… August 1780 is a very busy and transitional month in the colony of South Carolina:
10AUG1780: While the British make their way into the interior of this colony, Gov. John Rutledge authorizes Francis Marion to take command of the militia east of the Santee River. So the question now is, does Francis Marion become a Colonel of the militia or is he still a Lt. Col. in the Continental organization?
12AUG1780: Lord Cornwallis’ forces cross the Santee at Nelson’s Ferry and arrive at Camden on the 13th of August making quick work at moving inland with no real resistance.
15AUG1780: Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates storms into South Carolina and orders Francis Marion and his men to seize all the boats along the Santee River. This group of militia then moves away from the Continental Army north of Camden (Rugeley’s Mill) to the west side of Camden opposite the British army on the other side of the Wateree River. The next day’s events would unfold without the aid of any South Carolina militia groups as Gates and the Continentals think they have this under control.
Stay tuned .. 16AUG1780 is a day that will set the tone for the rest of this war.
Over and over I have seen in my brief (60 trips around the sun) life when emotional and sometimes irrational fear grips leaders, a people group or even a spouse. Yes, from macro to micro, relationships of nations, to regions, to states, to communities and even to marriages there is fear of the future.
Some of this fear is good, some of it is bad. The fact the fear does dominate our thinking as humans is that we are unsure about tomorrow. That is a healthy fear, that we do not have everything in our control. The bad fear is when it gets blown out of proportion and we make decisions on the worst possible scenario. This is the type of fear (economic and political) that I see in this article from Zero Hedge called: “An Unparalleled Economic & Political Crisis”: Brexit Optimism Collapses As Ministers Fear “Historic Catastrophe” on the evaporating Brexit optimism:
“I have near zero optimism because I think it is going to be very messy,” warned one UK minister, speaking to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity. The prospects of getting an agreement are slim, the minister said. “If we crash out without a deal, it’s going to be a historic catastrophe.”
When this level of fear grips anyone, the likelihood of a peaceful and logical solution is increasingly unlikely. It takes two parties to agree on a union, and two parties to behave well as one or both desire to dissolve the union.
I do believe, that many times it is the abused partner that can have the most balanced approach to the process of dissolution in that they have seen this coming for a long time and are ready to state their terms for the exit.
Reflecting back in history, one has to say that the path communist USSR took to split into all those republic peacefully says volumes about the abuse that happened during the rigid communist era. Not only in the political realm, but also in terms of religion (communists were bent on atheism) and society in general.
Reflecting back in history, one has to say the path the republic USA took to split into two republics shows the opposite path, whereas the southern seven states (the abused) desired to exit peacefully, the balance of the states, especially the northern and western (Midwest), feared for the future that awaited them without those seven states. Those regions feared economic uncertainties and the government feared the loss of revenue first and foremost. Between the month where Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861 toward April, even the newspapers shifted from the assumption that those seven states would exit soon to that of economic panic. In their minds, without the “customers” in those states AND the fact that they wanted to be a free-trade zone with minimum tariffs scared the heck out of people and politicians (especially the new party called Republicans that just took control of the US government and doubled the tariff as they did).
The Brexit effort is similar as once the people’s will was displayed, the political fear escalated which sets the stage for a potentially bad deal no matter what path is taken. The nation of England had wedded itself into the EU to the degree that separation will cause pain, however, the long term future is much brighter. One can only hope that common sense and level heads prevail, that real leadership emerges and leads this people towards a better future. Who knows, may this success could be a model for the USA to try this secession/exit thing one more time, and maybe instead of splitting in two (which is long overdue), possibly splitting into six nations might be optimal as a first step. While it still depends on statism, my hope is that more freedom may emerge as not all these entities remain on the Marxist track the whole of the US is currently on.
13JUL1780: Major General Horatio Gates (BLUE) arrives in Hillsborough, NC. He served the British army before he moved to the American Colonies and volunteered as a Staff Officer in the Continental Army in 1775. In September and October 1777 he commanded the army that defeated the British invasion from Canada at Saratoga, NY. He sends out notice to all Continental officers still at liberty in the south to join him as soon as possible.
Note that for South Carolina forces alone, most regiments were at 10% strength as compared to their JAN1780 numbers. While SC Governor John Rutledge fled to North Carolina before MAY1780, SC Lt. Governor Christopher Gadsden was a POW, as well as 10 of 13 officers (Major General Lincoln, Brigadier Generals and Colonels) in the highest ranks. In addition to this, the British have occupied SIX major areas of South Carolina since the fall of Charleston on 12MAY1780.
One would think that this is the low ebb for the patriot/rebel cause in South Carolina, but things are going to get much worse before they get better.
25JUL1780: Gates meets Major General Baron DeKalb at Deep River, NC (just south of Greensboro) and assumed command of the Southern Military Department of the Continental Army. Lt. Colonel Francis Marion (decades later called “Swamp Fox”) and Lt. Colonel Peter Horry along with 20 others including servants are present to offer their services and receive direction.
27JUL1780: The Continentals and the SC militia unit start their 150 mile march toward Camden, SC. Faulty intelligence and a route that offered little in the way of food for these troops meant that their condition upon arrival in South Carolina will not be good.
03AUG1780: The Continentals and SC militia are joined by NC militia at the Pee Dee River in Anson County, NC. A week later Lt. General Lord Cornwallis would lead his British forces north from Charleston, SC for a showdown.
Life is a process. We are never the same person we were born as, as this process ebbs and flows culminating into the legacy we leave as we depart this world. Such is the case of Francis Marion, an officer in the Continental Army who escaped capture by the British due to his being at his home nursing a injured ankle due to his “character”!
