Irregular warfare will always surprise traditional military thought. Cornwallis’ response to the militia victory in releasing 150 prisoners was designed to chase the patriots into the swamp or back to their homes. Instead, Marion directs Maj. James to take 150 men and move TOWARDS the British force advancing on Kingstree.
In a night move, the patriot force is able to engage part of the 300 man (some sources claim 500 man) British force under Wemyss. While both sides lose about 15 men, it is estimated that between 15-30 British regulars are captured. This skirmish, won again by the militia, will infuriate Cornwallis who expected a quick suppression of “farmers with pitchforks”.
Rather quickly, Francis Marion has adapted from a Continental officer to a freedom fighter, complete with the honorable characteristics of never engaging the enemy in a way that would cause considerable hardship on the fighting men, in this case, volunteers whose hearts are about defending their families, homes, and communities. The fact that the 150 man force was content with a small win allowed the psychological edge to follow as the local communities would see this as a cause that had yet to expire. Hope in a future without the British Empire was not desired by the majority, however, actions taken by the British military when on South Carolina soil would be remembered for generations.
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.
Weapons are the tools of fear. A decent man will avoid them except in the direst necessity and, if compelled, will use them only with the greatest restraint. Peace is his highest value. If peace has been shattered, how can he be content? His enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself. He doesn’t wish them personal harm. Nor does he rejoice in victory. How could he rejoice in victory and delight in the slaughter of men? He enters a battle gravely, With sorrow and with great compassion, As if were attending a funeral.
Ever since the shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in 1775, the South had been mostly untouched by the conflict, which was famously fought at places such as Bunker Hill, Fort Ticonderoga, Trenton, and Brandywine. But by 1779 the war in the North had reached a stalemate, with the British firmly in control of New York City under Sir Henry Clinton, and the Americans, led by George Washington, camped thirty miles away in Morristown, New Jersey, desperately hoping for help from a French navy anchored in the West Indies. The last significant engagement in the North had been in June 1778 at Monmouth Courthouse, where Washington and his most dependable officer, Nathanael Greene, battled Clinton and his lieutenant general, Charles Cornwallis, to a draw. But while the Americans remained hard-pressed, Britain had grown increasingly weary of war. Its coffers nearly bankrupt and its military stretched thin by an expanded conflict with France and Spain, Parliament agreed to finance one final effort to end the American rebellion.
George Washington had remained convinced that victory could only be had if the Continental forces could displace the British from New York harbor. This is something he remained fixated on for several years until the French did send their navy, not to New York harbor but to Yorktown, Virginia in the fall of 1782.
With the stalemate in the northern colonies, the focus shifted to the southern American colonies. The British Empire’s “Southern Strategy” was agreed on by King George, Lord Germain and by General Sir Henry Clinton who was initially in New York harbor. The strategy had both logic and economy in mind to address the concerns for a lingering war in this part of the empire when there were plenty of other areas around the world that the British were spending resources on. The British were convinced that there were a majority of Loyalists in the southern colonies that would aid them at the very least at occupying and retaining them in their empire.
The British would begin by occupying the colony of Georgia where revolutionary sentiment was weakest and aim to establish a foothold there. From that most southern location the thought was to gain more and more American loyalists to be in the fight (British reasoning was that it was cheaper and spared British lives to “Americanize” the war) as they rolled up South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and beyond .. or so they thought.
However, blowback is real.
While the British had an easy time with Savannah, Georgia in December 1778 and eventually made Charleston capitulate in May 12th 1780, there were actions and words from the British that eventually had unintended consequences.
Initially the British believed their plan was working as there was a wave of brown-nosers that gave Clinton and the British Admiral a congratulatory address thanking them in restoring the South Carolina politically to Great Britain. So confident was Clinton by June 4, 1780 that he proclaimed that the South Carolina people are “either prisoners or in-arms with us” .. so Clinton made plans to return to New York harbor while giving Cornwallis cleanup duty. Clinton had previously stipulated that so long as any civilian Whigs agreed to a parole, the British would grant them a full pardon and leave them in peace in their homes and property for the duration of the war. However, before Sir Henry Clinton left he announced on June 3, 1780 that prior paroles were null and void and those previously on parole would have their rights restored AND were expected to actively assist the British government. Basically, anyone not signing an oath of allegiance to the British Empire by June 20th 1780 would be considered enemies of the king.
Neutrality was no longer an option, basically you are either with us or against us. With British raiders already burning houses, pillaging property, etc., the countryside was awakened and a hornet’s nest of rebel sentiment was born.
Blowback caused a very nasty civil war in the independent colony of South Carolina where the vocal leaders of the rebellion were arrested and shipped to St. Augustine, Florida. Governor John Rutledge’s had left for exile in North Carolina so basically the civil government in South Carolina ceased to exist. So between the colony’s Whigs, Tories (Loyalists) and even Indians, the Carolina back-country grudge scars were reopened. Religious affiliations were also splitting communities with Presbyterian and Baptist dividing with Anglican (which was a tax-supported entity). However, these allegiances were not fixed affiliations for if a Whig steals your horse, you might consider becoming a Tory. There was a cycle of retribution and revenge that would take its toll for the whole war from 1775 to 1782.
It is in this moment in time that Francis Marion, healing from that ankle injury that happened in Charleston months before, would emerge as a grass-roots leader, not as a Continental officer, but as a freedom fighter. The Swamp Fox was in principle a visionary who knew the long-term effects of blowback well. The tenor of Francis Marion’s rules of engagement had in mind a future more united society in South Carolina if the war against the empire could be won.
