Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox

Francis Marion, The Swamp Fox A prominent American officer during the American Revolution, Brigadier General Francis Marion played a key role in the wars southern campaigns and earned the moniker The Swamp Fox for his exploits as a guerilla leader. His military career began with the militia in the French and Indian War during which he fought the Cherokees on the frontier. When the war with Britain began, Marion received a commission in the Continental Army and helped defend Charleston, SC. With the citys loss in 1780, he commenced a career as a highly effective guerilla leader that saw him employ hit and run tactics to win numerous victories over the British. Early Life and Career Francis Marion was born around 1732 on his family plantation in Berkeley County, South Carolina. The youngest son of Gabriel and Esther Marion, he was a small and restless child. At age six, his family moved to a plantation in St. George so that the children could attend school in Georgetown, SC. At the age of fifteen, Marion embarked on a career as a sailor. Joining the crew of a schooner bound for the Caribbean, the voyage ended when the ship sank, reportedly due to being struck by a whale. Adrift in a small boat for a week, Marion and the other surviving crew finally reached the shore. French and Indian War Electing to remain on land, Marion began working on his familys plantations. With the French and Indian War raging, Marion joined a militia company in 1757 and marched to defend the frontier. Serving as a lieutenant under Captain William Moultrie, Marion took part in a brutal campaign against the Cherokees. In the course of the fighting, he took note of Cherokee tactics which emphasized concealment, ambush, and utilization of terrain to gain an advantage. Returning home in 1761, he began saving money to purchase his own plantation. American Revolution In 1773, Marion achieved his goal when he bought a plantation on the Santee River about four miles north of Eutaw Springs which he dubbed Pond Bluff. Two years later, he was elected to the South Carolina Provincial Congress which advocated for colonial self-determination. With the outbreak of the American Revolution, this body moved to create three regiments. As these formed, Marion received a commission as a captain in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment. Commanded by Moultrie, the regiment was assigned to the Charleston defenses and worked to build Fort Sullivan. With the completion of the fort, Marion and his men took part in the defense of the city during the Battle of Sullivans Island on June 28, 1776. In the fighting, a British invasion fleet led by Admiral Sir Peter Parker and Major General Henry Clinton attempted to enter the harbor and was repulsed by Fort Sullivans guns. For his part in the fighting, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army. Remaining at the fort for the next three years, Marion worked to train his men before joining the failed Siege of Savannah in the fall of 1779. Going Guerilla Returning to Charleston, he fortuitously broke his ankle in March 1780 after jumping from a second-story window in an effort to escape a bad dinner party. Directed by his doctor to recuperate at his plantation, Marion was not in the city when it fell to the British in May. Following subsequent American defeats at Moncks Corner and Waxhaws, Marion formed a small unit of between 20-70 men to harass the British. Joining Major General Horatio Gates army, Marion and his men were effectively dismissed and ordered scout the Pee Dee area. As a result, he missed Gates stunning defeat at the Battle of Camden on August 16. Operating independently, Marions men scored their first major success shortly after Camden when they ambushed a British camp and liberated 150 American prisoners at Great Savannah. Striking elements of the 63rd Regiment of Foot at dawn, Marion routed the enemy on August 20. Employing hit-and-run tactics and ambushes, Marion quickly became a master of guerilla warfare using Snow Island as a base. As the British moved to occupy South Carolina, Marion relentlessly attacked their supply lines and isolated