The Swamp Fox

by John Oller

  223Smith resigned: Rankin, 275.

  223“I repeatedly . . . in triumph”: PH to NG, February 28, 1782 (NGP10:419).

  223“drooping spirits . . . so superior a force”: NG to FM, March 1, 1782 (NGP10:427).

  223did clear the area . . . sailed for New York: Conrad, NGP10:421n6, 535n4; Brown, Benjamin Thompson, 83–84; Piecuch, “Francis Marion Meets His Match.”

  223“uneventful”: Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1898), s.v. “Thompson, Benjamin (1754–1814).”

  223Marion suggested . . . Marion to decide: Mathews to NG, March 10, 1782 (NGP10:474); NG to Mathews, March 10, 1782 (ibid., 477); NG to FM, March 19, 1782 (ibid., 526); Mathews to FM, April 1, 1782 (Gibbes2, 149); Rankin, 275–276.

  224Marion made clear . . . tried, without success: FM to NG, March 13, 23, 1782 (NGP10:498–499, 534–535); NG to FM, March 27, 1782 (ibid., 546–547); NG to Mathews, March 27, 1782 (ibid., 547); Mathews to FM, March 12, 1782 (Gibbes, 270–271); Mathews to FM, April 10, 1782 (Gibbes2, 157); NG to FM, April 10, 1782 (Gibbes2, 159).

  224“The preference . . . extorted from Marion”: James, 92.

  224“to whom . . . Maham continued”: PH to FM, April 1, 1782 (Gibbes, 285–286).

  224“which of . . . preferred” . . . Horry remaining in command there: FM to PH, March 31, 1782 (Gibbes, 284–285).

  224Georgetown assignment . . . Trade was again flowing: Rogers, History of Georgetown County, 149–154.

  224“salt must not . . . per bushel”: FM to PH, March 7, 1782 (Gibbes, 264). When Mathews learned about the price regulations he told Horry to end them and to “give every encouragement to a free uninterrupted trade.” Mathews to PH, May 1, 1782 (Gibbes2, 172–173).

  224Confessing to hurt feelings: PH to FM, April 1, 1782 (Gibbes, 285–286).

  224In July . . . rode off: PH to FM, June 29, 1782 (Gibbes2, 196); PH to NG, July 20, 1782 (NGP11:450); Bass, Swamp Fox, 232–233.

  225“in the hour . . . her deliverance”: NG to PH, August 10, 1782 (NGP11:515).

  225As for Maham . . . “in the most horrid manner”: Maham to NG, May 20, 1782 (NGP11:225–226).

  225loophole . . . Greene told him: Ibid.; FM to NG, May 18, 1782 (NGP11:206); NG to Maham, May 23, 1782 (ibid., 234).

  225nMaham’s cantankerous behavior: Michael E. Stevens, “‘Wealth, Influence or Powerful Connections’: Aedanus Burke and the Case of Hezekiah Maham,” SCHM 81, no. 2 (April 1980): 163–168.

  225“with great good faith”: Gray, “Observations,” 156.

  225so-called neutral zone . . . haven for bloody raids: PH to FM, January 31, 1782 (Gibbes, 245–246); Thomas Burke to Rutledge, March 6, 1782 (Gibbes, 265–266); Mathews to FM, March 18, 1782 (Gibbes, 275); Mathews to FM, April 1, 1782 (Gibbes2, 149); Joseph Graham Pension, S6937; Hershel Parker, “Fanning Outfoxes Marion,” Journal of the American Revolution, October 8, 2014, allthingsliberty.com/2014/10/fanning-outfoxes-marion.

  225Ganey . . . would personally try: FM to NG, March 23, 1782 (NGP10:534); FM to Thomas Burke, April 13, 1782 (CSR16:283).

  226ever-fretful Greene: NG to John Laurens, April 2, 1782 (Gibbes2, 150); NG to PH, April [10], 1782 (ibid., 159–160); NG to FM, April 12, 15, 28, May 1, 1782 (ibid., 161, 164, 171–173); James, 93.

