The Swamp Fox : How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution

These days about all this generation knows about Francis Marion stems from the character played by Mel Gibson in The Patriot. John Oller sets the record straight in this separation of the myth from the real Revolutionary War hero who became known to us as the Swamp Fox for his cunning guerrilla tactics against the British.

At a time when the Continental Army was too far north to aid South Carolina, the British stormed Charleston and Georgetown almost simultaneously and then swept the rest of the state in an effort to march up to Virginia. Francis Marion and his devoted militia remained the only hope for the success of the American Revolution until help could arrive.

At first the British knew nothing about Marion, and then they grossly underestimated him. “Marion was bleeding the British to death by a thousand cuts.” Oller chronicles the action with flush detail, carrying us from one skirmish to the next ambush, while watching Marion narrowly dodge the death squads sent out by the Redcoats. “Loyalist newspapers even reported that Marion had drowned while trying to escape.” Thank God, he didn’t!

Whoever said that history had to be boring? The way Oller writes it, you won’t be able to put it down.