outposts before escaping back into the regions swamps. Responding to this new threat, the British commander, Lieutenant General Lord Charles Cornwallis, directed Loyalist militia to pursue Marion but to no avail. Routing the Enemy Additionally, Cornwallis ordered Major James Wemyss of the 63rd to pursue Marions band. This effort failed and the brutal nature of Wemyss campaign led many in the area to join the Marion. Moving sixty miles east to Ports Ferry on the Peedee River in early September, Marion soundly defeated a superior force of Loyalists at Blue Savannah on September 4. Later that month, he engaged Loyalists led by Colonel John Coming Ball at Black Mingo Creek. Though an attempt at a surprise attack failed, Marion pressed his men forward and in the resulting battle were able to force the Loyalists from the field. In the course of the fighting, he captured Balls horse which he would ride for the rest of the war. Continuing his guerilla operations in October, Marion rode from Ports Ferry with the goal of defeating a body of Loyalist militia led by Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Tynes. Finding the enemy at Tearcoat Swamp, he advanced at midnight on October 25/26 after learning that the enemy defenses were lax.  Using similar tactics to Black Mingo Creek, Marion split his command into three forces with one each attacking from the left and right while he led a detachment in the center. Signaling the advance with his pistol, Marion led his men forward and swept the Loyalists from the field. The battle saw the Loyalists suffer six killed, fourteen wounded, and 23 captured. The Swamp Fox With the defeat of Major Patrick Fergusons force at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, Cornwallis became increasingly concerned about Marion. As a result, he dispatched the feared Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to destroy Marions command. Known for laying waste to the landscape, Tarleton received intelligence regarding Marions location. Closing on Marions camp, Tarleton pursued the American leader for seven hours and across 26 miles before breaking off the pursuit in the swampy territory and stating, As for this damned old fox, the Devil himself could not catch him. Final Campaigns Tarletons moniker quickly stuck and soon Marion was known widely as the Swamp Fox. Promoted to brigadier general in the South Carolina militia, he began working with the new Continental commander in the region, Major General Nathanael Greene. Building a mixed brigade of cavalry and infantry he conducted a failed attack on Georgetown, SC in conjunction with Lieutenant Colonel Henry Light Horse Harry Lee in January 1781. Continuing to defeat the Loyalist and British forces sent after him, Marion won victories at Forts Watson and Motte that spring. The latter was captured in conjunction with Lee after a four-day siege. As 1781 progressed, Marions brigade fell under the command of Brigadier General Thomas Sumter. Working with Sumter, Marion took part in a fight against the British at Quinbys Bridge in July. Forced to withdraw, Marion split from Sumter and won a skirmish at Parkers Ferry the following month. Moving to unite with Greene, Marion commanded the combined North and South Carolina militia at the Battle of Eutaw Springs on September 8. Elected to the state senate, Marion left his brigade later that year to take his seat at Jacksonboro. Poor performance from his subordinates required him to return to command in January 1782. Later Life Marion was re-elected to the state senate in 1782 and 1784. In the years after the war, he generally supported a lenient policy toward the remaining Loyalists and opposed laws intended to strip them of their property. As a gesture of recognition for his services during the conflict, the state of South Carolina appointed him to command Fort Johnson. Largely a ceremonial post, it brought with it an annual stipend of $500 which aided Marion in rebuilding his plantation. Retiring to Pond Bluff, Marion married his cousin, Mary Esther Videau, and later served at the 1790 South Carolina constitutional convention. A supporter of the federal union, he died at Pond Bluff on February 27, 1795.

