Report from the 5th Francis Marion Symposium,  October 19-20, 2007,  Central Carolina Technical College Manning, SC
  Article by Dr. Anthony J. Beninati, Valencia Community College, Orlando, FL
    This annual event focuses on the life of General Francis Marion, better known as “The Swamp Fox”, and the role of South Carolina in the American Revolution.   Few scholars realize that South Carolina suffered through more battles (63 major encounters with the British and their allies) than all of the other states combined (New York followed with 11).  Once the British abandoned their “New England Strategy” to divide the Northeast following the defeat of General Burgoyne and the capture of his army at Saratoga, NY in October, 1777, few major battles occurred in the North. The last significant encounter took place at Monmouth Courthouse, NJ in 1778.
     In the following year (1779), Britain successfully launched a “Southern Campaign”, quickly taking Savannah, Georgia and then Charleston, South Carolina in 1780.  The English strategy counted on their superior naval power to bombard Southern port cities as well as the allegiance of many local Tories, Americans who sympathized with Mother England due to their trade ties and property interests.  Absent from their calculations was the cunning home-grown military prowess and anti-British fervor of Patriots such as Francis Marion, William, Horry, Thomas Sumter, and many others, especially backwoods Scots-Irish who took up arms against the invaders and their local allies. Marion would become known as “the greatest guerilla fighter of the American Revolution” during what is called the “Civil War” phase of the Revolution, an era depicted in the film The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson.            

    The conference began with a warm welcome from symposium organizer George Summers, founder of the Swamp Fox Murals Trail Society.  He introduced key patrons of the conference and recommended a car tour of the Francis Marion murals on the various public buildings in Clarendon County.
     Scott Withrow (“Marion among the Cherokees: Myths and Realities”), a semi-retired educator and part-time ranger at Cowpens National Battlefield (site of a key American victory against the British in January, 1781), examined the role of Native Americans in the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas.  The war bitterly divided Native Americans across the continent as they resisted colonial intrusions into their homelands but also established close ties to Americans through trade and intermarriage.   The northern Iroquois League divided internally when all groups except the Oneida and Tuscarora supported the English, who in 1763 had issued a proclamation prohibited further colonial settlement west of the Allegheny-Appalachian range.  When the British and their Seneca and Mohawk allies suffered defeat at Saratoga by the Patriots, the Oneida, and the Tuscarora, the Iroquois League suffered from internal disunity.  A similar situation occurred in the Carolinas as the largest groups there – especially the Cherokees – predominately attempted to remain neutral or aligned with the British but had factions that joined the Patriots.  The Sioux-speaking Catawba, traditional enemies of the Cherokee, joined with Francis Marion to fight the British, providing important service as scouts in the inland river areas (“Catawba” is often translated as “River People”).  The session thus explored the many dimensions of the difficult position of Native Americans in what became the United States.
     The second session on Friday afternoon focused on the role of colonial horses in the fighting of the Southern campaign. ln the session “The Marsh Tacky Horse: History on the Hoof“, Ms. Jeannette Beranger, Research and Technical Programs Manager of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy (ALBC), explored the role of the once-common “Marsh Tacky” breed of horses in the American Revolution, particularly among the partisan South Carolina forces. DNA testing reveals that the Marsh Tacky is a descendant of Spanish colonial horses. By the late 1800s, Tackles likely were found as far north as Myrtle Beach, SC and as far south as St. Simons Island, GA. Significantly smaller (13.5 to 15 hands high) than Arab or Quarter Horses, the five-foot tall Tackles were reliable and good-natured work horses of the Carolina colonists. Breeders consider the modern- day Tacky a steady mount ideal for the wetlands and forests of the region. They do not panic in mud and water unlike the “blood horses” that the British imported for many of their officers. While they had a bulkier body, their long yet narrow chest efficiently functioned to release heat and increased their endurance in the sultry Carolina climate. Marion and his guerrilla warriors saw this horse as providing a distinct advantage over the more skittish and less heat-tolerant mounts of the Redcoat officers.
