♪ [mortar fire booming] ♪ ♪ [musket fire popping] ♪ [mortar fire booming] ♪ [mortar fire booming] ♪ [mortar fire booming] Professor Henry Lumpkin> The Battle of Camden had been fought and lost.

The American Army, scattered and routed.

Its commanding general, Horatio Gates, had left the field before the battle was over, the second American Army to fall in the South... the first captured at Charleston, the second, routed at Camden.

This now becomes, as I have said, the era of the great partisans, the men ragged and without support, without any kind of logistical backing, who kept the war going in the South, striking savagely out of thicket and forest and swamp, and Francis Marion is one of the greatest, the 48-year-old Francis Marion who'd led the assault of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment at Savannah, who was to escape the fall of Charleston by a lucky accident.

He leaped from a second-story window-- the man was a teetotaler-- to escape an all-night bash set up by one of his brother officers and was recuperating in a plantation outside the city.

Francis Marion... the natural guerilla leader with an instinctive knowledge of timing and terrain.

This is Francis Marion's country, from the Santee here up to the Pee Dee rivers and up to the High Hills of the Santee.

This was Francis Marion's country.

Now let us go to the South Carolina Lowcountry, to the coastal area.

♪ This is Estherville Plantation... an 18th-century plantation 12 miles south of Georgetown, South Carolina.

It also is Francis Marion's own country.

He rode and fought all through this area in the last two and a half years of the American Revolution.

This is an 18th-century cavalry pistol, officer's pistol, the sort of weapon used by Francis Marion and his men.

In their mountain forays, that would move sometimes 50 miles in a night to strike the British line of communications.

First of all, Francis Marion belonged to that steadfast, valiant group of French Protestant immigrants... the Huguenots, or "Hugue-noe," if you wish, who came to South Carolina after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by King Louis XIV of France in 1685.

Francis Marion's grandfather settled with other Huguenot families on the lower Santee, the river right out here, in what was then, and still remains today in some areas, a real wilderness.

He hunted, fished, rode, and boated with his brothers and cousins, a life of rod and gun, a natural, excellent training for the partisan viking he was to excel in later.

Francis Marion fought with real distinction as a junior officer of the South Carolina colonial militia in two Cherokee wars, against the Cherokee Indians, 1759 and 1761, when that powerful Indian tribe of the upper foothills and high mountains of the southern Appalachians attacked the colony.

These were real wars, since the Cherokees could field more than 4,000 well-armed warriors.

It is of great interest that Francis Marion was to serve then as a lieutenant under the command of Captain William Moultrie.

He would stand with Moultrie again at Fort Sullivan in 1776.

General William Moultrie said of Marion in the Cherokee fighting, he was an active, brave, and hardy soldier and an excellent partisan officer.

Francis Marion later served with equal distinction as a captain and a major in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment of infantry raised in 1775 by the Provincial Congress after the battle of Lexington.

These, of course, were the first shots fired in the American Revolution.

He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel after Admiral Sir Peter Parker and his fleet were driven away from Charleston in 1776 by the guns of Fort Sullivan, later to be called Fort Moultrie in honor of its gallant commander.

Francis Marion was second in command of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment at Savannah, Georgia in 1779, where he participated, leading in the desperate but unsuccessful assault on that town's fortifications.

The 2nd South Carolina Regiment, with officers and colors in front, attacked the Spring Hill redoubt, one of the strongest points of the Savannah defenses, but was driven back with heavy loss after planting the regimental flag and fighting hand to hand on the berm below the main parapet.

Now, when General Sir Henry Clinton captured Charleston in 1780, along with General Benjamin Lincoln and most of the American Army in the Southern theater of war, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Marion was not among the prisoners.

His escape was due to a somewhat bizarre incident.

Prior to Henry Clinton's attack, Francis Marion attended a regimental drinking party.

The obviously maudlin host locked the doors of his home to prevent his guests from escaping, thus insuring, one gathers, the continuation and success of the affair.

