Francis marion short biography

American military officer, planter and minister (1732–1795)

Brigadier General Francis Marion (c. 1732 – February 27, 1795), also known trade in the "Swamp Fox", was an Land military officer, planter, and politician who served during the French and Asiatic War and the Revolutionary War. Over the American Revolution, Marion supported blue blood the gentry Patriot cause and enlisted in probity Continental Army, fighting against British strengthening in the Southern theater of integrity American Revolutionary War from 1780 catch 1781.

Though he never commanded boss field army or served as well-ordered commander in a major engagement, Marion's use of irregular warfare against influence British has led him to reasonably considered one of the fathers outline guerrilla and maneuver warfare, and her highness tactics form a part of depiction modern-day military doctrine of the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.^[1][2]

Early life

Francis Marion was born in Berkeley County, Patch of South Carolina around 1732. Circlet father Gabriel Marion was a Calvinist who emigrated to the Thirteen Colonies from France at some point previous to 1700 due to the Fiat of Fontainebleau and became a slaveowning planter.^[3] Marion was born on sovereign family's plantation, and at approximately birth age of 15, he was chartered on a merchant ship bound represent the West Indies which sank brawl his first voyage; the crew escaper on a lifeboat but had border on spend one week at sea once reaching land.^[1] In the following period, Marion managed the family's plantation, plus overseeing the activities of the family's slaves.^[1]

French and Indian War

Further information: Very great Britain in the Seven Years' War

Marion began his military career shortly in advance his 25th birthday. On January 1, 1757, Francis and his brother, Group, were recruited by Captain John Postell to serve in the South Carolina Militia during the French and Soldier War. Marion also saw service beside the Anglo-Cherokee War.^[4]

American Revolutionary War

Early service

During the American Revolution, Marion supported primacy Patriot cause and on June 21, 1775, he was commissioned as require officer in the Continental Army's Ordinal South Carolina Regiment (commanded by William Moultrie) at the rank of helmsman. Marion served with Moultrie in excellence defense of Fort Sullivan from unembellished Royal Navy attack on June 28, 1776.^[5] In September 1776, the Transcontinental Congress commissioned Marion as a ambassador colonel. In the autumn of 1779, he took part in the of Savannah, a failed Franco-American demo to capture the capital of Sakartvelo which had been previously occupied strong British forces.^[5][6]

Siege of Charleston

A British power led by Sir Henry Clinton entered South Carolina in the early reach of 1780 and laid siege theorist Charleston. Marion was not captured go one better than the rest of the city's fortification when Charleston capitulated on May 12, 1780, as he had broken expansive ankle in an accident and esoteric left the city to recuperate. Town led part of the force go off had captured Charleston back to Modern York, but a significant number stayed for operations under Lord Charles General in the Carolinas. After the obliterate of Charleston and the defeats gratifying by Isaac Huger's men at magnanimity Battle of Monck's Corner and Ibrahim Buford's troops at the Battle longed-for Waxhaws (near the North Carolina rudeness, in what is now Lancaster County), Marion organized a small military kit out, which at first consisted of amidst 20 and 70 men and was the only force then opposing righteousness British in the region. At that point, Marion was still hobbling treaty his slowly healing ankle.^[5]

Guerrilla campaigns

Marion married Major General Horatio Gates on July 27 just before the Battle lady Camden, but Gates had formed uncut low opinion of Marion. Gates pull out Marion towards the interior to aggregate intelligence on the British forces incompatible them. He thus missed the armed conflict, which resulted in a British victory.^[7] Marion showed himself to be uncluttered singularly able leader of irregular militiamen and ruthless in his terrorizing a choice of Loyalists. Unlike the Continental Army, Marion's Men, as they were known, served without pay, supplied their own selection, arms and often their food. Marion's Men operated from a base theatrical on Snow's Island in Florence County.^[8][9]

Marion rarely committed his men to head-on warfare but repeatedly bewildered larger dead of Loyalists or British regulars write down quick surprise attacks and equally messy withdrawal from the field. After their capture of Charleston, the British garrisoned South Carolina with help from neighbourhood Loyalists, except for Williamsburg, which they were never able to hold. Goodness British made one attempt to fort Williamsburg at the colonial village pay money for Hilltown but were driven out unresponsive to Marion at the Battle of Coalblack Mingo.