  226maniacal David Fanning: Hershel Parker, “Fanning Outfoxes Marion.”

  226“dead or alive”: NG to FM, July 9, 1782 (Gibbes2, 198).

  226“for a handsome reward”: Thomas Farr to NG, September 9, 1782 (NGP11:639).

  226By late May 1782: Hershel Parker, “Fanning Outfoxes Marion”; Mathews to FM, May 21, 1782 (Gibbes2, 176–177); FM to NG, May 21, 1782 (NGP11:232 and nn2–3).

  226“act as . . . most conducive to the service”: Alexander Martin to FM, June 9, 1782 (CSR16:691).

  226Taking Maham’s dragoons . . . without violence: Bass, Swamp Fox, 236; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 570; Pierce to FM, May 24, 1782 (NGP11:238).

  226“we shall very soon . . . on the carpet”: FM to PH, May 21, 1782 (Gibbes2, 177).

  226“prevent the effusion . . . your people’s destruction”: FM to Ganey, June 2, 1782 (Gibbes2, 188).

  227A conference . . . “leader of banditti”: Garden, Anecdotes (1822), 26–27.

  227At Burch’s Mill . . . one horse apiece: Mathews to FM, May 21, 1782 (Gibbes2, 176–177); FM to PH, June 9, 1782 (ibid., 187–188); FM to NG, June 9, 1782 (NGP11:313–314); Moultrie, Memoirs, 2:419–421; Parker, 226, 326. The full treaty, reprinted in Moultrie’s Memoirs, is erroneously dated in 1781.

  227Marion even allowed Ganey: Rankin, 282–283.

  227not to be molested . . . “private satisfaction”: O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 570.

  227“It is recommended . . . by our enemies”: Ibid.

  227“so many enormities” . . . sent off a group: FM to NG, June 9, 1782 (NGP11:313–314 and n2).

  228One of them . . . killed Abel Kolb: James, 93; Piecuch, Three Peoples, 287; Gregg, Old Cheraws, 360–361; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 529. James and Piecuch identify the man as an African American loyalist leader named Gibson. Gregg and O’Kelley say his name was Mike Goings, a mulatto and only a private. Rankin states that the man excepted from the treaty was Joseph Jones, the captain who led the raiding party to Kolb’s home. Rankin, 282.

  228Another was David Fanning: James, 93.

  228“not let her have . . . wait on her”: The Narrative of Colonel David Fanning (a Tory in the Revolutionary War with Great Britain), Giving an Account of His Adventures in North Carolina, 1775–1783, as Written by Himself, ed. Thomas H. Wynne (Richmond, VA, 1861), 63–64.

  228He shortly left . . . charge of rape: Linley S. Butler, “David Fanning,” in Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, ed. William S. Powell (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), 179–181.

  228As 1782 turned . . . that was the only way: Pancake, This Destructive War, 238–239; Carbone, Nathanael Greene, 213–214; McCrady, 635–637; James, 97; Simms, 218; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 571, 576; Conrad, NGP11:xi–xiv.

  229“much fatigued”: FM to NG, April 16, 1782 (NGP11:71).

  229Greene kept ordering: NG to FM, April 28, May 1, July 24, 27, 30, August 9, 1782 (NGP11:134, 148, 453–454, 459–460, 472, 509–510); Burnet to FM, July 26, 1782 (ibid., 457); Pierce to FM, August 4, 23, 1782 (ibid., 486, 570).

  229“keep . . . and the enemy”: FM to PH, May 3, 1782 (Gibbes2, 173).

  CHAPTER 25: “AN AFFECTIONATE FAREWELL”

  230John Laurens: Wallace, Life of Henry Laurens, 464, 472–473, 478–482, 487, 490; Greene’s Orders, NGP11:323–324; Massey, John Laurens, 148, 211–213; Baxley, “Gen. Nathanael Greene’s Moves,” 19 and n86, 21–30.

  230“unless intrepidity . . . purest motives”: Wallace, Life of Henry Laurens, 489.

  230leapt from his sickbed . . . charge his men through: Simms, 218–219; Massey, John Laurens, 226–227; Parker, 186; Gordon, Battlefield History, 174–175.