Francis Marion, a confirmed teetotaler, refusing to be constrained by this social device, leaped from a second-story window and either broke or very badly sprained his ankle.

He was recuperating with friends at an outlying plantation when the city surrendered to the British.

Governor John Rutledge, governing his state from an enforced exile in North Carolina, sent one of the few regular officers left uncaptured, Lieutenant Colonel Francis Marion, to take command and organize resistance in the Santee-Pee Dee country, this country where we're standing right now.

Francis Marion was coming home, and the homeland would be his battleground.

We have an excellent eyewitness description of the man.

He was rather below the middle stature of men, lean and swarthy.

His body was well set, but his knees and ankles were badly deformed.

He still limped upon one leg, the result of his accident.

He had a countenance remarkably steady, we're told.

His nose was aquiline, his chin, projecting.

His forehead was large and high, and his eyes, black and piercing.

He also was 48 years old, but hard and wiry, a superb horseman, woodsman, and a natural guerilla leader... a fact he was to prove conclusively later on.

Francis Marion was in personality the leader preeminent.

Witness his command of the South Carolina militia later at the battle of Eutaw Springs, where General Nathaniel Greene said that Marion's infantry fought like the veterans of Frederick the Great, no small compliment to American militia.

Marion, however, was the leader personified, who rode at the head of his men but seldom personally took part in the actual fighting.

He directed and controlled the action with calm brilliance.

There's the famous story of Marion's sword.

It seems that he never adopted the long cavalry saber favored by most of his men, wearing instead the short officer's hanger of the 2nd South Carolina Regiment of infantry, his old unit lost in Charleston.

On one battle occasion, he tried to draw the short sword and found, to his dismay, that it had rusted in the scabbard.

(wind rustling) Here, by the way, is a cavalry saber, reputed to be Francis Marion's sword.

I rather doubt it, but it might be.

All the sources say that he carried the infantry short sword, but it has his name scratched here in the inside of the guard with the date 1773, prior to the Revolution.

It certainly is an excellent example of an 18th-century cavalry saber and must be the sort of weapon carried by Marion's partisan soldiers, those who could obtain such sabers, and by the British cavalry whom they opposed.

There's an excellent cavalry balance for the crosscut... take a man right out of the saddle without any difficulty whatsoever!

Beautiful weapon... I'd like to think it was Marion's sword.

It would be rather nice standing here in Marion's country under the live oaks, to think that I am holding Marion's own fighting saber.

It's a nice weapon.

(wind rustling) Let us talk now about Marion's style of warfare, which was to give him the name of "Swamp Fox."

Remember that he was operating without a logistical supply line.

His men were unpaid volunteers, mostly untrained in formal warfare, using whatever weapons they already possessed or could obtain by capture from the enemy... hunting shotguns, hunting rifles, smoothbore Army muskets, and bayonets.

(wind rustling) Here is an excellent example of a French Charleville smoothbore musket, which the American Army obtained from France and used during the Revolution.

It's about 58 caliber, not too heavy, flintlock, as you see.

A little short in the stock for me... but a well-balanced weapon to use with the infantry bayonet.

Marion's men used the bayonet from the saddle, sometimes as a lance.

Here is your 18th-century infantry bayonet, which fitted on the muzzle.

Used in the hand, it makes rather a good dagger.

Used on the end of a musket, you have a very effective weapon indeed.

These smoothbore army muskets and bayonets, of course, taken from the old militia equipment or possibly taken in battle from the British or Loyalists or brought from France... very effective sabers.

Not this cavalry saber here, but these were hammered out by local blacksmiths from plantation saws.

Their favorite close-range weapon was goose shot, number 2s or 3s... thusly.

I cannot think of a more effective weapon or more effective ammunition for close-range fighting.

Francis Marion's chosen tactic was to take a position in heavy swamp timber across a river and force a pursuing enemy to ford that stream in the face of deadly and concealed rifle fire.

If a crossing were forced, his enemy would find that he already had retired to another prepared position deeper in the swamp and on the other side of still another stream.