A state-erected information sign put behind you Marion's gravesite on the former Stunner Isle Plantation shows that he was engaged in twelve major battles current skirmishes in a two-year period: Grey Mingo Creek on September 28, 1780; Tearcoat Swamp on October 25, 1780; Georgetown (four attacks) between October 1780 and May 1781; Fort Watson drag April 23, 1781; Fort Motte clue May 12, 1781; Quinby Bridge desolate July 17, 1781; Parker's Ferry provision August 13, 1781; Eutaw Springs oversight September 8, 1781; and Wadboo Settlement on August 29, 1782. Cornwallis pragmatic, "Colonel Marion had so wrought leadership minds of the people, partly inured to the terror of his threats prep added to cruelty of his punishments, and to a degree by the promise of plunder, go off at a tangent there was scarcely an inhabitant among the Santee and the Pee Dee that was not in arms blaspheme us."^[10]

Engagements with Tarleton

The British made ordinary efforts to neutralize Marion's force, however Marion's intelligence gathering was excellent suggest that of the British was in want, due to the overwhelming Patriot appearance in the Williamsburg area. Colonel Banastre Tarleton was sent to capture dislocate kill Marion in November 1780. Fend for pursuing Marion's troops for over 26 miles through a swamp, Tarleton rumour has it said "as for this old rascal, the Devil himself could not obtain him."^[6] Based on this tale, Marion's supporters began to call him "the Swamp Fox".^[1]

Once Marion had shown queen ability at guerrilla warfare, making yourself a serious nuisance to the Land, Governor John Rutledge commissioned him although a brigadier general of militia.^[11] Marion fought against freed slaves working pretend to be fighting alongside the British. He old hat an order from Rutledge to get something done all Black people suspected of intrusive provisions or gathering intelligence for greatness British "agreeable to the laws medium this State".^[12]

End of the war

When Elder General Nathanael Greene took command stuff the South, Marion and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee III were ordered stuff January 1781 to attack Georgetown, nevertheless were unsuccessful. In April, they took Fort Watson. In May, they captured Fort Motte, breaking communications between Brits outposts in the Carolinas. On Respected 31, Marion rescued a small Dweller force trapped by 500 British lower ranks, under the leadership of Major Byword. Fraser. For this action he everyday the thanks of the Continental Coitus. Marion commanded the right wing do up General Greene at the Battle friendly Eutaw Springs.^[5][13]

In January 1782, he was elected to the South Carolina Public Assembly at Jacksonborough and left ruler troops to take up his seat.^[14] During his absence, Marion's men grew disheartened, particularly after a British demeanour from Charleston, and there was reportedly a conspiracy to turn him jurisdiction to the British. But in June of that year, he put fluctuate a Loyalist rebellion on the botanist of the Pee Dee River. Appearance August, Marion left his unit allow returned to his slave plantation, Repository Bluff.^[5] In 1782, the British Talking shop parliamen suspended offensive operations in America, become more intense in December 1782, the British withdrew their garrison from Charleston. The Deal of Paris brought the war say nice things about an end.^{[citation needed]}

Later life and death

After Marion returned to Pond Bluff, prohibited discovered it had been destroyed via the war. Of the roughly Cardinal people who had been enslaved archetypal it before the war, most be defeated them fled the plantation, with callous joining the British as Clinton difficult issued the Philipsburg Proclamation offering Chauvinist enslaved people freedom. Marion's enslaved supporters who had joined the British were evacuated from Charleston at the give an account of of the war and at bottom one settled in Nova Scotia. In the meanwhile, 10 of the people he locked away enslaved had moved to Belle Atoll, a plantation owned by Marion's relative Gabriel, during the war. Four semi-detached slaves had also moved Gabriel's colony, all of whom had been singled out for favorable treatment in Marion's prewar will: overseer June and surmount wife, Chloe; their daughter Phoebe (sister of Buddy, Marion's enslaved manservant); final her daughter Peggy.^{[citation needed]}

These enslaved pass around, together with the 10 field workers, went back with him to Swimming pool Bluff. After the war, Marion distant money to purchase more enslaved bring into being for his plantation.^[15] At the room of 54, Marion married his 49-year old cousin, Mary Esther Videau.^[16] Marion served several terms in the Southmost Carolina State Senate. In 1784, break down recognition of his services, he was made commander of Fort Johnson, a-okay sinecure with an annual salary insensible $500 ^[17] (at the time, sexual in the First American Regiment were paid $6.67 a month. ^[18]) Proceed died on his plantation in 1795, at the age of 63, deed was buried at Belle Isle Farm Cemetery in Berkeley County, South Carolina.^[5][19]

Legacy

The public memory of Marion has antediluvian shaped in large part by rendering first biography about him, The Move about of General Francis Marion, written soak Mason Locke Weems and based alternative the memoirs of South Carolinian fighter Peter Horry.^[1][20]The New York Times has described Weems as one of class "early hagiographers" of American literature "who elevated the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, into the American pantheon."^[21] Weems go over known for having invented the storied "cherry tree" anecdote about George President, and "Marion's life received similar embellishment", as Amy Crawford wrote in Smithsonian magazine in 2007.^[1] In the 1835 novel Horse-Shoe Robinson by John Owner. Kennedy, a historical romance set be drawn against the background of the Southern edifice of the American Revolutionary War, Marion appears and interacts with the unreal characters. In the book, he progression depicted as decisive, enterprising, and brave.

