Francis Marion Essay

Lauren Bristow
Mr. Doyle
Early America
26 February 2015 Born on February 26th, 1732 in Berkeley, South Carolina, Francis Marion was one of the great partisan leaders of the American Revolutionary War. From luring opposing troops into swamps, he earned the nickname“Swamp Fox.” Marion is mostly known for his highly efficient usage of guerrilla war tactic, leading him to successes in war.
While growing up, Marion had little education and remained semiliterate until he died.
In 1761 he took part in the French and Indian War and worked as a lieutenant of a militia. He became well known with the very special tactics of guerrilla warfare: using small forces, hitting and running, dispersing troops in one place and reforming them in another, and employing the element of surprise. When the campaign ended, he returned to farming, at first on leased land and then, in 1773, on a plantation of his own, Pond Bluff, near Eutaw Springs, S.C. Two years later he was elected to the provincial legislature and also accepted appointment as a captain in the second of two infantry regiments South Carolina raised at the outbreak of the Revolutionary
War.
In September 1775, he led his militia in capturing the forts in Charleston harbor from the
British. The next summer he joined in stopping the English attempt to retake Charleston. He spent the next couple of years skirmishing in the Charleston area and drilling militia troops. In
November 1778 he took command of the 2nd Regiment; in November 1779 he led the regiment

in an unsuccessful attack on Savannah. In May 1780 British forces retook Charleston, and in
August they beat the American army under Gen. Horatio Gates at the battle of Camden. This was the end of organized resistance by the Americans in South Carolina.
Marion then took to the swamps and to guerrilla warfare. With a small militia of 20 to 70 men, he embarked upon harassing operations, hitting British supply lines and cutting communications between their posts. Moving like a phantom, he roamed the area between
Charleston and Camden and along the Santee and Peedee rivers. In August 1780 he rescued 150
American prisoners being transported by the British. Every effort

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