Where is our Swamp Fox?

I am a huge history buff when it comes to the Revolutionary war. One of my favorite colonial hero’s is General Francis Marion.

Born in or about 1732, this American Revolutionary War General earned the name “Swamp Fox” by the way his men hid in the swamps and ambushed the British as they passed, then disappeared back into the swamps before the British knew what hit them.

Marion was born in Berkeley County, South Carolina, and grew up on a farm near Georgetown. His first war experience was fighting the Cherokee Indians as a militia lieutenant in 1761.

He was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress and voted in favor of the Revolutionary War. He led a volunteer army in many battles. A sprained ankle saved him from capture in Charleston, South Carolina just before the city surrendered and he led more engagements in the northern part of the state thereafter.

After the defeats of General Horatio Gates and General Thomas Sumter, he had the only troops left in South Carolina . Because there were so few of them he organized them into guerrilla units. They provided their own food, supplies and horses. Blacksmiths made their swords from saw blades and other metal, and their ammunition was melted pewter plates. Ammunition was so scarce that in some entire battles men shot as few as three shots each.

The British never discovered his hiding place on Snow Island in the Pee Dee River. He and his men were able to raid British supply depots and rescue captured American prisoners of war. The British tried hard to catch the Swamp Fox, but they never could catch up with him.

Marion spent many years after the war serving on the South Carolina Senate, and died on his plantation at Pond Bluff in 1795.

I look into history books at the many patriots that have bled and sacrificed for the benefit of freedom. For liberty. For America. I look at the present and wonder what the history books will say about our achievements. Our follies. Our mistakes and triumphs.

I look and wonder where is our modern day Francis Marion. A man who, being faced with the possibility of being tried on treasonous acts against the crown still pushed on for the cause of liberty in the new world. Is there someone who, being faced with insurmountable odds still continues on in the cause of liberty and American freedom? Is there a South Carolinian that will epitomize what the Swamp Fox meant to the Revolutionary War?

My hope, as a young American, is that perhaps that hero will emerge soon as we need them most. Or, perhaps I will become that hero in the cause of liberty as my community, state, and country may need me most. Public service is an honor and should be just that, serving the public. Many representatives have forgotten that little detail in respect to public service.

Maybe they should visit the grave of the great General and learn from what is carved into his headstone:

HISTORY
will record his worth, and rising generations embalm
his memory, as one of the most distinguished
Patriots and Heroes of the American Revolution:
which elevated his native Country
TO HONOR AND INDEPENDENCE,
AND
Secured to her the blessings of
LIBERTY AND PEACE
This tribute of veneration and gratitude is erected
in commemoration of
the noble and disinterested virtues of the
CITIZEN;
and the gallant exploits of the
SOLDIER;
Who lived without fear, and died without reproach

Elevate your native country, elevate the freedom and ideals of the United States of America, elevate the constitution as a document to be followed by politicians, elevate the rights granted to us both by god and by our founding fathers.

Elevate yourself as an American.

Only through you can this country grow and continue a tradition that began with great patriots such as Francis Marion.