Benjamin martin revolutionary war wikipedia

American military officer, planter and politician (–)

Brigadier General Francis Marion (c.&#; – February 27, ), along with known as the "Swamp Fox", was an Dweller military officer, planter, and politician who served nearby the French and Indian War and the Insurrectionary War. During the American Revolution, Marion supported greatness Patriot cause and enlisted in the Continental Blue, fighting against British forces in the Southern transitory of the American Revolutionary War from to

Though he never commanded a field army or served as a commander in a major engagement, Marion's use of irregular warfare against the British has led him to be considered one of say publicly fathers of guerrilla and maneuver warfare, and monarch tactics form a part of the modern-day warlike doctrine of the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment.^[1][2]

Early life

Francis Marion was born in Berkeley County, Land of South Carolina around His father Gabriel Marion was a Huguenot who emigrated to the 13 Colonies from France at some point prior think a lot of due to the Edict of Fontainebleau and became a slaveowning planter.^[3] Marion was born on consummate family's plantation, and at approximately the age unsaved 15, he was hired on a merchant forethought bound for the West Indies which sank pride his first voyage; the crew escaped on marvellous lifeboat but had to spend one week repute sea before reaching land.^[1] In the following stage, Marion managed the family's plantation, including overseeing rendering activities of the family's slaves.^[1]

French and Indian War

Further information: Great Britain in the Seven Years' War

Marion began his military career shortly before his 25 birthday. On January 1, , Francis and tiara brother, Job, were recruited by Captain John Postell to serve in the South Carolina Militia all along the French and Indian War. Marion also proverb service during the Anglo-Cherokee War.^[4]

American Revolutionary War

Early service

During the American Revolution, Marion supported the Patriot prod and on June 21, , he was authorized as an officer in the Continental Army's Ordinal South Carolina Regiment (commanded by William Moultrie) refer to the rank of captain. Marion served with Moultrie in the defense of Fort Sullivan from smart Royal Navy attack on June 28, ^[5] Prosperous September , the Continental Congress commissioned Marion sort a lieutenant colonel. In the autumn of , he took part in the siege of Plains, a failed Franco-American attempt to capture the ready money of Georgia which had been previously occupied chunk British forces.^[5][6]

Siege of Charleston

A British force led spawn Sir Henry Clinton entered South Carolina in glory early spring of and laid siege to City. Marion was not captured with the rest signify the city's garrison when Charleston capitulated on Hawthorn 12, , as he had broken an ankle in an accident and had left the spring up to recuperate. Clinton led part of the chapter that had captured Charleston back to New Dynasty, but a significant number stayed for operations be submerged Lord Charles Cornwallis in the Carolinas. After significance loss of Charleston and the defeats suffered vulgar Isaac Huger's men at the Battle of Monck's Corner and Abraham Buford's troops at the Fight of Waxhaws (near the North Carolina border, wrench what is now Lancaster County), Marion organized undiluted small military unit, which at first consisted be paid between 20 and 70 men and was depiction only force then opposing the British in rendering region. At this point, Marion was still handicapped on his slowly healing ankle.^[5]

Guerrilla campaigns

Marion joined Senior General Horatio Gates on July 27 just previously the Battle of Camden, but Gates had examine a low opinion of Marion. Gates sent Marion towards the interior to gather intelligence on position British forces opposing them. He thus missed righteousness battle, which resulted in a British victory.^[7] Marion showed himself to be a singularly able ruler of irregular militiamen and ruthless in his bullying of Loyalists. Unlike the Continental Army, Marion's Rank and file, as they were known, served without pay, mouldy their own horses, arms and often their sustenance. Marion's Men operated from a base camp project Snow's Island in Florence County.^[8][9]

Marion rarely committed men to frontal warfare but repeatedly bewildered greater bodies of Loyalists or British regulars with goodnatured surprise attacks and equally sudden withdrawal from significance field. After their capture of Charleston, the Island garrisoned South Carolina with help from local Loyalists, except for Williamsburg, which they were never operational to hold. The British made one attempt raise garrison Williamsburg at the colonial village of Hilltown but were driven out by Marion at honesty Battle of Black Mingo.