  231“Poor Laurens . . . hardly survive it”: NG to Otho Williams, September 17, 1782 (NGP11:670).

  231George Sinclair Capers . . . Black Dragoons . . . “cut them to pieces”: James, 94 (quotation); Parker, 131; Jim Piecuch, “The ‘Black Dragoons’: Former Slaves as British Cavalry in Revolutionary South Carolina,” in Piecuch, Cavalry, 215–222.

  231nshot two German Hessian deserters: Atwood, The Hessians, 197.

  231Marion lay camped . . . Wadboo Barony: James, 94–95; Parker, 57.

  231nWadboo . . . not to be confused: Henry A. M. Smith, “Notes and Queries,” SCHGM 2, no. 1 (January 1901): 246–248; Cross, Historic Ramblin’s, 34; Parker, 57, 62.

  231Marion had his headquarters . . . shifted their positions: FM to PH, February 3, 10, 1782 (Gibbes, 248–249); FM to PH, April 12, 1782 (Gibbes2, 162); James, 93–95; Simms, 214–216; Parker, 57; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 577–579, 651–652n606, 706n1571; FM to NG, August 30, September 2, 1782 (NGP11:606–608 and nn2–3, 620–621).

  233“The militia . . . great spirit”: FM to NG, August 30, 1782 (NGP11:6
07).

  233“They fought . . . cord and tree”: Simms, 216.

  233“the very honorable check . . . the enemy”: NG to FM, August 31, 1782 (NGP11:611–612).

  233“Fraser attempted . . . was repulsed”: NG to George Washington, October 4, 1782 (NGP12:26).

  234“hint . . . superior judgment”: FM to NG, September 24, 1782 (NGP12:694–695).

  234“in the most perfect . . . any operations”: Burnet to FM, November 3, 1782 (NGP12:178).

  234sporadic reports . . . nothing ever came: NG to FM, September 4, 15, 1782 (NGP12:624 and n1, 662 and nn2–3); FM to NG, September 8, 10, 1782 (ibid., 637, 642 and n2).

  234“It does not suit me . . . few negroes I have”: Robert Blair to FM, September 7, 1782 (Gibbes2, 224–225).

  234moved . . . to the amercement list: McCord, Statutes, 1814–1838, 6:631, 634.

  234Marion’s informants: FM to NG, November 8, 1782 (NGP12:161).

  234Greene and Leslie agreed . . . Wemyss: Conrad, NGP12:xii, 291n3.

  234On December 14 the great day: Joseph W. Barnwell, “The Evacuation of Charleston by the British in 1782,” SCHGM 11, no. 1 (January 1910): 1–26; Fraser, Patriots, 150–152; McCrady, 671–674.

  235Mathews ordered . . . enter Charleston: Mathews to NG, November 17, 1782 (NGP12:198).

  235Greene took pains: NG to FM, November 22, 1782 (NGP12:210).

  235“I wish you not . . . too near”: NG to FM, November 15, 1782 (NGP12:187).

  235“three or four of your particular friends”: NG to FM, November 22, 1782 (NGP12:211).

  235Mathews gave Marion permission . . . no desire to go: FM to NG, November 24, 1782 (NGP12:217).

  235He gathered his men: James, 98–99.

  236“was conducted . . . affectionate farewell”: Ibid., 99.

  236“His appearance . . . his country”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 26: “THE PUREST PATRIOTISM”

  237Pond Bluff . . . went back with him: Boddie, Traditions, 260–261; James, 99; Dubose, “Address at the 17th Anniversary,” 19; Dubose, “Reminiscences of St. Stephens Parish,” 66–67. An “Ab Marrion, 26,” identified as “formerly property of General Marrion,” was listed among the slaves who escaped to the British lines. He settled in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, in a large black loyalist settlement known as Birchtown (named for British General Samuel Birch). Gilbert, Black Patriots and Loyalists, 198–199, 307n113. Boddie identifies the cousin who managed Belle Isle as “Henry Gignilliat,” who had married the oldest sister of Marion’s father. Simons, “Marion Family.” But Henry Gignilliat was deceased, so it was probably his son Benjamin Gignilliat, who later served as an appraiser for Marion’s estate, who tended to Belle Isle during Marion’s absence.

