Hero Tales from History — General Marion, The Carolina "Swamp Fox"

GENERAL MARION, THE CAROLINA “SWAMP FOX”

A hundred years ago, when boys had but few books of any kind, “The Life of General Marion” was their favorite book of adventure, because of its short stories of rare bravery and hairbreadth escapes.

General Francis Marion, of whom the book tells, was a southern man, born the same year as General Washington, and a commander of some of the American troops in the War for Independence.

During that war, when the British found that they could accomplish little in the northern states, they decided to carry the war into the south.

Lord Cornwallis was the British commander; under him Colonel Tarleton was a cavalry officer notorious for bullying and cruelty who became a terror to the whole region.

Another commander of British troops in the south was a former American general, Benedict Arnold, the traitor, who joined the British after he had failed to deliver West Point into the hands of the enemy.

General Horatio Gates was sent by the Congress to defend the south against the British.

But General Gates was not a great or brave commander.

He was defeated by Cornwallis at Camden, South Carolina.

He lost two thousand men, and the rest of his soldiers were scattered.

Because of this terrible defeat--the worst in the whole War for Independence--the southern people were deeply discouraged.

What was to be done?

In the south there were many Tories, as the people were called who believed that those who fought against England for liberty were rebels.

Besides fighting in the British campaigns, the southern Tories went about in bands, shooting and injuring all the “rebels” they [Illustration: GENERAL MARION, THE CAROLINA “SWAMP FOX.

”] could.

So the southern patriots gathered together in small companies to defend their families from the British and the Tories, and to prevent the British from capturing the whole southern country before Washington could send down a better general and another army.

During the months after the defeat at Camden, the fight was carried on in what was called guerrilla warfare--_guerrilla_ being Spanish for “little war.

” Small bands of Americans hid in the woods and swamps, and when they caught the British off guard, suddenly pounced upon them, taking or rescuing prisoners.

The greatest leader of this kind of warfare on the American side was General Marion.

These southern soldiers had very poor weapons.

Most of their guns were the kind used in shooting birds, and were loaded with shot instead of bullets.

For swords they had wooden-handled saws with the teeth ground down to a smooth edge.

They had but little to eat--often only potatoes, which they could bake in the ashes of their campfires.

Their horses, however, were the finest and fastest in all that country.

Although these men had to deny themselves food and clothing, their horses were well fed and groomed, for often the masters’ lives depended on the fleetness of their steeds.

And the horses sometimes acted as if they understood and enjoyed the terrible game of life and death their masters were playing.

Some of the bravest men in the south, seeing no other way to save or to serve their country, came and offered themselves to General Marion, to fight under the greatest hardships and risks in the most dangerous adventures.

Among these was the famous Sergeant Jasper, who was one of the first to risk his life for the flag.

Nine British ships-of-war attacked a fort in Charleston Harbor.

They shot away the staff on which the American flag was flying; but Jasper jumped out, caught the banner before it touched the ground, and climbed up and nailed it in place, while the guns were aimed at him as well as at the starry ensign.

While Sergeant Jasper was under General Marion he was often sent out on scout and spy duty.

He had a natural talent for disguising himself.

He went once to visit a sergeant in a British regiment.

While he was there a number of American prisoners were brought in.

Taking it for granted that a guard of ten British soldiers, with these prisoners, would pass a certain spring, Jasper left the British camp to obtain help.

He found only one American who could go with him.

The two hid themselves near the spring, surprised the ten redcoats, disarmed them, and, with the former prisoners, marched gaily back to Marion’s headquarters with the ten captured British soldiers.

Once when General Marion came to a river ferry, he heard that a company of ninety British regulars were taking more than two hundred captured Americans to the prison-ship at Charleston.

The prisoners already in the hold of the ship were starved and neglected.

Besides, smallpox had broken out among them, and many of the best men among the patriots were dying of that loathsome disease.

So General Marion ordered his men to ride through the darkness to the ford where the British and their prisoners had crossed the river a few hours before.

