Marion, Francis
Marion, Francis (1732–1795), the “Swamp Fox,” Revolutionary War partisan leader.Marion looked frail and unmilitary, but he served brilliantly as a provincial lieutenant in the Cherokee War (1761), as a major defending Sullivan's Island (1776), and as a regimental commander in comte d’Estaing's attack on Savannah (1779). Escaping the British siege of Charleston in May 1780, he raised a partisan militia to oppose the occupation of his native South Carolina. His first operation (20 August) became his trademark: surprise night attack on a larger British‐loyalist force and then a skillful withdrawal. In this case he liberated 147 American prisoners. In December he became a brigadier general, commanding the militia of eastern South Carolina. He followed directives from theater commander Nathanael Greene but opposed cooperation with fellow partisan Thomas Sumter, whom he...
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