The Swamp Fox

by John Oller

  159archaeological evidence . . . two particularly skilled sharpshooters: Whitacre, “An Analysis of Lead Shot,” 132–133, 136.

  159“The stroke was heavy upon me”: Rawdon to Cornwallis, May 24, 1781 (CSR17:1033).

  159Rawdon destroyed . . . headed south: Ibid., 1033–1034; Smith et al., “Obstinate and Strong,” 29–30; Bass, Swamp Fox, 197–198; FM to NG, May 16, 1781 (NGP8:274).

  159After the surrender . . . Greene went there: Rankin, 208.

  159“does honor . . . Colonel Lee”: George Washington to NG, June 1, 1781 (NGP8:336).

  159Fort Granby surrendered . . . Sumter used to pay the men: Parker, 311–312; Bass, Gamecock, 172–178.

  160Greene also reconfirmed: Bass, Gamecock, 177–178; NG to Sumter, May 17, 1781 (NGP8:278).

  160“and to receive General Sumter’s orders”: J. Burnet to FM, May 18, 1781 (Gibbes, 74).

  CHAPTER 18: WINNING BY LOSING

  161“I beg leave . . . slip through”: FM to NG, May 19, 1781 (NGP8:285).

  161Marion wrote twice more: FM to NG, May 20, 22, 1781 (NGP8:287, 294).

  161Peyre’s Plantation: Bass, Swamp Fox, 3, 198; James, 69, 76; Savage, River of the Carolinas, 230–232; Simms, 110; Boddie, Traditions, 90, 224.

  161“inferior object”: NG to FM, May 26, 1781 (Gibbes, 81).

  162On May 27 . . . headed to Georgetown . . . digging trenches: FM to NG, May 29, 1781 (NGP8:329); Bass, Swamp Fox, 199; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 530.

  162plantation slaves . . . “yellow man” . . . hanged: Loftis R. Munnerlyn Pension, S18136.

  162peeled logs . . . painted black: Ibid.

  162numbers greatly reduced . . . under orders . . . if seriously pressed: Sherman, Calendar, 90–91; Balfour to Robert Gray, May 20, 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.

  162change of wardrobe: James, 67.

  162three-month ceasefire . . . extended . . . pledged to restore: Articles of Agreement and Treaty, June 17, 1781 (Gibbes, 98–99); Ganey to FM, August 25, 1781 (ibid., 130).

  162death of . . . Isaac: Yeadon 1, no. 4 (June 1845): 413.

  163“great pleasure . . . act in conjunction”: NG to FM, June 10, 1781 (NGP8:373).

  163Greene was worried . . . stall the enemy’s progress: NG to FM, June 10, 1781, second letter (NGP8:374).

  163Sumter was less effusive . . . told Greene: Sumter to FM, June 9, 1781 (Gibbes, 93); Sumter to NG, June 7, 1781 (NGP8:360).

  163“unfavorable” information . . . mission accomplished: Sumter to NG, June 8, 1781 (NGP8:361); O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 531.

  163“weak and badly armed”: Sumter to NG, June 14, 1781 (NGP8:390).

  163positive orders to Marion: Sumter to NG, June 15, 1781 (NGP8:393).

  163550 provincials . . . John Harris Cruger . . . a trio of three-pounders: Lumpkin, 192–200, 300–301; Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 193; Gordon, Battlefield History, 155–156.

  164Greene tried several shortcuts: Gordon, Battlefield History, 157; Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 194; R. L. Barbour, South Carolina’s Revolutionary War Battlefields: A Tour Guide (Gretna, LA: Pelican, 2002), 97.

  164They failed . . . lifted the siege: Pancake, This Destructive War, 212–213; Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 196–197; Gordon, Battlefield History, 156–157; William Johnson, Life of Greene, 2:148–154; Lee, Memoirs, 2:128–129.

  164Sumter’s case . . . militia deserted: Pancake, This Destructive War, 212–213; William Johnson, Life of Greene, 2:153–154; Bass, Gamecock, 183–187.

  165Sumter kept changing his orders: Sumter to FM, June 13, 14, 15, 16, 1781 (Gibbes, 95–97).

  165On June 16 . . . prevent them from foraging: FM to NG, June 16, 1781 (NGP8:394).

