Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/242

208 anything like systematic attack for more than two years. During part of this time Col. JMarion com- manded the fortress on Sullivan's island, which ever since the famous battle has been known as Fort Moultrie. In September, 1779, he took part in the ill-managed and disastrous expedition of Lincoln and D'Estaing against Savannah. It was his opinion that the allied commanders, by proper swiftness of movement, might easily have prevented the British from gaining their advantage of posi- tion. His friend Horry declares that he never saw Marion so angry. " Great God ! " he exclaimed, "who ever heard of anything like this before? First allow your enemy to intrench, and then fight him ! " Such an error has often been committed by military commanders, of whom there have been very few in history so quick in perception and so prompt in movement as Marion. In the murderous assault of 9 Oct. he showed heroic bravery ; under a terrible fire his regiment pressed into the ditch of the Spring Hill redoubt, and its colors were for a few moments planted upon the parapet, but the fire proved too hot to be endured. It was in rescu- ing these colors that the famous Sergeant Jasper and Lieutenants Bush and Grey were successively slain ; they were at length i-ecovered and carried down the hill in safety by Sergeant Macdonald. Nearly 1,100 men were lost in this fruitless assault. The French fleet then sailed away, and Gen. Lin- coln retreated to Sheldon, where he left Col. Marion in temporary command of the army, while he him- self went to Charleston to look after its defences.

In the following February, Marion was placed in command of a training-camp at Bacon's Bridge, on Ashley river ; it was thought that no one else could so speedily organize an army out of raw ma- terials. Before the investment of Charleston by the British was quite completed, he happened one evening to be supping with a party of friends in that city. In a spirit of droll hospitality the host turned the key upon his guests, so that none might leave the room while the wine held out. Col. Marion was abstemious in his habits, and had busi- ness on hand. Wishing to retire without disturb- ing the company, he stepped quietly to an open window and jumped out. His agility was like that of a squirrel, but on this occasion it did not save him from a broken ankle. In the beleaguered city there was no room for officers unfit for active duty, and, while egress was still possible. Col. Marion was carried out on a litter and taken to his home at Pond Bluff. The accident turned out to be a bless- ing in disguise, for it saved Marion from being cooped up in Charleston with the army, which was soon surrendered to Sir Henry Clinton. After that catastrophe, as soon as he was able to mount a horse, Col. Marion set out with a few friends for North Carolina, to meet the army that Washington had sent to the rescue under Baron de Kalb. When Marion reached the army he found that able com- mander already superseded by the weak and vain- glorious Gates, who had no sense of the value of partisan warfare and did not know how to make use of such talents as Marion's. The latter officer ac- cordingly soon returned to South Carolina, and be- gan raising and organizing the force thenceforth known as " Marion's brigade." After the crushing defeat of Gates at Camden, 16 Aug., and of Sumter at Fishing Creek two days later, this was the only American force worth mentioning in South Caro- lina. It was armed and equipped as the fortune of war permitted. Some of the men carried old saws that had been wrought at a country forge into the rude likeness of sabres, while many of the bullets were cast from melted pewter mugs and dishes. With such a command, Marion, now commissioned brigadier-general, undertook to harrass the enemy in the northern and eastern districts of Sovith Caro- lina. On 20 Aug. he attacked two regiments of British regulars on their way from Camden to Charleston with 150 prisoners of the Maryland line ; with a loss of only one man killed and one wounded, he threw the enemy into some disorder, killed and wounded twenty-seven of their number, and set free all the prisoners. His swiftness of movement seemed superhuman. When hard pressed he would suddenly disband his force and take to the woods ; and while the enemy were vainly searching for him he would in some incomprehen- sible way have collected his men and struck a stag- gering blow at some distant and ill -guarded point. This surprising celerity was favored by the ease with which he and his men endured hardship. Their food was of the simplest. Marion's ordinary diet was hominy and potatoes, and a favorite drink with him was water flavored with a few drops of vinegar. The story of his once inviting a British oflicer to dinner and regaling him with baked sweet potatoes is known to every school-boy, like Wash- ington's cherry-tree and Newton's apple. He en- dured the extremes of heat and cold with indifller- ence, and usually slept on the ground without a blanket. He was very kind to his men, while main- taining perfect discipline, He never would allow them to burn or plunder houses; and in his whole career no speciflc instance of rapacity or cruelty was ever alleged against him. In view of the brutality with which the war was at that time waged by both parties, such a fact bears striking testimony to his wonderful control over his men.

In the course of August and September, 1780, Marion was engaged in two skirmishes of consid- erable dimensions, in one of which he defeated a strong force of Tories at the Black Mingo river ; in the other he routed and dispersed a detachment of regulars under Col. Tynes at Tarcote. The rest of his work consisted largely in cutting off the ene- my's supplies, intercepting despatches, and break- ing up recruiting parties. On one occasion he led Tarleton a long and fruitless chase, till that com- mander is said to have exclaimed, " Come, boys, let us go back and find the game-cock [Sumter]; as for this d — d swamp-fox, the d — 1 himself could not catch him." These epithets were afterward commonly applied to the two great partisan chiefs. After the brilliant victory of the western militia at King's Mountain the Whigs in South Carolina took fresh courage, and recruits came to swell the numbers of Marion's brigade. In December he made his first unsuccessful attempt upon George- town, in which his nephew, Gabriel Marion, was taken prisoner and murdered in cold blood. After this he retired to Snow's island, at the con- fluence of Lynch's creek with the Pedee river, and made this the starting-point for his rapid move- ments. When Gen. Greene in December took com- mand of the remnants of Gates's army collected at Charlotte, he advanced with his main force to the Pedee, and put himself in communication with Marion. On 12 Jan., 1781, Col. Henry Lee arrived with his legion, and next day, in concert with him, Marion made a second attempt upon Georgetown, which was unsuccessful, although the Americans got so far as to enter the town and carry off the commandant and several other officers as prison- ers. During Greene's movement into North Caro- lina, Marion remained in the neighborhood of the Pedee river, engaged almost incessantly in opera- tions against the enemy's partisan officers, Wat- son and Doyle. Upon Greene's return in April,