That process of forcing a passage and taking the losses which accompanied that then would have to be repeated time and time again.

Francis Marion, with his men, was known to ride 50 miles in a night, attack by sunrise in the morning, and fade back into his fastnesses whenever faced by superior forces.

The fall of Charleston on 11 May 1780 and the subsequent defeats and partial destruction of the remaining American forces in the South Carolina Lowcountry was followed by Banastre Tarleton's ruthless attack on Colonel Beaufort's Virginians at the Waxhaws, near the North Carolina border.

This is where the dashing British cavalry leader earned his name "Bloody" Tarleton.

With all resistance put down in Georgia and South Carolina, the British high command in Charleston then proceeded to make an extremely foolish psychological error.

When one studies the history of the American Revolution, the comment that a memorial should be erected to the British generals who won that Revolutionary War for us becomes totally understandable.

On 1 June 1780, Sir Henry Clinton and the British naval commander, Admiral Arbuthnot, offered to the people of South Carolina and Georgia-- except for those regular soldiers of the Continental line captured at Charleston or in subsequent operations-- a full pardon and reinstatement of their rights and immunities under the colonial government plus exemption from taxation except by their own legislature.

Many persons naturally came in and signed declarations of allegiance to the king of England, either receiving in return protection as loyal subjects or being paroled to their homes or farms or plantations as prisoners of war, if they had served in the militia.

These people of Georgia and South Carolina, with the British clearly the winners, expected to live quietly as neutrals until the end of the war.

Twenty days later, twenty days later, General Sir Henry Clinton, feeling completely sure of his military position, decided to revoke all paroles and restore all citizens of South Carolina to their full rights.

All men must now swear allegiance to the king and serve if called as royal militia against their own people still in arms.

Those who did not consent were to be treated as rebels.

This meant that South Carolinians and Georgians would be ordered to fight against their own people still active in the field against the British.

Sir Henry Clinton's decision was published by proclamation and marks the beginning of the end for British domination in Georgia and the Carolinas and, thus, eventually, for all 13 of the rebellious colonies.

It also is in this period that Francis Marion, here in these forests and swamps, begins his partisan career.

War now had come to the Pee Dee-Santee area from the High Hills more than 100 miles inland, here, to the coast.

This, also, was grim civil war, with Loyalist militia and partisans operating against those families who had declared for the Revolution.

After the fall of Charleston, Major General Horatio Gates, the hero of the only big American victory so far attained-- the battle of Saratoga up in New York-- had been appointed by Congress commander in chief of a reconstituted Southern army.

Francis Marion rode up with 20 men to join him.

Colonel Otho Williams of Maryland writes that Colonel Marion, a gentleman of South Carolina, has joined the army with some 20 men, black and white, all mounted, all poorly equipped, distinguished by small, leather caps and the wretchedness of their attire.

The whole army found this nucleus for later glory, a source of vast amusement, and the huffy, puffy Gates was delighted to detach Francis Marion and his men back to their own territory here with orders to watch enemy movements and furnish intelligence.

On 16 August 1780, word came to Francis Marion of the defeat and total rout of Horatio Gates and this second American Army at the battle of Camden, with the subsequent near destruction of Thomas Sumter's strong force by Banastre Tarleton, who surprised him at Fishing Creek.

With Savannah, Augusta, Beaufort, Charleston, Georgetown, and Camden in British hands, the war in Georgia and South Carolina seemed to be finished with a British victory.

A royal high command in Charleston now established a network of forts and outposts from the coast all the way to the mountains.

No organized American force remained in these two states to resist them.

This now, this now-- after these battles, after the British occupation-- is the period of the great American partisan leaders... Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, Elijah Clark of Georgia, William Davie of North Carolina, and others, who unpaid and unsupported, kept the field with their men somehow and harried the British or their Loyalist supporters night and day... throughout the war.

The British and Loyalists held the high roads and the fortified towns and outposts.

The mountains, the forests... the savannas and swamps... belonged to the Americans.