  165Greene was furious . . . wrote Marion to vent: NG to FM, June 25, 1781 (NGP8:457–458).

  165blaming everyone . . . Thomas Jefferson: McCrady, 303.

  166might also have looked in the mirror: Pancake, This Destructive War, 212; Buchanan, 398; Lee, Memoirs, 2:98, 119n.

  166men were starving . . . heatstroke: Swager, The Valiant Died, 63, 96; Sherman, Calendar, 527; Tarleton, Campaigns, 507.

  166“so fatigued they cannot possibly move”: FM to NG, July 1, 1781 (NGP8:505).

  166Rawdon found it . . . Rawdon Town: Nelson, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 99–100; Gordon, Battlefield History, 157–158; Tonsetic, 1781: The Decisive Year, 114–115; Swager, The Valiant Died, 63; Moultrie, Memoirs, 2:279; Conrad, NGP9:590n5.

  166Marion to a summit meeting: Bass, Swamp Fox, 205; Lee, Memoirs, 2:141–142.

  167Rawdon declined . . . was exchanged: Swager, The Valiant Died, 63; Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 198, 202, 207; Sherman, Calendar, 598–599n3551; Nelson, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 101–105.

  167Greene had briefly considered . . . High Hills of Santee: Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 198–199; Kyte, “Marion as an Intelligence Officer,” 222; Pancake, This Destructive War, 215; Bass, Swamp Fox, 205; Lee, Memoirs, 2:145.

  CHAPTER 19: DOG DAYS

  168Sumter persuaded Greene . . . Greene’s goal: Bass, Gamecock, 195–196; Sherman, Calendar, 565; Smith, “Archaeological Perspectives,” 199; Tonsetic, 1781: The Decisive Year, 146; Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 201–202; Nelson, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 102; NG to Thomas McKean, July 17, 1781 (NGP9:29); William Pierce to St. George Tucker, July 20, 1781, Coleman-Tucker Papers, 1664–1945, College of William & Mary, Earl Gregg Swem Library, Special Collections Database, Item 1004.

  168night of July 12 . . . six hundred to seven hundred men: Aiken, 225–226; Lumpkin, 206–207, 302–303; William Johnson, Life of Greene, 2:167; Lee, Memoirs, 2:146–147; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 536; Sherman, Calendar, 565–566, 571.

  169Hugh Giles . . . retired . . . John Ervin: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 534, 699n1405.

  169Greene commissioned . . . impress as many horses: NG to Maham, June 21, 1781 (NGP8:433 and Hezekiah Maham Orderly Book, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library); FM to NG, January 15, 1782 (NGP10:196); Rankin, 219–220; Scoggins, “South Carolina’s Back Country Rangers,” 172–173; NG to FM, January 16, 1782 (NGP10:202); FM to PH, September 17, 1781, March 20, 1782 (Gibbes, 168, 277–278); PH to FM, June 29, 1782 (Gibbes2, 196).

  169Horry and Maham . . . start his own farm: Cross, Historic Ramblin’s, 274; Joseph Johnson, Traditions and Reminiscences, 286–287; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 602n25, 624n294; David Neilan, “Marion and the Trials and Tribulations of Peter Horry,” address at 11th Francis Marion/Swamp Fox Symposium, Manning, SC, October 19, 2013, DVD. Some sources state Horry was born in 1743 or 1744, not 1747. Either way he was younger than Maham.

  169dated the same day . . . answerable only to Greene: Rankin, 220–221; NG to Maham, June 21, 1781 (NGP8:433); NG to PH, July 30, 1781 (NGP9:107 and n2); Maham to PH, January 20, 1782 (Gibbes, 238); Borick, A Gallant Defense, 55–56; PH to NG, July 19, 1781, in Mabel Louise Webber, ed., “Revolutionary Letters,” SCHGM 38, no. 1 (January 1937): 5–6; Neilan, “Marion and the Trials and Tribulations of Peter Horry.” The “dotted line” phrase, common in today’s corporate world, is Neilan’s.

  170Horry grudgingly told Greene: PH to NG, June 28, 1781 (NGP8:471).

  170Captain William Snipes . . . managed to escape: O’Kelley, “Nothing but Blood and Slaughter,” 3:269–272; Simcoe’s Military Journal, 247; Sherman, Calendar, 526–527; Weems, 163–167. According to Weems Snipes hid in the bushes nearby, and his black overseer refused to disclose his master’s whereabouts to the British, despite being nearly hanged to death by them.