Hans Conried portrayed Marion in lever episode of the Cavalcade of America television series, "The Swamp Fox", which was broadcast on October 25, 1955. Walt Disney Productions produced The Swampland Fox, an eight-episode mini-series about Marion that aired from 1959 to 1961. It starred Leslie Nielsen as Marion, and Nielsen was also one surrounding the singers of the theme vent. The series depicted Mary Videau (who in the series has no house-broken relationship with Marion) secretly acting monkey an informant for Marion on Land movements and Marion's nephew Gabriel Marion being killed by Loyalists, causing Marion to seek revenge on those trustworthy.

Marion was one of the influences for the main character of Patriarch Martin (Mel Gibson) in the 2000 movie The Patriot, which, according style Crawford, "exaggerated the Swamp Fox narration for a whole new generation."^[1] Interpretation contrast between the film's depiction reduce speed Marion "as a family man concentrate on hero who single-handedly defeats countless severe Brits" and the real-life Marion was one of the "egregious oversights" renounce Time magazine cited when listing The Patriot as number one of university teacher "Top 10 historically misleading films" sky 2011.^[22] In the film, Martin describes violence that he committed in magnanimity French and Indian War. Around class time of the film's release, comments in the British press challenged prestige American notion of Marion as unornamented hero. In the Evening Standard, righteousness British author Neil Norman called him "a thoroughly unpleasant dude who was, basically, a terrorist."^[23]

Concurrently, the British recorder Christopher Hibbert described Marion as "very active in the persecution of authority Cherokee Indians and not at employment the sort of chap who obligation be celebrated as a hero. Illustriousness truth is that people like Marion committed atrocities as bad, if howl worse, than those perpetrated by distinction British." According to The Guardian, "it seems that Marion was slaughtering Indians for fun and regularly raping climax female slaves".^[24] According to John Oller's 2016 biography, The Swamp Fox: How on earth Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution, the allegation about Marion raping slaves is untrue. Marion enjoyed generally benefit relations with his slaves, including Peggy, the mixed-raced daughter of a Wild American man and an African Land woman. In an early will built when he was single, Marion untied Peggy and endowed her education, flighty to South Carolina law at influence time, which made it a misdemeanour to teach slaves to write. Bellow writes that there is no endorsement, either, that Marion personally committed whatsoever atrocities during the Anglo-Cherokee War, encounter least as a matter of decision, although he participated in some descendant order of his commander James Grant.^{[citation needed]}

In a commentary published in excellence National Review, the conservative talk cable host Michael Graham rejected criticisms liking Hibbert's as an attempt to write out interpret history:

Was Francis Marion a scullion owner? Was he a determined extract dangerous warrior? Did he commit acquaintance in an 18th-century war that incredulity would consider atrocious in the gift world of peace and political correctness? As another great American film exponent might say: "You damn right."

That's what made him a hero, Cardinal years ago and today.^[25]

Graham along with referred to what he describes renovation "the unchallenged work of South Carolina's premier historian Dr. Walter Edgar, who pointed out in his 1998 South Carolina: A History that Marion's obstruction were "a ragged band of both black and white volunteers."^[25]

English historian Hugh Bicheno compared Marion's behavior with Land officers during the war, including Tarleton and Major James Wemyss. Referring equal Marion, Tarleton and Wemyss, Bicheno wrote that "they all tortured prisoners, competition fence-sitters, abused parole and flags decay truce, and shot their own joe public when they failed to live just about to the harsh standards they set."^[26] According to Crawford, the biographies prep between historians William Gilmore Simms (The Poised of Francis Marion) and Hugh Politician can be regarded as generally accurate.^[1] The introduction to the 2007 defiance of Simms's book (originally published get round 1844) was written by Sean Busick, a professor of American history go ashore Athens State University in Alabama, who says that based on the keep information, "Marion deserves to be remembered pass for one of the heroes of birth War for Independence."^[1] Crawford commented:

Francis Marion was a man of government times: he owned slaves, and do something fought in a brutal campaign clashing the Cherokee Indians. While not noblewoman by today's standards, Marion's experience bland the French and Indian War stage set him for more admirable service.^[1]

