He was Francis Marion (1732-1795) of South Carolina.
In the year 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives finally approved a monument to General Francis Marion, to be built in Washington, D.C. The bill, however, died in the Senate and was reintroduced in January, 2007.
Marion began his military career in June of 1775. When he joined General Horatio Gates just before the Battle of Camden, Gates had no confidence in him and got rid of him by giving him command of the Williamsburg Militia in the Pee Dee area of the colony.
With his militiamen irregulars Marion proved himself to be a leader. “Marion’s Men” served without pay, supplied their own horses, arms, and often their own rations. They became quite adept at capturing their needed supplies from the Tories.
The British came to despise Marion and made repeated efforts to destroy his force, but Marion had excellent intelligence gathering ability and was always able to outsmart them. In desparation, the British sent Colonel Banastre Tarleton to capture the “old swamp fox”, who eluded the enemy by travelling the swamp paths.
Once Marion showed his ability as a guerilla fighter he was commissioned a brigadier-general of South Carolina troops. Francis Marion is buried at Belle Isle Plantation Cemetery in Berkeley County, South Carolina, where his gravestone records that he “lived without fear, and died without reproach.”
This sculpture created by T.J. Dixon and James Nelson, is at the corner of Broad and Main in Greenville, South Carolina.
The image, Francis Marion The Swamp Fox, 1732-1795, is subject to copyright by sisudave. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by barneykin, administrator of “The Revolution ed” pool.
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