  171nSnipes killed a man . . . pardoned: Mary Harrell-Sesniak, Five Hundred Plus Revolutionary War Obituaries and Death Notices (Houston, TX: Lulu.com, 2010), 186, 192; The Papers of Henry Laurens, vol. 16, September 1, 1782–December 17, 1792, ed. David R. Chesnutt and C. James Taylor (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003), 609n1; Mabel Louise Webber, ed., “Historical Notes,” SCHGM 12
, no. 3 (July 1911): 160–162.

  171James Coates . . . Thomas Fraser . . . knew the territory: Sherman, Calendar, 77, 82, 93, 96–97, 527, 566; Saberton, CP1:243n11; Gordon, Battlefield History, 160.

  171Sumter’s plan . . . Coates pulled up stakes . . . Biggin Church: Lumpkin, 207; Rankin, 224–225; Lee, Memoirs, 2:146–147; McCrady, 325–330; Bass, Gamecock, 195–197; Sumter to NG, July 15, 1781 (NGP9:17–18).

  172Maham was dispatched . . . sufficiently undamaged: Bass, Gamecock, 197; Lumpkin, 207; Rankin, 225; Sherman, Calendar, 567–568; Parker, 58; Sumter to NG, July 18, 1781 (NGP9:52, 53n6).

  172night of July 16 . . . crossed over Quinby Creek: Lumpkin, 207–208; James, 69, 86n16; Rankin, 226–227; Bass, Gamecock, 198; Aiken, 228, 294n15; Sumter to NG, July 17, 1781 (NGP9:50); NG to Thomas McKean, July 26, 1781 (ibid., 84); Frye Gaillard, Lessons from the Big House, 27.

  172At daybreak . . . vacant plantation: Stephen Jarvis, “An American’s Experience in the British Army,” Journal of American History 1, no. 3 (1907): 463–464. Most sources state the British did not take refuge at Shubrick’s until after a skirmish at Quinby Bridge, but these accounts are largely secondhand, and Jarvis, who was present, makes clear that Coates and Fraser were at the plantation before any fighting at Quinby Bridge took place.

  172Thomas Shubrick: “Col. Thomas Shubrick,” Find a Grave, March 25, 2009, www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=35118052; Thomas Burbage Pension, S17868.

  173posted a howitzer . . . Lee’s force was left stranded: Lee, Memoirs, 2:149–152; Jarvis, “An American’s Experience,” 463; FM to NG, July 19, 1781 (NGP9:47); D. John Brailsford to “Charles,” August 11, 1781, in PCC, Item No. 51, 1:659–661; McCrady, 332–335; William Johnson, Life of Greene, 2:169–172.

  173Lee later came under criticism: Joseph Johnson, Traditions and Reminiscences, 541; William Johnson, Life of Greene, 2:171–172. Joseph Johnson went so far as to claim that none of Lee’s horsemen crossed the river because Lee was too fearful of losing some of his own dragoons and preferred to let the South Carolina militia take the risk. According to Johnson, “It was a common remark among the Carolinians, that Lee would rather a dozen militia men should be killed, than one of his government horses.” Joseph Johnson, Traditions and Reminiscences, 406.

  173horses were too afraid . . . Nor could they find: Lee, Memoirs, 2:152–153.

  173it was chaos . . . Marion withdrew: Lumpkin, 208–211; Rankin, 227–229; William Johnson, Life of Greene, 2:172–175; Jarvis, “An American’s Experience,” 464; FM to NG, July 19, 1781 (NGP9:48); Sumter to NG, July 18, 22, 25, 1781 (NGP9:51–52, 63, 81); D. John Brailsford to “Charles,” August 11, 1781, in PCC, Item No. 51, 1:661; Aiken, 229–230; Joseph Johnson, Traditions and Reminiscences, 541–542; James Harbison Pension, W17039. Although many secondary sources say the battle lasted three hours, the firsthand accounts indicate a duration of forty minutes to an hour.

  175Coates soon retreated . . . to Charleston: Tonsetic, 1781: The Decisive Year, 147; Swager, The Valiant Died, 69.

