 35–36. On March 7 Rawdon told Cornwallis that Marion’s numbers “certainly do not amount to three hundred.” Rawdon to Cornwallis, March 7, 1781 (CP4:49).

  128March 8 . . . 11 a.m. . . . staring at each other: Diary of Henry Nase, March 8, 1781; Bass, Swamp Fox, 144; Memoirs of Tarleton Brown, 34; Parker, 174, 493n235.

  129sending Colonel Richbourg . . . staunch Tory: Rankin, 165; Memoirs of Tarleton Brown, 34; Simms, 140; Lambert, South Carolina Loyalists, 156; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 518; Rawdon to Cornwallis, December 15, 1780 (CP3:214); “Richbourg,” Blankenstein Genealogy, Heraldry, & DNA (last entry under “Generation No. 3”), January 26, 2015, www.blankensteingenealogy.net/Richbourg.htm; Ames, Cantey Family, 21.

  129“came dashing up . . . ordered a charge”: Memoirs of Tarleton Brown, 35.

  129Horry’s cavalry went hurtling . . . Watson’s passage: Ibid., 35–36; James, 56. James identifies the officer killed by Conyers as a Major Harrison, but both Major John and Captain Samuel Harrison were still in the field in late 1781. Clark, Loyalists in the Southern Campaign, 1:109. John Harrison went to Florida after the war, and Samuel Harrison lived in Jamaica until 1816, both on half-pay from the British army. Saberton, CP1:161n5; Bass, “John Tadwell-Watson,” 13; Bass, “South Carolina Rangers,” 70–71.

  131“Thus were . . . the outset”: James, 56.

  131“We had a skirmish . . . Cantey’s Plantation”: Diary of Henry Nase, March 8, 1781.

  131Marion had moved from Cantey’s: Marion’s orderly book lists his location on March 8 as Cordes’s Plantation, which is on the south side of the Santee. O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 521.

  131the British seized . . . prison in Georgetown: Jenkins, Experience, 20.

  131Marion wrote to propose: FM to Saunders, February 22, 1781 (Gibbes, 24).

  131“on account of his age . . . like a gentleman”: Ibid.

  131On February 21 . . . British soldiers surrendered: Balfour to Clinton, February 24, 1781 (CP6:234); James, 52–53. James gives an erroneous date of January 18.

  132Saunders agreed to Marion’s proposed: Saunders to FM, February 23, 1781 (Gibbes, 25).

  132recent capture of DePeyster: Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists, 1:372–376.

  132would not agree to a “partial”: Saunders to FM, February 25, 1781 (Gibbes, 26).

  132shipped DePeyster north: FM to Saunders, February 26, 1781 (Gibbes, 26–27).

  132had four British prisoners fetched . . . broader exchange: Ibid.

  132letting John Postell accompany: FM to Balfour, March 7, 1781 (Gibbes, 29–30).

  132seized Postell . . . violated his parole: FM to Balfour, March 7, 1781 (Gibbes, 30); Saunders to Lt. Col. Irvin, March 6, 1781 (ibid., 29); FM to Saunders, March 7, 1781 (ibid., 31). Some sources state that Postell was armed when he arrived, but none of the British officers claimed this or cited it as a basis for taking him prisoner. “Irvin” is probably Hugh Ervin, in charge of prisoners at Snow’s Island.

  132Postell argued . . . justified in breaking: James, 63, 85n10; Gibbes, 36 (ed. note).

  132Marion protested . . . Balfour . . . backed up his subordinate: FM to Saunders, March 7, 1781 (Gibbes, 31); FM to Balfour, March 7, 1781 (ibid., 29–30); Balfour to Saunders, March 12, 1781 (ibid., 35); Balfour to FM, March 12, 1781 (ibid., 36–37); Saberton, CP1:36.

  132Marion also wrote to Watson . . . armed party: FM to Watson, March 7, 1781 (Gibbes, 30–31).

  133Watson’s lengthy letter: Watson to FM, March 9, 1781 (Gibbes, 33–35).

  133“A few days after . . . how they were treated”: Ibid., 34.

&n
bsp; 133“It seems . . . barbarous nations”: James, 56.

  133“Men like his Majesty’s troops . . . natural horrors”: Watson to FM, March 9, 1781 (Gibbes, 34–35).

  134ordered his nightly patrols: James, 56.

  134March 9 or 10 at Mount Hope Swamp Bridge: Parker, 443, 469, 505n522; Sherman, Calendar, 427.

  134tore it down . . . building it back up: James, 56.

  CHAPTER 15: FOX AND HOUND

  135which way Watson . . . detached Major John James: James, 56–57. Henry Nase records that on March 12 Watson “marched to one James, a rebel major on parole.” Diary of Henry Nase, March 12, 1781.

  136“The pass . . . fate of Williamsburg”: James, 57.

  136The men Marion chose . . . McCottry’s marksmen: Ibid.; Weems, 176–177; A Southern Sportsman: The Hunting Memoirs of Henry Edwards Davis, ed. Ben McC. Moïse (2010; e-book ed., Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2014), chap. 1. Although Weems and James both place Marion at Lower Bridge, it is not clear that he was there in time for the engagement. Henry Nase’s diary notes an encounter with Major James on March 12 but does not mention Marion being there. By contrast, Nase specifically identified “Marion and his gang of robbers” as being at Wyboo Swamp on March 8. Marion’s orderly book for March 11 lists his headquarters at Glover’s Plantation on the Pee Dee, near Plantersville, about fifty miles east of Lower Bridge. O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 521, 696n1329; Linder and Thacker, Rice Plantations, 321; Smith, “Archaeological Perspectives,” 230–231n52. It is unlikely that Marion could have reached Lower Bridge from Glover’s ahead of Watson, who had to travel only about twelve miles to get there. However, sometimes aides recorded the entries in Marion’s orderly book while he was in the field, so he may not have been physically present at the Glover’s headquarters on March 11 while he was out dueling with Watson. It is also possible Marion reached Lower Bridge partway through the battle and the British soldiers, including Nase, did not notice him.

  136long hunting rifles . . . smoothbore muskets: Buchanan, 158–159, 213–214; Pancake, This Destructive War, 39, 51; Parker, 462–463; Stephen V. Grancsay, foreword to Weapons of the American Revolution . . . and Accoutrements, by Warren Moore (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1967), vi; Lumpkin, 92–93, 136–140.