The Life of Francis Marion | Page 5

the history of South
Carolina, his parent state, with all that is pleasing and exciting in
romance. He is, par excellence, the famous partisan of that region.
While Sumter stands conspicuous for bold daring, fearless intrepidity
and always resolute behavior; while Lee takes eminent rank as a gallant
Captain of Cavalry, the eye and the wing of the southern liberating
army under Greene; Marion is proverbially the great master of strategy
-- the wily fox of the swamps -- never to be caught, never to be
followed, -- yet always at hand, with unconjectured promptness, at the
moment when he is least feared and is least to be expected. His
pre-eminence in this peculiar and most difficult of all kinds of warfare,
is not to be disputed. In his native region he has no competitor, and it is
scarcely possible to compute the vast influence which he possessed and
exercised over the minds and feelings of the people of Carolina, simply
through his own resources, at a period most adverse to their fortunes,
and when the cause of their liberties, everywhere endangered, was
almost everywhere considered hopeless. His name was the great
rallying cry of the yeoman in battle -- the word that promised hope --
that cheered the desponding patriot -- that startled, and made to pause
in his career of recklessness and blood, the cruel and sanguinary tory.

Unprovided with the means of warfare, no less than of comfort --
wanting equally in food and weapons -- we find him supplying the one
deficiency with a cheerful courage that never failed; the other with the
resources of a genius that seemed to wish for nothing from without.
With a force constantly fluctuating and feeble in consequence of the
most ordinary necessities -- half naked men, feeding upon unsalted
pottage, -- forced to fight the enemy by day, and look after their little
families, concealed in swamp or thicket, by night -- he still contrived, --
one knows not well how, -- to keep alive and bright the sacred fire of
his country's liberties, at moments when they seemed to have no other
champion. In this toil and watch, taken cheerfully and with spirits that
never appeared to lose their tone and elasticity, tradition ascribes to him
a series of achievements, which, if they were small in comparison with
the great performances of European war, were scarcely less important;
and which, if they sometimes transcend belief, must yet always delight
the imagination. His adventures have given a rich coloring to fable, and
have stimulated its performances. The language of song and story has
been employed to do them honor, and our children are taught, in
lessons that they love, to lisp the deeds and the patriotism of his band.
"Marion" -- "Marion's Brigade" and "Marion's men", have passed into
household words, which the young utter with an enthusiasm much
more confiding than that which they yield to the wondrous
performances of Greece and Ilium. They recall, when spoken, a long
and delightful series of brilliant exploits, wild adventures, by day and
night, in swamp and thicket, sudden and strange manoeuvres, and a
generous, unwavering ardor, that never found any peril too hazardous,
or any suffering too unendurable. The theme, thus invested, seems to
have escaped the ordinary bounds of history. It is no longer within the
province of the historian. It has passed into the hands of the poet, and
seems to scorn the appeal to authentic chronicles. When we look for the
record we find but little authority for a faith so confiding, and
seemingly so exaggerated. The story of the Revolution in the southern
colonies has been badly kept. Documentary proofs are few, bald and
uninteresting. A simple paragraph in the newspapers, -- those
newspapers issued not unfrequently in cities where the enemy had
power, and in the control of Editors, unlike the present, who were
seldom able to expatiate upon the achievement which they recorded; --

or the brief dispatches of the Captain himself, whose modesty would
naturally recoil from stating more than the simple result of his
performances; -- these are usually the sum total of our authorities. The
country, sparsely settled, and frequently overrun by the barbarous
enemy, was incapable of that patient industry and persevering care,
which could chronicle the passing event, give place and date to the
brilliant sortie, the gallant struggle, the individual deed of audacity,
which, by a stroke, and at a moment, secures an undying remembrance
in the bosoms of a people. The fame of Marion rests very much upon
tradition. There is little in the books to justify the strong and exciting
relish with which the name is spoken and remembered throughout the
country. He was not a bloody warrior. His battle fields were never
sanguinary. His ardor was never