  175heavy casualties . . . bulk of them Marion’s: James, 69; Aiken, 230, 294n22; FM to NG, July 19, 1781 (NGP9:48); Sherman, Calendar, 573; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 540.

  175“like a dagger . . . believe it”: Jenkins, Experience, 27–28.

  175Taylor loudly complained: Joseph Johnson, Traditions and Reminiscences, 541–542.

  175Marion implied . . . Sumter had ordered: FM to NG, July 19, 1781 (NGP9:47–48).

  175Sumter said nothing . . . it was Marion: Sumter to NG, July 17–19, 25, 1781 (NGP9:50–53, 80–82); Rankin, 230–231.

  175“the gallantry . . . more deserved success”: NG to FM, July 21, 1781 (NGP9:54).

  175Most revealing . . . All but a hundred: Rankin, 229–230; Bass, Gamecock, 200; Sumter to NG, July 19, 1781 (NGP9:52).

  176“far short . . . clever”: NG to Lafayette, July 24, 1781 (NGP9:72).

  176the Americans captured: Sherman, Calendar, 572–573.

  176a pay chest . . . Marion’s men received none: NG to Thomas McKean, July 26, 1781 (NGP9:85); Sherman, Calendar, 573; “General Thomas Sumter’s Accounting of Public Money,” transcribed by William T. Graves, SCAR 2, no. 4 (April 2005): 12; Lee, Memoirs, 2:156–157.

  176Sumter sent a detachment: Lee to NG, July 29, 1781 (NGP9:102 and n2).

  176The British retaliated . . . torch the town: FM to Rutledge, August 6, 1781, quoted in New Jersey Gazette, September 19, 1781; NG to Thomas McKean, August 25, 1781 (NGP9:241 and 243–244n4); Bass, Swamp Fox, 209. Others suggest Balfour ordered Georgetown destroyed to prevent it from being used to supply Greene’s army. James, 77; William Johnson, Life of Greene, 2:215–216.

  176Marion, sickened . . . hurried aid to alleviate: FM to Rutledge, August 6, 1781, quoted in New Jersey Gazette, September 19, 1781; Rutledge to FM, August 7, 1781 (Gibbes, 124); Bass, Swamp Fox, 209.

  176Governor John Rutledge . . . issued a proclamation: Haw, John and Edward Rutledge, 136, 158; Moultrie, Memoirs, 2:407–409.

  176Sumter took it personally . . . resigned: NG to Henderson, August 12, 16, 1781 (NGP9:169, 188); Bass, Gamecock, 204–205, 210–216; Conrad, NGP10:169n5.

  177“universally odious”: Lee to NG, August 20, 1781 (NGP9:216).

  CHAPTER 20: “THE MOST GALLING FIRE”

  178Isaac Hayne . . . went to the gallows: David K. Bowden, The Execution of Isaac Hayne (Orangeburg, SC: Sandlapper, 1977), 15–34; Lee, Memoirs, 2:252–264; Mabel Louise Webber, ed., “Death Notices,” SCHGM 17, no. 4 (October 1916): 159; William Harden to FM, April 7, 18, 1781 (Gibbes, 50, 55); Bass, Swamp Fox, 175–176, 212–213; James, 71–73; McCrady, 382–398, 409; Ladies’ Petition (Gibbes, 112–114); Saberton, CP5:236n23.

  179“I will endeavor to do so”: McCrady, 398.

  179“He ascended . . . cart to move”: Ibid.

  180storm of protest . . . let the matter drop: Rubin, “Rhetoric of Revenge,” 11–13; McCrady, 402–403, 407; Bowden, Execution of Isaac Hayne, 49–58; Officers of the Army to NG, August 20, 1781 (Gibbes, 128–130); NG to FM, August 10, 1781 (ibid., 125); Balfour to NG, September 3, 1781 (NGP9:283–284); Conrad, NGP9:252–253n2.

  180the desired effect . . . The British capitalized: Bass, Swamp Fox, 213; Bowden, Execution of Isaac Hayne, 47; Sherman, Calendar, 587, 592; Charles B. Baxley, “Marion at Parker’s Ferry,” address at 9th Francis Marion/Swamp Fox Symposium, Manning, SC, October 15, 2011, DVD; NG to FM, August 10, 1781 (NGP9:158–159); NG to Henderson, August 12, 1781 (NGP9:169).

