Francis Marion, The “Swamp Fox”

Francis Marion (1732–1795) was a brigadier general in the South Carolina Militia during the American Revolutionary War. He became known as the “Swamp Fox” because he set up his base of operations in a swamp. “Marion’s Brigade” was a volunteer force that could assemble at a moment’s notice, hit British and Loyalist units and garrisons, and then disappear into the swamps. He is considered one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare.

While the British occupied most of the southern colonies, large-scale resistance was impossible. Marion and his patriot unit was a powerful force in the south, as Nathanael Greene later wrote in praise: “Surrounded on every side with a superior force, hunted from every quarter with veteran troops, you have found means to elude their attempts and keep alive the expiring hopes of an oppressed militia.”

After the war, Marion served in the state senate of South Carolina for several terms. He stated: “Who can doubt that God created us to be happy, and thereto made us to love one another? It is plainly written as the Gospel. The heart is sometimes so embittered that nothing but Divine love can sweeten it, so enraged that devotion can only becalm it, and so broken down that it takes all the forces of heavenly hope to raise it. In short, the religion of Jesus Christ is the only sure and controlling power over sin.”

Taken from The American Patriot’s Bible