Before we proceed to see when Francis Marion arrives on the scene in the summer of 1780, I will instead set the stage yet again for how divided the colony of South Carolina was by then. This was not something that happened suddenly in 1775 but was set in the decades that proceeded the American Revolution that involved the lawless Carolina back-country and groups known as the Regulators and the Moderators, the ‘Blue’ and ‘Red’ sides of the day.
QUESTION(s):
What would happen in today’s regions in the United States as rival factions are pitted against each other? Who might emerge that would fight for liberty, freedom and rights of ALL involved? How could grass-roots efforts effectively turn the tide from an occupation force of an empire?
Finally, do we have hidden in our country the type of man like Francis Marion who would selflessly emerge onto the scene and fight for self, family and friends even when these family members and friends be on either side of this internal, societal conflict?
It is almost like when one finally decides to swallow that red pill because truth is the goal instead of desiring to believe what we have always believed. It is a risky move, one taken by those who value truth over comfort.
I believe the bonus is the freedom found in this path as one can then begin to revisit one’s own principles again and again in life’s journey and be willing to admit that we were once blind to truth, but now are just beginning to see.
Personally, I had already had some moments in my life when I decided to dig deeper past the veneer so that the data-points my principles relied on were more stable than imaginary. This process started when I was a child well before my parents separated and eventually divorced. I was already at six years old questioning why the people in church on a Sunday morning were not as happy as what I was reading in the Bible’s New Testament in the book of Acts. I was already wondering about how the vows of marriage could be de-prioritized and why school friends could betray one another in just a few seconds. Later in life during my senior year of high school I joined (volunteered) the US Navy and began another adventure into seeing what really takes place behind the curtain.
All of these events (and others that I plan to share in the future) seemed at first, for a few seconds or a minute, to disappoint. However, I quickly became convinced time and again that I was in fact “gratefully disillusioned“. Reflecting back, I am sure that the personality I have been blessed with, Meier’s-Briggs ENFP, as well as my life experiences to date have helped to be in fact grateful in the process. I am indeed thankful for a mind that is inquisitive no matter what the cost, and thankful that I desire truth over safety or security.
It is interesting that with this personality you can imagine that my circle of “close” friends is on the small side. The fact that my wife of almost 38 years still loves me is really nothing short of a miracle. But the few real friends I have had over the years were just that, real. They had no agenda of their own and were interested in what I had to share even if they did not believe or agree with it. Those friendships are a blessing, and even more so are those friendships what allow two couples to get together and have a great time together no matter how much time elapses between visits.
It is my hope here on this ‘SeekingLiberty’ blog, to begin to unpack the truths I found in this book that deal with a time and place where an empire was pushing hard to retain control and levy taxes to support their operations. It is in this environment where a freedom fighter is born, one with principles that balance the violence one must bring at times with compassion for those caught up in the conflict.
As promised … here is the 1st of several snippets that will give you a flavor of the caliber of this book.
1) I can’t believe how much the SC part of the revolutionary conflict was a war among themselves … Whigs (patriots) could change into a Tory (loyalist) overnight IF they were done wrong … and I thought the Israelites were fickle .. even some of the early patriots faded away in 1780 when the British humiliated the American forces in Charleston that May.
2) The character in the movie The Patriot is a combination of Francis Marion (Swamp Fox) in eastern SC, Thomas Sumter in central SC and Andrew Pickens in the northwest mountainous part of SC dealing with the indians (Cherokees sided with British, other tribes with patriots)
3) August 16, 1780 was SC’s darkest hour as former hero of Saratoga in the north (Gen Gates) fled like a pansy after he went head-to-head with the British in open field .. turns out the 5’2″ 110 pound Francis (physique of a 13 yo) [NOTE: never called the Swamp Fox in his lifetime ] got lucky 2x .. the 1st time when he injured his ankle getting out of that officer’s house in Charleston and therefore avoided capture in May 1780, he also was sent on a mission by Gates on August 15, 1780 to assist the patriots in the Williamsburg, SC area .. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians are fiercely independent and dislike external authority.
4) Francis was a French Huguenot .. but his grandfather came across with that background but by 1780 Francis was an Anglican. He was the youngest in his family .. tried being a sailor but the ship to the West Indies capsized and he was adrift for days and returned to SC. Eventually his oldest brother Gabriel sold him land adjacent to his own and Francis did the rice/indigo thing (pre-cotton) and did pretty good. He never married until he was in his mid-50s after the war.
5) August 18, 1780, Thomas Sumter’s partisan band of 800 were surprised by Banastre Tarleton’s force of 160 on horses and he like Gates escaped to North Carolina ..
It was in this pit that Francis Sumter became SC’s freedom fighter … on his own. He tried to communicate with Gen Gates (Continental Army Southern Command) but he rarely got a reply much less any support. Over the next two years SC would be the hotspot .. and at the end of the day, 20% of the Revolutionary War deaths would be in SC
Does that set the scene or what? 🙂
dad
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“This message has been intercepted by the NSA: the only branch of government that listens”
QUESTION:
Reflecting on what your American History teachers taught you, does the news that the intensity of the American Revolution effort shifted to the Southern front surprise you? If not, what about the claim that Francis Marion actually saved the American Revolution?
If so, hang on as I am about to unpack the story that took place in South Carolina from 1780-1783.
