From Partisan Commander to Legend: Francis Marion

In the early nineteenth century, three South Carolina generals became figures of legend: Thomas Sumter, "The Gamecock"; Andrews Pickens, "The Wizard Owl"; and Francis Marion, "The Swamp Fox." In an often tense partnership with Nathanael Greene, the commanding general of the Southern Department of the Continental Army, the partisan forces under these three men played a key role in reclaiming most of South Carolina from the British in 1781. After his death, Marion became a national hero. Towns and counties across the country were named for him, and the Marion of legend became the inspiration for works of popular culture from a poem by William Cullen Bryant to the movie "The Patriot."

Francis Marion was born in 1732 and gained military experience in the French and Indian War. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army when he escaped capture in the 1780 fall of Charleston and became a brigadier general of militia that same year. Col. Peter Horry, who shared in the exploits that earned Marion the nickname "The Swamp Fox," wrote a manuscript biography of Marion after the war. Horry’s biography was transformed into a military romance by "Parson" Mason Locke Weems, author of the George Washington cherry tree myth. That book, which was first published in 1809, and a sweet potato dinner story depicted in a widely reproduced painting made Marion into a legend.

John Blake White Painting of General Marion Inviting a British Officer to Dinner, 1836
The story of a British officer’s visit to Marion’s camp to arrange an exchange of prisoners first appeared in Parson Weems’s book in 1809. Although there is no documentary evidence either for the visit or for the officer’s report of having "seen an American general and his officers, without pay, and almost without clothes, living on roots and drinking water; and all for LIBERTY!," this painting turned the story into a national icon. Another version of the painting hangs in the United States Capitol. John Blake White, a South Carolina artist, lawyer, and legislator, was born near Eutaw Springs in 1781 and was said to have seen Marion as a boy. No Marion portrait was painted while he was living.

Courier and Ives, Engraving of the White Painting, 1876
The place that the image of Francis Marion and the sweet potato dinner occupied in the national psyche is indicated by its selection for this Centennial engraving.

Francis Marion’s Resignation as Commandant of Fort Johnson, 1789
The British reduced Marion to near bankruptcy when they destroyed his Pond Bluff plantation, but the South Carolina legislature came to his aid by making him commandant of Fort Johnson. After his marriage to his wealthy first cousin in 1786, Marion no longer needed the post.  Governor Charles Pinckney sent a copy of his resignation (on the left) and the original (on the right) to the General Assembly.

Message No. 512, Governors’ Messages, Records of the General Assembly, South Carolina Department of Archives and History. (Click on documents for enlarged images)

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