So, I am sure you are wondering about that last line. What could his character have to do with his injured ankle? Apparently, it was common practice of senior officers in the military to hold a drinking party in their home and lock the doors so fellow officers could not leave until they were all plastered, king of a 1700s version of a “team-building” event! Francis Marion, as of 20 January 1780 a Lt. Col., commands the 2nd South Carolina Regiment. On the night of 19 March 1780 at a party on Tradd St. in Charleston being more of a ‘man of moderation’ he decided to exit the party and therefore slipped (no pun intended) out of a window and fell to the street injuring or breaking his leg or ankle. As a result, he returned to his home in Pond Bluff which is 50 miles north of Charleston.
The British decided in early 1780 to redouble their shift in their focus to the southern colonies where they believed they had much more support and then roll up through Virginia and cornering the balance of the Continentals under George Washington near New York City in quick fashion. The British had already captured Savannah, Georgia early in the war in December 1778 after it had failed to capture Charleston on 28 June 1776 when British attacked Sullivan’s Island from the sea while Francis commanded the guns at Fort Sullivan (later called Fort Moultrie). The British naval attack failed when the palmetto logs held against bombardment.
Francis Marion also participated in the attempt to retake Savanna, Georgia in the fall of 1779 but the Continentals and militia failed in their siege. So early in 1780 the British captured and occupied Beaufort, South Carolina on 03 February 1780 and then turned its focus on Charleston.
Starting 28 March 1780 the British laid siege to Charleston and by 12 May 1780, Charleston surrendered. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln surrendered all of the existing Continental Army in SC, plus much of the SC militia and NC Militia. Most of the Continental Army officers and men were captured, over 5000 men in all, and signed documents stating that they would not take up arms against the British ever again.
In the days after this the British moved into the South Carolina back country as they had the momentum as news spread causing many people to switch allegiances and now back the British. On 29 May 1780 Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton and his Legion bayoneted 113 Continental soldiers of Col. Abraham Buford’s Virginia unit. Subsequent captures included South Carolina strategic locations such as Moncks Corners, Cheraw, Orangeburgh, Ninety-Six, and Dorchester. A month later on 11 July 1780 they also occupied Georgetown on the South Carolina coast as well, getting very close to Francis Marion’s plantation near St. Stephens.
Francis Marion is 48 years old at this point in time and is 5′ 2″ tall. His ability to lead men mainly on horseback over the next 24 months will be critical to the success of South Carolina and the rest of the colonies to finally break with the largest empire in the world.
There is a reason I said this was about Francis’ 1780 character, because the context is his South Carolina culture not ours. His culture was one that had a government morphed towards the tyranny of an empire to the point where the people refused to be abused any more.
Francis Marion’s character became legend after the American Revolution war years well AFTER he had died. Stories of his actions as a freedom fighter rippled through the post-war society and he became a hero. This was very different than what reality was for him when the war was over in 1783. He was essentially marginalized at the end of the war as a new government had its own agenda.
As a freedom fighter from 1780-1782, he could have easily have advocated barbarism but instead, his friend Peter Horry (pronounced OR-ree) said “Of all men who ever drew the sword, Marion was the most humane”.
The question becomes, how did he get this way? The myth about Marion being involved with Indian slaughter is not true, but it may have been true of his contemporaries in the South Carolina colony, Thomas Sumter or Andrew Pickens. CSI includes looking at events from his past can help toward understanding the nurture side of his bent.
Francis’ past reveals a man of moderation that balances liberty and order while also attempting to occupy the area in between the extremes of violence and passivity. He was not a Charleston aristocrat but was not a back-country bumpkin. He was very ruthless in battle but also averse to the shedding of needless blood, whether that of friend or foe.
From the nature side on can look at his ancestors who weathered persecution in the old world and sought freedom in a new one as a French Huguenot.
Francis (the only of his siblings without a Biblical name) was a pre-term baby “not larger than a New England lobster” according to Parson Weems (author of a 1808 book about Marion that mixed fact with myth .. same author that claimed George Washington cut down a cheery tree). Francis’ father passed land on down to the oldest three sons Gabriel, Issac and Benjamin .. but money ran out by the time Job and Francis were of age. This prompted Francis to try the West Indies naval experience. Gabriel ended up in a bankruptcy (but recovered enough to eventually help Francis get land later in 1759) and Francis lost his dad when he was in his teens. I guess what doesn’t kill you can make you stronger apparently.
Francis Marion served with the British when putting down Indian (Cherokee) uprisings in 1759 (when he was 27) and again in 1761. Francis picked up both the arrogance of British officers and the fickle nature of colonial militias. It was the 1761 effort that involved 5000 Indian women and children being driven up to the mountains to starve with no evidence that Francis was part of this. What Francis learned was this cycle of vengeance that needed to be broken some how, some way.
Eventually Francis was able to build a plantation of his own and in 1773 made out a will even though he had no kids and was not married and was over 40 years old. The will included:
#2 Negroes not sold until his godson (Gabriel’s son) turned 21 #3 bequeath to my niece Charlotte (daughter of Gabriel) one negro wench named Venus and her child Rachel and their increase to her and her heirs forever. Freedom for my faithful negro man June and old nurse Willoughby. I will also free my mustee (in this case 1/2 indian and 1/2 negro) girl Peggy and give June twenty pounds sterling annually ..
Interesting that he would free June (negro) but not his wife, nor their son …
In this pre-American Revolutionary War culture, Francis was a unique man with a unique view on his world. The next season of Francis’ life (1780 to 1782) would yet again mold his character toward what South Carolina, and the rest of the American colonies really needed in the effort for independence from the British Empire.
More on this in future posts … coming soon as I am about to cover the July 1780 events related to South Carolina in the next few days.
In the mean time, you might want to buy the book that inspired me to research Francis Marion and how he saved the American Revolution