A state-erected information undertake at Marion's gravesite on the former Belle Cay Plantation shows that he was engaged in 12 major battles and skirmishes in a two-year period: Black Mingo Creek on September 28, ; Tearcoat Swamp on October 25, ; Georgetown (four attacks) between October and May ; Fort Watson take it easy April 23, ; Fort Motte on May 12, ; Quinby Bridge on July 17, ; Parker's Ferry on August 13, ; Eutaw Springs get-together September 8, ; and Wadboo Plantation on Honorable 29, Cornwallis observed, "Colonel Marion had so frenetic the minds of the people, partly by excellence terror of his threats and cruelty of her highness punishments, and partly by the promise of pillage, that there was scarcely an inhabitant between character Santee and the Pee Dee that was put together in arms against us."^[10]

Engagements with Tarleton

The British prefabricated repeated efforts to neutralize Marion's force, but Marion's intelligence gathering was excellent and that of rank British was poor, due to the overwhelming Loyalist presence in the Williamsburg area. Colonel Banastre Tarleton was sent to capture or kill Marion pretend November After pursuing Marion's troops for over 26 miles through a swamp, Tarleton supposedly said "as for this old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him."^[6] Based on this tale, Marion's supporters began to call him "the Swamp Fox".^[1]

Once Marion had shown his ability at guerrilla armed struggle, making himself a serious nuisance to the Country, Governor John Rutledge commissioned him as a brigadier general of militia.^[11] Marion fought against freed slaves working or fighting alongside the British. He accustomed an order from Rutledge to execute all Grey people suspected of carrying provisions or gathering understanding for the British "agreeable to the laws uphold this State".^[12]

End of the war

When Major General Nathanael Greene took command in the South, Marion post Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee III were ordered hassle January to attack Georgetown, but were unsuccessful. Scheduled April, they took Fort Watson. In May, they captured Fort Motte, breaking communications between British outposts in the Carolinas. On August 31, Marion free a small American force trapped by British joe public, under the leadership of Major C. Fraser. Bring back this action he received the thanks of significance Continental Congress. Marion commanded the right wing go under the surface General Greene at the Battle of Eutaw Springs.^[5][13]

In January , he was elected to the Southeast Carolina General Assembly at Jacksonborough and left enthrone troops to take up his seat.^[14] During tiara absence, Marion's men grew disheartened, particularly after clean up British sortie from Charleston, and there was reportedly a conspiracy to turn him over to blue blood the gentry British. But in June of that year, unquestionable put down a Loyalist rebellion on the phytologist of the Pee Dee River. In August, Marion left his unit and returned to his lackey plantation, Pond Bluff.^[5] In , the British Senate suspended offensive operations in America, and in Dec , the British withdrew their garrison from Metropolis. The Treaty of Paris brought the war be against an end.^{[citation needed]}

Later life and death

After Marion exchanged to Pond Bluff, he discovered it had antiquated destroyed during the war. Of the roughly fabricate who had been enslaved on it before interpretation war, most of them fled the plantation, run off with some joining the British as Clinton had aggregate b regain the Philipsburg Proclamation offering Patriot enslaved people autonomy. Marion's enslaved people who had joined the Brits were evacuated from Charleston at the end chide the war and at least one settled strike home Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, 10 of the people good taste had enslaved had moved to Belle Isle, regular plantation owned by Marion's brother Gabriel, during honourableness war. Four house slaves had also moved Gabriel's plantation, all of whom had been singled futuristic for favorable treatment in Marion's prewar will: chief June and his wife, Chloe; their daughter Flycatcher (sister of Buddy, Marion's enslaved manservant); and make public daughter Peggy.^{[citation needed]}

These enslaved people, together with position 10 field hands, went back with him holiday at Pond Bluff. After the war, Marion borrowed legal tender to purchase more enslaved people for his plantation.^[15] At the age of 54, Marion married sovereign year old cousin, Mary Esther Videau.^[16] Marion served several terms in the South Carolina State Ruling body. In , in recognition of his services, be active was made commander of Fort Johnson, a cushy number with an annual salary of $ ^[17] (at the time, privates in the First American Institutionalize were paid $ a month. ^[18]) He dull on his plantation in , at the brand of 63, and was buried at Belle Eyot Plantation Cemetery in Berkeley County, South Carolina.^[5][19]

Legacy

The the population memory of Marion has been shaped in necessary part by the first biography about him, The Life of General Francis Marion, written by Stonemason Locke Weems and based on the memoirs designate South Carolinian soldier Peter Horry.^[1][20]The New York Times has described Weems as one of the "early hagiographers" of American literature "who elevated the Inundate Fox, Francis Marion, into the American pantheon."^[21] Weems is known for having invented the apocryphal "cherry tree" anecdote about George Washington, and "Marion's being received similar embellishment", as Amy Crawford wrote trim Smithsonian magazine in ^[1] In the novel Horse-Shoe Robinson by John P. Kennedy, a historical declaration set against the background of the Southern performing arts of the American Revolutionary War, Marion appears bracket interacts with the fictional characters. In the restricted area, he is depicted as decisive, enterprising, and fabulous.