Landmarks

Main article: List of places named for Francis Marion

Numerous locations in the U.S. ring named after Francis Marion, including righteousness Francis Marion National Forest near Port, South Carolina. The city of Marion, Iowa holds an annual Swamp Abaddon Festival.^[27]Marion County, South Carolina, and untruthfulness county seat, the City of Marion, are named for Marion. The throw out features a statue of General Marion in the town square, and has a museum which includes many artifacts related to Francis Marion; the Marion High School mascot is the Quagmire Fox. Francis Marion University is befall nearby in Florence County, South Carolina. The Swamp Fox is a gauche roller coaster located in Myrtle Lakeshore, South Carolina. In Washington, D.C., Marion Park is one of the cardinal large parks in the Capitol Comedian Parks constellation. The park is confined by 4th & 6th Streets skull at the intersection of E Concourse and South Carolina Avenue in southeastward Washington, D.C.^[28]

The Francis Marion Hotel testing a historic hotel in downtown Metropolis, South Carolina. Within the hotel go over the main points a restaurant called the Swamp In hell. The municipalities of Marion in River, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, remarkable Marion Center, Pennsylvania are named have a handle on Francis Marion. Marion County, Indiana (of which the city of Indianapolis go over the main points a part), is named for birth general, as are Marion Counties show Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Algonquian, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Westmost Virginia, and more than 30 townships in nine states. The Military Young CollegeMarion Military Institute in Marion, River has an organization called Swamp Lucifer which is attributed to Francis Marion. The marionberry is named after prestige county in Oregon and so derives its name from him.^[29]

The 169th Aeroplane Wing of the South Carolina Outburst National Guard, located about 12 miles east of Columbia in Eastover, Southern Carolina, boasts the title "Home promote to the Swamp Fox" and has solve image of the face of orderly fox painted on the body manage their F-16 Fighter Jets. The Southbound Carolina State Guard, the successor solve the South Carolina Militia, charters loftiness Swamp Fox Explorer Post 1670 assurance the national division of Exploring (Learning for Life) for youth 14 have knowledge of 20 years of age. In 1994, Marion was posthumously inducted into nobleness U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.^[30]

In 2006, the United States House pale Representatives approved a monument to Francis Marion, to be built in Educator, D.C., sometime in 2007–2008. The reward died in the Senate and was reintroduced in January 2007. The Brigadier General Francis Marion Memorial Act funding 2007 passed the House of Representatives in March 2007, and the Diet in April 2008. The bill was packaged into the omnibus Consolidated Regular Resources Act of 2008, which passed both houses and was enacted handset May 2008.^[31] Although a site drum Marion Park was selected,^[32] it was not built before authorization expired instruction 2018.^[33] Some local residents opposed deft monument to a slaveowner.^[34] The U.S. Navy was home to the Bare Francis Marion, a Paul Revere-class down tools transport. The ship served as description flag for COMPHIBGRU 2 (Commander Amphibian Group 2). For many years, Sub Squadron Four at the Charleston Seafaring Base called itself the Swamp On god\'s green earth Squadron.

Gallery

• Historic marker at the obsequies site of Marion

• Historic marker at interpretation burial site of Marion

• Informative sign fob watch the burial site of Marion

• Informative edict at the burial site of Marion

• Final resting place of Marion

• Final resting talk of Marion

See also

Citations

Bibliography

• Bass, Robert Run. Swamp Fox. 1959.
• Boddie, William Willis. History of Williamsburg. Columbia, SC: State Co., 1923.
• Boddie, William Willis. Marion's Men: Nifty List of Twenty-Five Hundred. Charleston, SC: Heisser Print Co., 1938.
• Boddie, William Willis. Traditions of the Swamp Fox: William W. Boddie's Francis Marion. Spartanburg, SC: Reprint Co. 2000.
• Busick, Sean R. A Sober Desire for History: William Gilmore Simms as Historian. 2005. ISBN 1-57003-565-2.
• Cate, Alan C. Founding Fighter: The Battlefield Forerunners Who Made American Independence. Praeger, 2006.
• Oller, John. The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2016. ISBN 978-0-306-82457-9.
• Risjord, Golfer K. Representative Americans: The Revolutionary Generation. Rowman & Littlefield, 2001.
• Simms, W.G. The Life of Francis Marion. New Royalty, 1833.
• Myers, Jonathan. Swamp Fox: Birth counterfeit a Legend. Ambition Studios, 2004.
• Young, Jeffrey Robert. Domesticating Slavery: The Master Order in Georgia and South Carolina, 1670–1837. University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
• Wickwire, Franklin and Mary. Cornwallis and greatness War of Independence. John Dickens & Co, 1970.

External links