  180William Harden . . . considerable success: Sherman, Calendar, 62, 454; McCrady, 434, 438; Balfour to Cornwallis, April 26, 1781 (CP4:177n50).

  181asked Greene . . . Marion decided to go: NG to FM, August 10, 20, 1781 (NGP9:158–159, 208); FM to NG, August 13, 16, 18, 1781 (ibid., 179, 191, 204 and n3); Edmund Hyrne to FM, August 18, 1781 (ibid., 199).

  181at Peyre’s Plantation on the Santee: James, 69; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 541.

  181had two hundred men . . . ready to move out: FM to NG, August 16, 18, 20, 1781 (NGP9:191, 204, 216–217); Hyrne to FM, August 20, 1781 (ibid., 221). O’Kelley identifies the substitute commander as Major Charles Harden. O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 543.

  181Heading out at night on August 22 . . . too sick to fight: FM to NG, September 3, 1781 (NGP9:288–289); Swager, The Valiant Died, 72.

  181Neither Peter Horry . . . Hugh, was present: Sherman, Calendar, 63, 598; FM to NG, September 3, 1781 (NGP9:289–290); PH to NG, August 26, September 4, 1781 (NGP9:259, 294). Although Rankin, at page 236, states that Hugh Horry was detached to ride far to the north to “Cheraw,” the letter actually reads “Chehaw”—that is, the Chehaw River, which was near where Marion was camped.

  181just over four hundred . . . Ferdinand Ludwig von Benning: FM to NG, September 3, 1781 (NGP9:288–289). Marion’s report of the battle at Parker’s Ferry lists a “Lieut. Col. De Benin” as the enemy commander. FM to NG, September 3, 1781 (ibid., 289). A loyalist newspaper identified this person as “Lieut. Col. de Borck,” which most
historians have assumed to be Hessian lieutenant colonel Ernst Leopold von Borck. Royal Georgia Gazette (Savannah), September 13, 1781. But von Borck was only a major, not a lieutenant colonel, at the time. Max von Eelking, The German Allied Troops in the American War of Independence, 1776–1783, trans. J. G. Rosengarten (Albany: 1893), 305. It is also unlikely that Marion would have referred to von Borck as “de Benin.” Some sources identify the Hessian commander as Friedrich Wilhelm von Benning, whose last name closely matches “Benin.” Conrad, NGP9:289; Sherman, Calendar, 86, 102, 602–603. But an officer by that name was killed at Trenton in December 1776. David Hackett Fischer, Washington’s Crossing (2004; repr., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 405; Phillip Thomas Tucker, George Washington’s Surprise Attack: A New Look at the Battle That Decided the Fate of America (New York: Skyhorse, 2014), 518. Most likely the actual commander was Lieutenant Colonel Ferdinand Ludwig von Benning, who arrived in America in August 1781 and thereafter commanded a Hessian regiment at Charleston. Rodney Atwood, The Hessians: Mercenaries from Hessen–Kassel in the American Revolution (1980; repr., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 197n71, 264; A. Leslie to Col. von Benning, May 19, 1782, Letterbook of Alexander Leslie, Thomas Addis Emmet Collection, New York Public Library.

  181The British were not . . . two field pieces: FM to NG, September 3, 1781 (NGP9:290); Stephen Jarvis, “An American’s Experience in the British Army,” Journal of American History 1, no. 4 (1907): 728; Stephen Jarvis, The King’s Loyal Horseman: His Narrative, 1775–1783, ed. John T. Hayes (Ft. Lauderdale, FL: Saddlebag, 1996), 74–75; Sherman, Calendar, 603; Baxley, “Marion at Parker’s Ferry.”

  182night of August 27 . . . Marion aborted: FM to NG, September 3, 1781 (NGP9:289).

  182August 30 . . . waiting for von Benning: Ibid.; Jarvis, King’s Loyal Horseman, 74–75; Jarvis, “An American’s Experience,” 728.

  182Brigadier General Robert Cunningham: “Memorial of Patrick Lisitt of North Carolina,” April 1, 1786, reprinted in Online Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies, Todd Braisted, manager, February 23, 2015, www.royalprovincial.com/military/mems/nc/clmlis.htm; Lambert, South Carolina Loyalists, 153; Clark, Loyalists in the Southern Campaign, 1:222, 268.