Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1910-02-26

| surrendered Charleston. For months
after tho surrender Marion had to be
| moved secretly from place to place to
| prevent his capture by the British. but
with the first appearance of Gates in
the field he had limped out from his
hiding place. gathered as many of the
scattered patriots together as he could
and had hurried to offer his services
to the general.
ON THE PEDEE.
He was in the camp of Gates when
he received an invitation from the
Whig farmers of the Williamsburg dis
trlct to bo their leader. Gov. Rutledge
at once gave a brigadier's commission
TO Marion and 1t was then. at the age
of As. that Marion began to show his
genius. His fame rests largely on tradi-
ton. There was little written record
kept In Marion's band of what was
done. but IL there was nothing to refer
to except the journals of Lord Corn
wallis and Rawdon and Coloncls Tarle-
ton and Watson that would be suf-
ficient. Twas the British who gave the
name of Swamp Fox to him. No one
gave more trouble to them than did
Marion. He was a will of the wisp.
They never seemed able to catch him
AT time when the British thought
they had all the country in control he
cut off thelr supplies. dispersed Tory
bands, broke up recruiting bodies,
swooped down on the rear guards or
the Vanguards Of the kings commands,
destroyed communications and kept
the English In turmoil IL not In terror.
Sometimes he had comparatively few
men. AT other times he had 400 or 500.
He was able. 1t seemed, to disband or
to assemble his force according to his
needs. Not only did he have to fight
the British regulars but the Tories. No
where IN the whole country was tho
proportion of Tories so large as In
South Carolina. How marvelously ac-
tive he became may be appreciated
from the fact that five months after
the defeat of Gates, CORVALLIS wrote:
Col. Marion had so wrought on the
minds of the people. partly by the ter
ror of his threats and cruelty of his
punishments, and partly by the promise
of plunder, that there was scarcely
an inhabitant between the Santec and
Pedee that was not in arms against us.
Some parties had even crossed tho
Santee and carried terror to the gates
of Charleston"
MOSTLY DESERVED.
Certainly a fine tribute for a general
commanding nearly 10000 men to pay
to man whose force consisted of vol
went into action frequently with only
two or three rounds OF ammunition,
who had seen no money for years. who
rarely had meat and seldom had enough
to eat, who had to capture from the
enemy most of the arms with which
they fought and who were equally sue
cessful in skirmish. pitched battle or
siege
But CORVALLIS was unjust in harg-
ing Marion with being cruel He was
as gentle as woman. There is no rec
ord, no story of any cruel act In all his
life. He was one OF the most merciful
and one of the most patient OF men.
There was no lust of blood about Fran
els Marion. In many respects he was
a pocket edition of George Washington
They were OF the same age. They
were of the same calm, tolerant mind.
They were uncompromising in the cause
of truth and stern only as to duty. Both
were fearless as soldiers Both were
cool in danger, Watchfu and circum-
spect. But Francis Marion's brain
worked quicker than did that Of Gen.
Washington. Marion was marvelously
dextrous and wonderfully resourceful.
Fighting In country rent by parti-
zan strife. where Wings and Tories pur-
sued each other like Wild beasts. he
fought so honestly and fairly that he
held not only the affection OF his fol-
lowers, but the confidence of his ene-
mics. He mover took prisoners. Pos
sibly the chief reason was that he could
not feed his own force. He never dis
closed his plans to anyone in advance