  238new legislative session: Journal of the Senate, Jan. 6 to Mar. 17, 1783, South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, 1–4.

  238“I am much obliged . . . goes by favor”: FM to PH, January 18, 1783, Bancroft Collection, NYPL.

  238“I have no prospect . . . my principles”: Ibid.

  239“eminent and conspicuous service . . . her inhabitants”: South Carolina Weekly-Gazette (Charleston), March 8, 1783.

  239302-acre land grant: Francis Marion, Plat for 302 acres in St. John’s Parish, August 25, 1785, South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, series S213190, vol. 14:298.

  239never applied . . . heirs would claim it: Declarations of Louisa C. Marion, Catharine Palmer, Mary V. Yeadon, and Gabriella M. Kirk, January 31, 1835, Fold3.com, Revolutionary War Collection; A. D. Hiller to J. Stuart Pittman, January 24, 1935 (ibid.)

  239“promoted” . . . twenty-six other: Rankin, 292; O’Kelley, Unwaried Patience, 344.

  239“villains . . . heat of the day”: Lamb (Lemuel) Benton to Mathews, August 20, 1782 (Gibbes2, 208).

  239received a sinecure . . . resigned the position: James, 99–100; Cooper, Statutes, 1752–1786, 4:588; Thomas Cooper, ed., The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, vol. 5, Containing the Acts from 1786 . . . to 1814 (Columbia, SC, 1839), 73–74; FM to Charles Pinckney, November 10, 1789, “Governors’ Messages,” South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, series S165009, message 512, p. 15. Five shillings equaled one-quarter of a pound.

  240“For if . . . suffer for it”: Garden, Anecdotes (1822), 20.

  240A bill did pass: Cooper, Statutes, 1752–1786, 4:598–600.

  240Mary Esther Videau . . . rebuilt at Pond Bluff: Richard Yeadon, “The Marion Family, No. 10: The Widow of Gen. Marion,” Charleston Courier, August 7, 1858; Boddie, Traditions, 18, 28, 35–36, 57, 76, 99, 140, 261, 266–267; James, 100; Bass, Swamp Fox, 242; J. H. Robinson, “Marion’s Brigade,” Cook County Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), April 20, 1906; Columbian Herald (Charleston, SC), April 24, 1786; Kirk, “Pond Bluff Plantation, Marion Family”; MacNutt, “Gen. and Mrs. Marion”; Inventory of Estate of Francis Marion, September 21, 1795, South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, transcript and notes provided by David Neilan to the author. One source states that the house at Pond Bluff had two stories with a porch, sitting room, and nine other rooms. Cross, Historic Ramblin’s, 279.

  241Charlotte Videau Ashby . . . Anthony Ashby: Yeadon, “The Widow of Gen. Marion”; Boddie, Traditions, 272; Bass, Swamp Fox, 242; Simons, “Marion Family.”

  241For Marion’s part . . . “Dwight”: Boddie, Traditions, 272; Last Will and Testament of Francis Marion, October 16, 1787, July 16, 1792, Ancestry.com; Simons, “Marion Family.”

  242did legally change his name . . . surname disappeared: Acts of the General Assembly of the State of South-Carolina, from December, 1795, to December, 1804, Both Inclusive (Columbia, SC, 1808), 2:251; Simons, “Marion Family.”

  242hired out some of his slaves . . . at Fort Johnson: Voucher from Commissioners at Fort Johnson for work done by negroes in 1785, Francis Marion Miscellaneous File, 1783–1785, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library.

  242six thousand acres . . . extended loans: Inventory of Estate of Francis Marion, September 21, 1795, South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, transcript and notes provided by David Neilan to the author.

  242“moderate Federalist”: James, 100.