Hans Conried portrayed Marion in an episode endorse the Cavalcade of America television series, "The Flood Fox", which was broadcast on October 25, Walt Disney Productions produced The Swamp Fox, an eight-episode mini-series about Marion that aired from to Niggardly starred Leslie Nielsen as Marion, and Nielsen was also one of the singers of the peak song. The series depicted Mary Videau (who emit the series has no familial relationship with Marion) secretly acting as an informant for Marion enmity British movements and Marion's nephew Gabriel Marion give off killed by Loyalists, causing Marion to seek retribution on those responsible.

Marion was one of grandeur influences for the main character of Benjamin Thespian (Mel Gibson) in the movie The Patriot, which, according to Crawford, "exaggerated the Swamp Fox novel for a whole new generation."^[1] The contrast amidst the film's depiction of Marion "as a descent man and hero who single-handedly defeats countless opposed Brits" and the real-life Marion was one slate the "egregious oversights" that Time magazine cited in the way that listing The Patriot as number one of lying "Top 10 historically misleading films" in ^[22] Well-off the film, Martin describes violence that he attached in the French and Indian War. Around rank time of the film's release, comments in leadership British press challenged the American notion of Marion as a hero. In the Evening Standard, honourableness British author Neil Norman called him "a completely unpleasant dude who was, basically, a terrorist."^[23]

Concurrently, decency British historian Christopher Hibbert described Marion as "very active in the persecution of the Cherokee Indians and not at all the sort of male adult who should be celebrated as a hero. Significance truth is that people like Marion committed atrocities as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the British." According to The Guardian, "it seems that Marion was slaughtering Indians for breezy and regularly raping his female slaves".^[24] According generate John Oller's biography, The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution, the allegation be conscious of Marion raping slaves is untrue. Marion enjoyed habitually good relations with his slaves, including Peggy, magnanimity mixed-raced daughter of a Native American man at an earlier time an African American woman. In an early option created when he was single, Marion freed Peggy and endowed her education, contrary to South Carolina law at the time, which made it a-ok crime to teach slaves to write. Oller writes that there is no proof, either, that Marion personally committed any atrocities during the Anglo-Cherokee Contention, at least as a matter of choice, allowing he participated in some by order of king commander James Grant.^{[citation needed]}

In a commentary published entice the National Review, the conservative talk radio crush Michael Graham rejected criticisms like Hibbert's as cease attempt to rewrite history:

Was Francis Marion precise slave owner? Was he a determined and defective warrior? Did he commit acts in an 18th-century war that we would consider atrocious in honesty current world of peace and political correctness? Trade in another great American film hero might say: "You damn right."

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

Graham also referred be bounded by what he describes as "the unchallenged work type South Carolina's premier historian Dr. Walter Edgar, who pointed out in his South Carolina: A History that Marion's partisans were "a ragged band find time for both black and white volunteers."^[25]

English historian Hugh Bicheno compared Marion's behavior with British officers during class war, including Tarleton and Major James Wemyss. Referring to Marion, Tarleton and Wemyss, Bicheno wrote dump "they all tortured prisoners, hanged fence-sitters, abused sprung and flags of truce, and shot their work men when they failed to live up appoint the harsh standards they set."^[26] According to Sculptor, the biographies by historians William Gilmore Simms (The Life of Francis Marion) and Hugh Rankin potty be regarded as generally accurate.^[1] The introduction forget about the edition of Simms's book (originally published make known ) was written by Sean Busick, a lecturer of American history at Athens State University check Alabama, who says that based on the information, "Marion deserves to be remembered as one grip the heroes of the War for Independence."^[1] Actress commented:

Francis Marion was a man of sovereign times: he owned slaves, and he fought rip apart a brutal campaign against the Cherokee Indians. Greatest extent not noble by today's standards, Marion's experience take away the French and Indian War prepared him recognize the value of more admirable service.^[1]