Here they learned that the redcoats and their charges were going to stay that night at a country tavern called the Blue House.

The Americans approached this place with great caution.

When they came to a wooden bridge, they took horse-blankets and laid them down on the bridge to deaden the sound of the horses’ hoofs.

Before deciding how to make an attack, General Marion sent several scouts to find out the lay of the land.

With tread as sure and silent as that of moccasined Indians, the scouts returned and whispered this report: “The officers are carousing in the house.

Some of the men are outside.

Many of them must be asleep, as we could not get a glimpse of them.

A

few sentinels are lounging about, without a thought of being attacked.

” Marion told his men to lie down under the trees for a little rest.

Very early in the morning, when all the British, including the sentinels, seemed to be asleep, he roused the men and ordered the attack.

The odds were over three to one against them, but Marion’s men were used to that.

They were taking a great risk, but there was much to be gained--guns, equipment and British prisoners who could be exchanged so as to release Americans from the prison-ship.

Best of all, each man of the thirty might be the means of setting ten other Americans free.

When the men were well awake, General Marion sent a lieutenant ahead, directing him as follows: “Take a few men with you, make a wide circle, and come in behind the house.

Get as close to them as you can, and wait till I give the signal.

Then close in on them and see that no one gets away.

We must make quick work of this.

See that your guns are all right.

” To the men waiting with him he said: “Are you ready?

” “Ready, sir,” they whispered back.

“Come on, then,” he commanded.

“Follow me.

Don’t make any noise.

Don’t speak.

Watch me.

Don’t fire till I say the word.

” They crept around the Blue House like Indians, testing every twig lest it snap, and feeling their way in the darkness.

Suddenly a shot rang out in the early morning air.

A sentinel on the other side of the house must have seen the lieutenant’s men.

The British soldiers, roused from a sound sleep, jumped about, peering this way and that in the darkness.

No one knew what had happened, or what would happen next.

The officers came tumbling out, swearing and yelling.

As the Americans came rushing in from all sides, shouting and shooting, the British thought they were attacked by an army instead of by thirty guerrillas.

Marion’s men grabbed the rifles of the British soldiers, shooting some and knocking others down.

Some of the British shouted, “Quarter!

” and General Marion ordered his men to stop firing.

There was a wholesale surrender, and the hundreds of American prisoners were set free.

Many of them joined Marion’s men.

When the British saw how they and their prisoners had been taken in, ten to one, they looked sheepish.

But the British leader, the bullying Colonel Tarleton, had made his escape.

His motto seemed to be-- “He who fights and runs away Will live to fight another day.

” He ran away, at least, though he did not do any fighting first.

Five months after the battle of Camden, there was another battle at Cowpens.

The British army, commanded by Tarleton, was only a little larger than the American.

The redcoats were so badly beaten that they lost over nine hundred men, while the American loss was only seventy-two.

One day, not long after, Tarleton was bullying a southern woman in her home, where he and some of his officers were quartered.

There was, on the American side, a Colonel Washington, a distant relative of the commander-in-chief.

In his insulting way, Tarleton asked, when the lady said this officer was a relative of hers: “What does Colonel Washington look like?

I have never had the pleasure of meeting him.

” “You might have seen him,” said the lady, sweetly, “if you had _looked behind you_ at the Battle of Cowpens!

” This polite way of calling him a coward made Tarleton very angry, but he was no match in wit for a brave and brilliant southern woman.

Though many of the wealthiest people of the south were Tories, some of them were true patriots.

A widow named Motte had just built a beautiful home on a hilltop, and had furnished it elegantly, when the British decided that it would make a fine fort, and promptly took possession of it.

General Marion and his guerrilla band surrounded the mansion and told Mrs. Motte, who was then staying in a neighbor’s house, that if he could set her house afire he could “smoke out” the British and capture them.

That woman patriot was glad to sacrifice her lovely home for the good of her country; so Marion burned down the mansion and made the redcoats his prisoners.

WINNERS OF THE WEST