It is during this dark period for American fortunes that Francis Marion with his able lieutenants and follower... Peter Horry, Hezekiah Maham, Vanderhorst, Simons, the James family, Conyers, Waties, Mouzon, the Postells, Francis Goddard, the Jenkins brothers, and many others-- were to hold the country between the Santee and the Pee Dee Rivers up to the High Hills of the Santee, with forays down to Charleston and beyond.

Francis Marion was commissioned by Governor John Rutledge on December 30, 1780, a brigadier general of state forces, but his command, his brigade, could be anything from 30 men to 1400.

He made his lair on Snow's Island, guarded by Lynches River, Clark's Creek, and the wide Pee Dee with its great river swamp.

I've been to Snow's Island.

It's a wild place still.

His men lived and fought on cowpeas, sweet potatoes, hominy grits, game and fish and pork and lean beef without salt.

(wind rustling) There is the wonderful legend immortalized in the painting of Francis Marion entertaining the British officer sent as an emissary from Charleston to visit him at Marion's camp on Snow's Island.

He was asked to stay for dinner, which consisted wholly... of sweet potatoes baked in the ashes.

The British officer was astonished that men could fight and die with such complete dedication for a cause and eat such meager fare.

(wind rustling) (rustling continues) (knife blade clicking) (wind rustling) (rustling continues) They're not bad, you know... they're very good.

(bird twittering) Speaker#1 off-screen> Is it hot?

Speaker #2> No, it's not hot.

(Lumpkin laughs) ♪ Prof.

Lumpkin> Sweet potatoes are really quite good.

I still like to eat them.

I enjoy them particularly when they're cooked in the ashes like this.

They're a wonderful fare for a picnic.

Francis Marion also drank a strange drink... water with an infusion of vinegar, about one-fourth vinegar to three parts water.

Remember, he was a teetotaler and escaped the capture of the army at Charleston because he leaped out of a second-story window to escape an officers' bash and thus was recuperating outside the city.

Now, the interesting part of this is that the Roman Army, the old legionary army of the centuries just before and after the time of Christ, drank water with an infusion of vinegar.

Vinegar's a mild antibiotic, and apparently the Roman doctors knew this.

The legionary doctors knew this, and it kept the army healthy.

Marion was not a classical scholar.

How he discovered this, I don't know, but he did, and it was his favorite drink.

He probably was much healthier than most of his men.

Now we go from this period of Marion into his great battles.

He is to lead as the commander of his partisans-- as I've said, they could be anywhere from 30 men to 1400-- regular campaigns against the British in cooperation, in coordination, with that finest of American cavalry commanders, the dashing Virginian Henry Lee.

Henry Lee was detached by Nathaniel Greene, who replaced Horatio Gates as the commander in the South, to serve with Marion, whose value now became recognized.

Here is your natural partisan leader, the man who, with his very small force, had kept the Low countries of South Carolina-- from the High Hills of the Santee down to Charleston, completely at war with the British, completely an area of battle action.

Francis Marion is to, with Henry Lee, capture Fort Watson, a British outpost; capture Fort Motte, another fortified British outpost; serve as commander of the South Carolina militia at Eutaw Springs; fight at Quinby Bridge, down here, near the Cooper River, one of the last actions of the war; serve as an active fighting soldier, once again commanding troops in the field, once again commanding troops in regular battles against the British enemy.

This man Marion is one of our great leaders.

He was a legend in his own time.

He remains a legend today, one of the truly great guerilla leaders of history, one of the great partisan warriors of history, and a man whose moral stature increases the more you study him.

This is a man of real humanity, who granted safe conduct to wounded British soldiers when their commander asked it, who did his best to observe the amenities of war, and maintained by his own abilities a tight hand of discipline, a tight rein over his rather disparate force of Scots-Irish Presbyterians, of Welsh Baptists, of Huguenot and Anglican, English planters along the coast.

A real leader, Marion, a real fighting leader and one of the truly great figures in the American Revolutionary War period.

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