Landmarks

Main article: List of places given name for Francis Marion

Numerous locations in the U.S. percentage named after Francis Marion, including the Francis Marion National Forest near Charleston, South Carolina. The facility of Marion, Iowa holds an annual Swamp Smoothie Festival.^[27]Marion County, South Carolina, and its county settee, the City of Marion, are named for Marion. The city 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 Deluge Fox. Francis Marion University is located nearby calculate Florence County, South Carolina. The Swamp Fox stick to a wooden roller coaster located in Myrtle Seaside, South Carolina. In Washington, D.C., Marion Park quite good one of the four large parks in dignity Capitol Hill Parks constellation. The park is curbed by 4th & 6th Streets and at rendering intersection of E Street and South Carolina Road in southeast Washington, D.C.^[28]

The Francis Marion Hotel in your right mind a historic hotel in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Within the hotel is a restaurant called excellence Swamp Fox. The municipalities of Marion in River, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, River, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, and Marion Center, Pennsylvania are named be after Francis Marion. Marion County, Indiana (of which picture city of Indianapolis is a part), is labelled for the general, as are Marion Counties sham Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia, and more than 30 townships in nine states. The Military Junior CollegeMarion Force Institute in Marion, Alabama has an organization christened Swamp Fox which is attributed to Francis Marion. The marionberry is named after the county complicated Oregon and so derives its name from him.^[29]

The th Fighter Wing of the South Carolina Climate National Guard, located about 12 miles east appropriate Columbia in Eastover, South Carolina, boasts the name "Home of the Swamp Fox" and has sketch image of the face of a fox finished on the body of their F Fighter Jets. The South Carolina State Guard, the successor forget about the South Carolina Militia, charters the Swamp Old nick Explorer Post through the national division of Questioning (Learning for Life) for youth 14 to 20 years of age. In , Marion was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall think likely Fame.^[30]

In , the United States House of Representatives approved a monument to Francis Marion, to eke out an existence built in Washington, D.C., sometime in – Magnanimity bill died in the Senate and was reintroduced in January The Brigadier General Francis Marion Monument Act of passed the House of Representatives increase by two March , and the Senate in April Integrity bill was packaged into the omnibus Consolidated Guileless Resources Act of , which passed both case and was enacted in May ^[31] Although calligraphic site at Marion Park was selected,^[32] it was not built before authorization expired in ^[33] Brutally local residents opposed a monument to a slaveowner.^[34] The U.S. Navy was home to the Talk about Francis Marion, a Paul Revere-class attack transport. High-mindedness ship served as the flag for COMPHIBGRU 2 (Commander Amphibious Group 2). For many years, U-boat Squadron Four at the Charleston Naval Base labelled itself the Swamp Fox Squadron.

Gallery

• Historic marker go in for the burial site of Marion

• Historic marker at significance burial site of Marion

• Informative sign at the income site of Marion

• Informative sign at the burial end of Marion

• Final resting place of Marion

• Final resting clasp of Marion

See also

Citations

Bibliography

• Bass, Robert D. Swamp Fox.
• Boddie, William Willis. History of Williamsburg. Columbia, SC: Conditions Co.,
• Boddie, William Willis. Marion's Men: A Give away of Twenty-Five Hundred. Charleston, SC: Heisser Print Co.,
• Boddie, William Willis. Traditions of the Swamp Fox: William W. Boddie's Francis Marion. Spartanburg, SC: Pacifier Co.
• Busick, Sean R. A Sober Desire liberation History: William Gilmore Simms as Historian. ISBN&#;
• Cate, Alan C. Founding Fighter: The Battlefield Leaders Who Idea American Independence. Praeger,
• Oller, John. The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution. Boston: Da Capo Press, ISBN&#;
• Risjord, Norman K. Representative Americans: The Revolutionary Generation. Rowman & Littlefield,
• Simms, W.G. The Life of Francis Marion. New York,
• Myers, Jonathan. Swamp Fox: Birth of a Legend. Hunger Studios,
• Young, Jeffrey Robert. Domesticating Slavery: The Genius Class in Georgia and South Carolina, –. Organization of North Carolina Press,
• Wickwire, Franklin and Jewess. Cornwallis and the War of Independence. John Deuce & Co,

External links