Dinosaur Footprints and Trackmarks

Dinosaur Footprints and Trackmarks You can do the dinosaur footprint math yourself: If the average Tyrannosaurus rex walked two or three miles per day, it would have left behind thousands of footprints. Multiply that number by T. Rexs multi-decade life span, and youre well into the millions. Of these millions of footprints, the vast majority would have been erased by rain, floods, or the subsequent footprints of other dinosaurs. However, a tiny percentage baked and hardened in the sun, and an even tinier percentage managed to survive to the present day. Because they’re so common, especially compared to complete, articulated dinosaur skeletons, dinosaur footprints are an especially rich source of information about the size, posture, and everyday behavior of their creators. Many professional and amateur paleontologists devote themselves full-time to the study of these trace fossils or as they’re sometimes called, ichnites or ichnofossils. Other examples of trace fossils are coprolites - fossilized dinosaur poop to you and me. How Dinosaur Footprints Fossilize One of the odd things about dinosaur footprints is that they fossilize under different conditions than dinosaurs themselves. The holy grail of paleontologists - a complete, fully articulated dinosaur skeleton, including imprints of soft tissues - usually forms in sudden, catastrophic circumstances, such as when a Parasaurolophus is buried by a sandstorm, drowned in a flash flood, or chased by a predator into a tar pit. Newly-formed footprints, on the other hand, can only hope to be preserved when theyre left alone - by the elements and by other dinosaurs - and given a chance to harden. The necessary condition for dinosaur footprints to survive for 100 million years is that the impression has to be made in soft clay (say, along a lake, coastline, or riverbed), and then baked dry by the sun. Assuming the footprints are well-done enough, they can then persist even after being buried under successive layers of sediment. What this means is that dinosaur footprints aren’t necessarily found only on the surface. They can also be recovered from deep beneath the ground, just like ordinary fossils. What Dinosaurs Made the Footprints? Except in extraordinary circumstances, its pretty much impossible to identify the specific genus or species of dinosaur that made a given footprint. What paleontologists can figure out fairly easily is whether the dinosaur was bipedal or quadrupedal (that is, whether it walked on two or four feet), what geological period it lived in (based on the age of the sediment where the footprint is found), and its approximate size and weight (based on the size and depth of the footprint). As for the type of dinosaur that made the tracks, the suspects can at least be narrowed down. For example, bipedal footprints (which are more common than the quadrupedal kind) could only have been produced by meat-eating theropods (a category that includes raptors, tyrannosaurs, and dino-birds) or plant-eating ornithopods. A trained investigator can distinguish between two sets of prints. For example, theropod footprints tend to be longer and narrower than those of ornithopods. At this point, you might ask: cant we identify the exact owner of a set of footprints by examining any fossil remains unearthed nearby? Sadly, no. As stated above, footprints and fossils are preserved under very different circumstances, so the odds of finding an intact Stegosaurus skeleton buried next to its own footprints are virtually zero. Dinosaur Footprint Forensics Paleontologists can only extract a limited amount of information from a single, isolated dinosaur footprint. The real fun starts when the prints of one or more dinosaurs (of the same or different species) are found along extended tracks. By analyzing the spacing of a single dinosaur’s footprints - both between the left and right feet and forward, in the direction of motion - researchers can make good guesses about the dinosaurs posture and weight distribution (not a small consideration when it comes to larger, bulkier theropods like the huge Giganotosaurus). It may also be possible to determine whether the dinosaur was running rather than walking, and if so, how fast. Footprints also tell scientists whether or not the dinosaur held its tail upright. A droopy tail would have left a telltale skid mark behind the footprints. Dinosaur footprints are sometimes found in groups, which (if the tracks are similar in appearance) counts as evidence of herding behavior. Numerous sets of footprints on a parallel course may be a sign of mass migration or the location of a now-vanished shoreline. These same sets of prints, arranged in a circular pattern, can represent the traces of an ancient dinner party - that is, the dinosaurs responsible were digging into a heap of carrion or a tasty, long-gone tree. More controversially, some paleontologists have interpreted the proximity of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaur footprints as evidence of ancient chases to the death. This may certainly have been the case, in some instances, but its also possible that the Allosaurus in question tromped along the same patch of ground as the Diplodocus a few hours, a few days, or even a few years later. Don’t Be Fooled Because theyre so common, dinosaur footprints were identified long before anyone had even conceived of the existence of dinosaurs - so these track marks were attributed to giant prehistoric birds! This is a good example of how its possible to be right and wrong at the same time. Its now believed that birds evolved from dinosaurs, so it makes sense that some types of dinosaurs had bird-like footprints. To show how quickly a half-baked idea can spread, in 1858, the naturalist Edward Hitchcock interpreted the latest footprint finds in Connecticut as evidence that herds of flightless, ostrich-like birds once roamed the plains of North America. Over the next few years, this image was taken up by writers as diverse as Herman Melville (author of Moby Dick) and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who referenced birds unknown, that have left us only their footprints in one of his more obscure poems. Source Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. To the Driving Cloud. The Belfry of Bruges and Other Poems, Bartleby, 1993.