Editing Francis Marion (section)

==American Revolutionary War==

===Early service===

During the [[American Revolution]], Marion supported the [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot cause]] and on June 21, 1775, he was commissioned as an officer in the [[Continental Army]]'s [[2nd South Carolina Regiment]] (commanded by [[William Moultrie]]) at the rank of captain. Marion served with Moultrie in [[Battle of Sullivan's Island|the defense]] of [[Fort Moultrie|Fort Sullivan]] from a [[Royal Navy]] attack on June 28, 1776.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Marion, Francis|volume=17|page=722}}</ref> In September 1776, the [[Continental Congress]] commissioned Marion as a [[Lieutenant colonel (United States)|lieutenant colonel]]. In the autumn of 1779, he took part in the [[siege of Savannah]], a failed [[Franco-American Alliance|Franco-American]] attempt to capture the capital of [[Province of Georgia|Georgia]] which had been previously occupied by [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] forces.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="NPS">{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/people/francis-marion.htm|title=Francis Marion|last=staff|work=National Park Service|access-date=9 September 2022}}</ref>

===Siege of Charleston===

A British force led by Sir [[Henry Clinton (British Army officer, born 1730)|Henry Clinton]] entered South Carolina in the early spring of 1780 and [[Siege of Charleston|laid siege]] to [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]]. Marion was not captured with the rest of the city's garrison when Charleston capitulated on May 12, 1780, as he had broken an [[ankle]] in an accident and had left the city to recuperate. Clinton led part of the force that had captured Charleston back to [[Province of New York|New York]], but a significant number stayed for [[Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War|operations]] under Lord [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|Charles Cornwallis]] in the [[Carolinas]]. After the loss of Charleston and the defeats suffered by [[Isaac Huger]]'s men at the [[Battle of Monck's Corner]] and [[Abraham Buford]]'s troops at the [[Battle of Waxhaws]] (near the [[Province of North Carolina|North Carolina]] border, in what is now [[Lancaster County, South Carolina|Lancaster County]]), Marion organized a small military unit, which at first consisted of between 20 and 70 men and was the only force then opposing the British in the region. At this point, Marion was still hobbling on his slowly healing ankle.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Guerrilla campaigns===
[[Image: General Marion.jpg|thumb|'' General Marion Inviting a British Officer to Share His Meal'' by John Blake White; his slave [[Oscar Marion]] kneels at the left of the group.]]

Marion joined Major General [[Horatio Gates]] on July 27 just before the [[Battle of Camden]], but Gates had formed a low opinion of Marion. Gates sent Marion towards the interior to [[Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War|gather intelligence]] on the British forces opposing them. He thus missed the battle, which resulted in a British victory.<ref name="John">{{cite book|last1=Buchanan|first1=John|title=The Road to Guilford Courthouse|date=1997|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|location=New York|isbn=9780471327165|page=155}}</ref> Marion showed himself to be a singularly able leader of [[Irregular military|irregular]] militiamen and ruthless in his terrorizing of [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]]. Unlike the Continental Army, Marion's Men, as they were known, served without pay, supplied their own horses, arms and often their food. Marion's Men operated from a base camp on [[Snow's Island]] in Florence County.<ref>Gray p. 60</ref><ref name="Academic OneFile">{{cite journal|last=Gray|first=Jefferson|title=Up from the swamp: Francis Marion turned South Carolina's Low Country into a quagmire for the British and became one of history's greatest guerrilla leaders.|journal=MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History|date=Autumn 2011|volume=24|issue=1|pages=56–65}}</ref>

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

A state-erected information sign at Marion's gravesite on the former Belle Isle Plantation shows that he was engaged in twelve major battles and skirmishes in a two-year period: Black Mingo Creek on September 28, 1780; [[Battle of Tearcoat Swamp|Tearcoat Swamp]] on October 25, 1780; Georgetown (four attacks) between October 1780 and May 1781; Fort Watson on April 23, 1781; Fort Motte on May 12, 1781; Quinby Bridge on July 17, 1781; Parker's Ferry on August 13, 1781; Eutaw Springs on September 8, 1781; and Wadboo Plantation on August 29, 1782. Cornwallis observed, "Colonel Marion had so wrought the minds of the people, partly by the terror of his threats and cruelty of his punishments, and partly by the promise of plunder, that there was scarcely an inhabitant between the [[Santee River|Santee]] and the [[Pee Dee River|Pee Dee]] that was not in arms against us."<ref>Wickwire pp. 190–91</ref>

===Engagements with Tarleton===
[[Image:Banastre-Tarleton-by-Joshua-Reynolds.jpg|thumb|''[[Portrait of Banastre Tarleton]]'' by [[Joshua Reynolds]], 1782.]]

The British made repeated efforts to neutralize Marion's force, but Marion's intelligence gathering was excellent and that of the British was poor, due to the overwhelming Patriot presence in the Williamsburg area. Colonel [[Banastre Tarleton]] was sent to capture or kill Marion in November 1780. 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."<ref name="NPS"/> Based on this tale, Marion's supporters began to call him "the Swamp Fox".<ref name="Smithsonian" /> 

Once Marion had shown his ability at guerrilla warfare, making himself a serious nuisance to the British, Governor [[John Rutledge]] commissioned him as a brigadier general of militia.<ref name="AHC">{{cite web|url=https://www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/francis-marion/|title=Biography of Francis Marion the "Swamp Fox" of the American Revolution|last=staff|work=American History Central|access-date=9 September 2022}}</ref> Marion fought against [[Black Loyalist|freed slaves]] working or fighting alongside the British. He received an order from Rutledge to execute all Black people suspected of carrying provisions or gathering intelligence for the British "agreeable to the laws of this State".<ref>Young p. 74</ref>

===End of the war===

When Major General [[Nathanael Greene]] took command in the South, Marion and Lieutenant Colonel [[Henry Lee III]] were ordered in January 1781 to attack Georgetown, but were unsuccessful. In April, they [[Siege of Fort Watson|took Fort Watson]]. In May, they [[Siege of Fort Motte|captured Fort Motte]], breaking communications between British outposts in the Carolinas. On August 31, Marion rescued a small American force trapped by 500 British soldiers, under the leadership of Major C. Fraser. For this action he received the thanks of the Continental Congress. Marion commanded the right wing under General Greene at the [[Battle of Eutaw Springs]].<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name="Dunkerly">{{cite book|last1=Dunkerly|first1=Robert|last2=Boland|first2=Irene|title=Eutaw Springs|date=2017|publisher=The University of South Carolina Press|location=Columbia|isbn=9781611177589|pages=20–33}}</ref>

In January 1782, he was elected to the [[South Carolina General Assembly]] at [[Jacksonboro, South Carolina|Jacksonborough]] and left his troops to take up his seat.<ref>Cate p. 164</ref> During his absence, Marion's men grew disheartened, particularly after a British [[sortie]] from Charleston, and there was reportedly a conspiracy to turn him over to the British. But in June of that year, he put down a Loyalist rebellion on the banks of the Pee Dee River. In August, Marion left his unit and returned to his [[slave plantation]], Pond Bluff.<ref name="EB1911"/> In 1782, the British Parliament suspended offensive operations in America, and in December 1782, the British withdrew their garrison from Charleston. The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] brought the war to an end.{{fact|date=December 2022}}