     The evening concluded with a reception at the Silver Lakes Plantation in nearby Paxville, SC where hosts Don and Annamarie Marshall provided symposium participants with an opportunity to see the Marsh Tackies up close. Breeders Janson Cox of the Dragoon Horse Farm and David Grant, an avid horseman, hunter, and colonial era history enthusiast, demonstrated the breed’s ability to travel the backcountry and swamps of the region.   
     The Saturday session began as Erick Nason gave a “Living History” presentation on patriot Peter Horry. ln full white “home-spun cotton” militia-garb (unlike the stereotypical woolen blue and red uniforms), “Horry” related episodes in his activities along with trusted friend Francis Marion in the Revolutionary period. He reported on both the difficulties and successes of their campaigns against the British and their local Tory allies. “Horry” also demonstrated the use of the colonial musket and differentiated it from the more sophisticated but less-preferred rifle as a military firearm. Likewise, his al|-leather helmet provided much more practical service (even as a bowl or water ladle) than a “tri-cornered hat”! And he confided that his problem of stuttering or “buck fever” sometimes inhibited his shouting of commands at critical times but never impeded his physical leading of men into a forward charge.
     In “The Alarm of War: Religion and the American Revolution in South Carolina, 1774-1783“, Duke University doctoral candidate Daniel J. Tortora assessed how issues of faith caused rifts during the war.  The Anglican (Episcopalian) Church, the “established” official Church of England headed by the King, accounted for approximately 75% of the church membership of the Carolinas. Congregationalist Presbyterians and Baptists composed about 15% of the general population but comprised a much larger percentage of the inhabitants of the backcountry and more ardently supported the Patriot cause. Nevertheless, the official Anglican Church in the Carolinas suffered sharp division among its clergy and membership as many of them offered support for  the rebels. Resistance to the “taxes” of the official church often prodded Americans to defect to the patriot side as much as did parliamentary levies!   Photo by Westfall
     Dr. Christine R. Swager, a retired professor of education, storyteller, and author of several notable books on the American Revolution, provided a comprehensive analysis of Marion’s later activities in her presentation “Marion after Eutaw Springs“, a major battle that earned a Congressional Medal for the “Swamp Fox”. She recounted his struggles with subordinates and colleagues, his retirement to civilian life, his marriage in his 50s, and his success as a planter and member of the legislature prior to his death in 1795.
     Dr. Thomas Powers, Professor of History at the University of South Carolina, presented a “living history” vignette of the life of “General Thomas Sumter – the Gamecock”, a Carolina veteran of the battlefield and member of the first Congress of the United States in 1789. “Sumter” discussed his ideological struggles as an adherent of “states’ rights” as they existed under the Articles of Confederation with his role as a member of the U.S. Congress under the Federalist Constitution. He also explained how this led to a rift between him, Continental General Nathaneal Greene, and Francis Marion due to conflicting lines of military authority between State of South Carolina forces and the congressional Continental Army. Sometimes derided as not being “a team player”, “Sumter” argued that the “weathercock” wavering leadership of Governor John Rutledge often left him in an ambiguous military role when the Governor changed his mind about the nature of Sumter’s command of the Carolina forces.
     The personal appearance of the Swamp Fox himself, General Francis Marion, played by Dr. Joseph Taylor Stukes, retired Professor and Dean at Erskine College and Francis Marion College, touched the heartstrings of the audience. “Marion” recounted his trials and tribulations in service to the Revolution from the perspective of his retirement after the war. Proud that he followed the “rules of engagement”, “Marion” noted that his men never looted and that he always observed terms of parole imposed on fellow Patriots released by the British. He fondly examined how South Carolinians rather than the Continental Army “won the war.”
     The Dinner Theater opened with the talented pianist, Norvelle Walker, playing the Richardson Waltz, which is now the SC State waltz and Bea Rivers and Tommy Brown dancing the waltz.
     Following the dinner featuring dishes such as Mary Esther Videau Cordon Bleu and Spy Nancy Morgan Hart Corn Pudding, Thomas Sumter (Dr. Powers) stopped by to visit Francis Marion (Dr. Stukes). The audience was treated to a dynamic exchange as the two relived their roles in the Southern Campaign.