But for an accident General Francis Marion probably would not have been the hero of the Revolution that he became.

In June, 1775, the Provincial Congress of South Carolina, the extra-legal body of the revolting people of the province, organized three regiments of regular troops in preparation against any attempt at coercion by the British government. The first and second regiments were constituted as infantry, or foot; the third regiment as rangers, or horse.

The Congress elected twenty captains to man the first and second regiments, and they took seniority according to their standing in the vote. Francis Marion was elected one of the twenty captains and stood third in the balloting and was assigned to the Second Regiment, ranking second to Capt. Barnard Elliott.

In November, 1775, an artillery regiment was organized and Capt. Elliott was promoted to major thereof. In February, 1776, a regiment of rifles was organized and Major McIntosh of the Second was promoted to be lieutenant-colonel thereof, which advanced Captain Marion to the majority of the Second Regiment.

On September 16, 1776, the six regular regiments of South Carolina were taken on the Continental Establishment and Colonel William Moultrie, of the Second Regiment, was promoted to brigadier general; Lieutenant-Colonel Motte was promoted to colonel and Major Marion became the lieutenant-colonel. Colonel Motte resigned September 23, 1778, and Marion became commander of the regiment.

As British regiments were commanded by lieutenant-colonels, British authorities refused to exchange a captured Continental colonel for one of their lieutenant-colonels in the hands of the Americans. This complication caused the Continental Congress to cease promoting lieutenant-colonels to colonels, and so Marion remained as lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment, South Carolina Line, Continental Establishment, until mustered out of the service in February, 1783.

While a British fleet and army were besieging Charles Town March 28 - May 12, 1780, Lieutenant Colonel Marion sprained an ankle, which rendered him unfit for active duty. Soon after General Lincoln published an order furloughing him to his plantation until able to resume active duty, but Charles Town was captured before Marion was able to return.

When General Gates was sent down to Hillsboro, North Carolina, to take command of the Southern Army he published an order directing all Continental officers and men not on parole to report to him at Hillsboro. Marion was the senior officer of South Carolina to report. His regiment having been captured with the garrison of Charles Town Marion was without a command. He was directed by Gates to go down to the Santee River and assemble a militia force and destroy the ferry boats on the river to prevent the British from retreating to Charles Town or receiving aid therefrom. Marion found a willing force of militia at hand on the Santee with which he speedily drove off the guard at Murray's Ferry and captured the guard at Nelson's Ferry and also captured a convoy from Cornwallis's army taking American prisoners to Charles Town. From then on he was very active. In November, 1780, Governor Rutledge appointed him brigadier general of the Lower Brigade of the State militia and his activity knew no bounds from then to the end of the war.

This history of Marion's career thereafter, accurately and authentically tells the story, for Judge James, its author, was one of Marion's active officers.

Perhaps Marion's highly meritorious services would never have received the widespread attention that has been accorded them had it not been for a fictitious publication issued in 1809 by Matthew Carey, a well known publisher, of Philadelphia, entitled: The / Life / of / Gen. Francis Marion, / a Celebrated / Partizan Officer, / in / The Revolutionary War, / against the / British and Tories, in South-Carolina and Georgia. From documents furnished by his brother in arms, Brigadier-General P. Horry: and his nephew, the Hon. Robert Marion, Esq. of Congress.

General Peter Horry, who had been one of Marion's most active colonels, had written a history of Marion's brigade, but had not readily found a publisher when he encountered Rev. Mason L. Weems, an itinerant book agent and preacher. Weems persuaded Horry to let him have the manuscript, assuring him that he would secure a publisher. Horry agreed, but admonished Weems "not to alter the sense or meaning of my work, least when it came out I might not know it; and, perverted, it might convey a very different meaning from the truth." Those were Horry's own words to Weems, as recalled by Horry to Weems in a letter dated at Georgetown, S.C., February 4, 1811.

In the same letter he reminded Weems: "I requested you would (if necessary) so far alter the work as to make it read grammatically, and I gave you leave to embellish the work, but entertained not the least idea of what has happened though several of my friends were under such apprehensions, which caused my being urgent on you not to alter as above mentioned."... "Nor have the public received the real history of General Marion. You have carved and mutilated it with so many erroneous statements your embellishments, observation and remarks, must necessarily be erroneous as proceeding from false grounds. Most certainly 'tis not my history, but your romance."... "Can you suppose I can be pleased with reading particulars (though so elevated, by you) of Marion and myself, when I know such never existed."

The book has been through scores of editions and printings and the falsehoods that Weems concocted—sometimes in malice—have been accepted as truth and retold throughout the United States and used in encyclopaedias and text books, government reports and political speeches. As a result, Marion has been honored by having counties and towns named for him to an extent equalled or surpassed by few of America's greatest men.

Judge James's book had but a limited circulation and it has long been a very scarce book; hence it has not been the factor it should have been in correcting the fabrications in Weems's book.

Judge James's book is not entirely free from error. He begins his first chapter with the statement: "Francis Marion was born at Winyaw, near Georgetown, South-Carolina, in the year 1732." Marion's family had no connection with Georgetown until six or seven years after Marion's birth, when his father moved with his family to that town from St. John's Parish, Berkeley, where he had resided since marriage. His wife's family resided in the adjoining St. James's Parish, Goose Creek, and, as there is no definite record of the place of Marion's birth, it could have been at the home of either family. The year of his birth cannot be fixed as 1732. The inscription on his tombstone gives the date of his death as February 27, 1795, "in the sixty-third year of his age." If he had been born at any time between January 1st and February 26, 1733, he would have been in the 63rd year of his age February 27, 1795.

(3) For the purists: A list of changes and corrections to the text.

The following changes in spelling were made, to update them. In some cases, both spellings were used, or an odd spelling was only used in one distinguishable section of the text. They are listed more or less in the order they appeared in the text.

also:

Corrections to the 1821 text:

Final Notes:

The format, but not the content, of quoted letters has been slightly changed to accommodate the format of the etext.

Footnotes added by myself are always initialed (A. L.), unless they merely note the chapter and paragraph corresponding to a page number given in the text.