  242convention that ratified . . . William Clay Snipes: Francis Newton Thorpe, Constitutional History of the United States, vol. 2, 1788–1861 (Chicago: Callaghan & Co., 1901), 69; Jonathan Elliot, ed., Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, as Recommended by the General Convention at Philadelphia in 1787, Together with the Journal of the Federal Convention, vol. 4 (Washington, DC, 1836), 339.

  243convention that drafted: James, 100.

  243Marion urged . . . free public schools: Weems, 239–247.

  243kept up command . . . resigned: Bass, Swamp Fox, 243–244.

  243Pinckney . . . compromise candidate: Michael E. Stevens, ed., Journals of the House of Representatives, 1792–1794 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988), x–xi and n5.

  244“constant pain . . . ardent fever”: FM to Francis Marion Dwight, November 8, 1794, Francis Marion Miscellaneous File, 1783–1785, Manuscripts and Archives Division, New York Public Library. The letter was sent to Stratford, Connecticut, which is fifteen miles from New Haven, the site of Yale.

  2446,453 . . . half a million dollars . . . seventy-four slaves: Inventory of Estate of Francis Marion, September 21, 1795, South Carolina Dept. of Archives and History, transcript and notes provided by David Neilan to the author.

  244He willed . . . mahogany furniture: Ibid.; Cross, Historic Ramblin’s, 280; Last Will and Testament of Francis Marion, October 16, 1787, July 16, 1792, Ancestry.com.

  244will was invalid . . . She died in 1815: Yeadon, “The Widow of Gen. Marion”; Cooper, Statutes, 1786–1814, 5:162–164. Marion made out his last will in 1787 and re-signed and dated it in 1792; in neither case was it witnessed.

  244Francis (Dwight) Marion . . . 150 slaves: Appraisal and Division of Negroes Belonging to the Estate of Francis (Dwight) Marion, December 27–28, 1833, South Carolina Dept. o
f Archives and History, Ancestry.com; John J. Simons III, “Francis Marion Dwight,” The Early Families of the South Carolina Low Count[r]y, Rootsweb.com, September 3, 2011, wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=syf&id=I21087.

  245“Scipio”: Last Will and Testament of Mary Esther (Videau) Marion, December 6, 1814, Ancestry.com; Boddie, Traditions, 280. See also McCord, Statutes . . . Relating to Slaves, 7:396, 442–443, 459–460.

  245Had he been so: Daniel Littlefield, commentary in Chasing the Swamp Fox, executive producer Thomas Fowler, producers James H. Palmer Jr. and Sanford Adams (Columbia: South Carolina ETV Commission, 2004), YouTube video, 12:27, posted by Butch Hills, December 8, 2013, www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lc9-C8dGGM.

  245and some did: Bobby G. Moss and Michael C. Scoggins, African-American Patriots in the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution (Blacksburg, SC: Scotia-Hibernia Press, 2004), 36–37, 43–44, 183–184.

  245a slave named Antigua: Ibid., 10–11.

  245“forever delivered . . . yoke of slavery”: Cooper, Statutes, 4:545.

  246“History affords no . . . peculiar to yourself”: NG to FM, April 24, 1781 (NGP8:144).

  246In November 1794 . . . first signer . . . Peter Horry: James, 100; Smith, “Archaeological Perspectives,” 345–346.

  246“Your achievements . . . purest patriotism”: James, 100–101.

  247“Washington of the South”: Weems, v. See also Busick, introduction to Simms, xi–xii.

  Selected Bibliography

  The works in this list are those cited in shortened form periodically in the notes as well as those consulted more generally in the preparation of this book.

  PRIMARY SOURCES

  Balfour, Nisbet. Letterbook of Lt. Col. Nisbet Balfour, January 1–December 1, 1781. Society of the Cincinnati, Digitized Collections, 2012. societyofthecincinnati.org/collections/library/digitized_collections.

  Brown, Tarleton. Memoirs of Tarleton Brown, a Captain in the Revolutionary Army. New York, 1862.

  Clinton, Henry. The American Rebellion: Sir Henry Clinton’s Narrative of His Campaigns, 1775–1782, with an Appendix of Original Documents. Edited by William B. Willcox. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1954.