11. The Swamp Fox of the American Revolutionary War
Throughout the Carolina low country visitors find references to Francis Marion and the Swamp Fox. They are one and the same. Francis Marion was an officer of the South Carolina militia who escaped from the British when they captured Charleston and created a band of irregulars to harass British communications, supplies, and patrols during the American Revolutionary War. Alone or with other irregular bands, the constant sniping and raids had a detrimental effect on British morale, already at a low point due to the malarial climate and blazing heat. It was Marion’s prime adversary among the British, Banastre Tarleton, who gave the American the name the Swamp Fox.
The Swamp Fox and his men were never located in their camps deep within the Carolina swamps, from which they would strike with frightening speed before vanishing from pursuit. Marion became legendary for his habit of drinking vinegar, a practice he believed protected him from diseases so often associated with the swamps. His career of harassing the British was a relatively short one, but wildly successful in making him a legend. As recently as the year 2000, reports appeared in the British press describing Marion as not a guerrilla fighter but a terrorist, who made war on both the British and the Loyalist militia, taking no prisoners, and burning private property. Marion’s own estate in South Carolina was burned during the war by British sympathizers.