Known as the “Swamp Fox,” Francis Marion spent the American Revolution showing the British just how uncomfortable he could make them by refusing to “fight fairly.”
Wikimedia CommonsFrancis Marion , lie with as the “ Swamp Fox . ”
There are a plenty of myths surround the American Revolution . One of the most enduring ones is that the Americans succeed because they refused to struggle the British the way they were expected to . While the British would line up in the field and defy the enemy to come meet them , the Americans would slither through the Wood to take stool dig at their officer .
The British detested this type of war . They frequently kvetch that these “ Yankee villain ” lacked the laurels to abide up and trade musket ball like right soldiers . To the Americans , it was just common sense . Why give the foe the hazard to shoot you at close range if you’re able to pick them off from the Mrs. Henry Wood ?
Wikimedia CommonsFrancis Marion, known as the “Swamp Fox.”
Like many pop ideas of the war , this is n’t entirelyaccurate . Most of the really of import battle of the Revolution did play out in the traditional personal manner .
General Washington was always trying to bore his United States Army up to European standard so they could stand up to the British in the field . But there is an element of truth to it : the Americans made very effective use of tactic that we ’d accredit today as guerrilla warfare .
No general during the war was practiced at these form oftacticsthan Francis Marion . Popularly know as the “ Swamp Fox , ” Marion spend the war show the British just how uncomfortable he could make their clip in the Colonies with nothing but a few twelve rifles and a refusal to “ fight fairly . ”
National Gallery/ Wikimedia CommonsBanastre Tarleton.
Like many drawing card of the American Revolution , Marion had spent time as a young piece fight down with the British during the French and Indian War . During the war , Marion serve as a deputy during a campaign against the Cherokee . This campaign was vicious as Marion ’s unit of measurement burned villages in an drive to starve the Cherokee into meekness .
But it did teach Marion some important lessons about how to struggle a warfare . The Cherokee did n’t fight in the traditional fashion either . Facing an overwhelming force , they used the landscape to their advantage and emerged to fight down only when they held a pregnant reward . Marion apace realized that these tactic could be incredibly good .
With the start of the Revolutionary War in 1776 , Marion tried his hand at traditional European war . Commissioned as a captain , Marion led his force in a serial publication of defeat as the British promote into South Carolina . Deciding that maybe this was n’t the sound means to campaign an Empire that had inhibit much of the planet , Marion decided to sample thing a little other than .
Marionraiseda little force of around 50 experienced soldiers and lead them in a serial of Cherokee - style attacks on the British . Marion ’s men engaged the British when they least expected it , inflicting sudden casualties . Then when the British turned to fight a right battle , Marion ’s effect just refused to give it to them and melted back into the swamp .
The British leaders set up this incredibly irritating . As they see it , they had already won in the South . In fact , Francis Marion ’s force was for a abbreviated menstruum the only viable rebel army in the intact dependency of South Carolina . The real fight was up northwards in New England . So , the fact that they had to keep diverting military personnel to trace Marion down was really starting to become a pain in the neck .
Even more frustratingly , when they did send troop after him , they could n’t catch him . Finally , the British ordered one of their best commanders , Banastre Tarleton , to put a plosive to Marion ’s attacks . Tarleton was famed among on both sides . The British loyalists saw him as an spectacular cavalry commander , while to the Patriots , he was a bungler due to his role in the execution of troops who had already surrendered .
National Gallery/ Wikimedia CommonsBanastre Tarleton .
If anyone could catch Marion , it was Tarleton . But as it materialise , Tarleton actually could n’t overhear him either . And after one peculiarly grueling and at last pointless pursuance through 26 miles of swamp , Tarelton declare , “ As for this damned old fox , the Devil himself could not catch him . ”
The name quickly stuck , and the Swamp Fox spent the next twelvemonth harassing the British before meet up with the regular army to help drive the remain British military personnel out of South Carolina . In 1782 , Francis Marion was elect to the State Assembly . And besides shortly leading men to put down a loyalist uprising , he was content to put down his gun .
Marion served several footing in the State Senate before retiring to his plantation , where he die at the age of 63 . Marion was a legendary figure both in his own time and especially afterward , as the young body politic looked for hero to hold fast its home identity together . So , plenitude of Marion ’s exploits have credibly been colored by a snatch of myth - devising .
Francis Marion had his faults too of course , especially by today ’s standard . But there ’s piddling doubt that he was one of the most accomplished insurgent paladin of his earned run average . And his efforts provided substantial contributions towards the cause of independency .
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