A General to Remember : Francis Marion “Swamp Fox” Essay

â€Å"Come, my boys! Let us go back and we will find the Gamecock. But as for this damned old fox, the devil himself could not catch him!† That was the famous quote by Banastre Tarleton, a British general and soldier, who gave the â€Å"Swamp Fox† his name. Francis Marion was the â€Å"Swamp Fox’s† real name. Marion was born on February 26th 1732, in Goat Field Plantation in Saint Johns Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. When Marion was a boy, he set off to sail at the age of 15 but ended up being stranded at sea for a week before him and 7 other crewmembers drifted to shore stated in the online Smithsonian Magazine The Swamp Fox. Marion later joined the South Carolina militia just before his 25th birthday to fight in the French and Indian War, however, during this War; Marion took an interest in the guerrilla fighting technique and became a mastery of irregular warfare and rapid mobility. Francis Marion is an anti-hero because he was humble, used un ruly methods of attack, and was a father to all. One of Francis Marion’s actions that made him an anti-hero was because he was humble. For instance, when he joined the war; he did it to fight for his country. Marion was a man who was a priggish disciplinarian who dressed modestly, abstained from drinking, and forbade his troops from plundering their Loyalist neighbors, said in an article named Francis Marion. He never expected any sort of popularity in return, but many people admired him and his actions anyways. An article from Smithsonian Magazine named The Swamp Fox, has a man named Busik, who has written the introduction to a new edition of Simms’ The Life of Francis Marion, based on facts alone he quotes: â€Å"Marion deserves to be remembered as one of the heroes of the War of Independence.† Not only was his humbleness an anti-hero quality, but also Marion used unruly methods of attack. He would fight in a guerrilla fashion to succeed in the wars he fought in that made him more of an anti-hero. Marion was promoted by the President and became a general under Nathanael Greene in January 20, 1780 as said in the book: Swamp Fox: The life and campaigns of General Francis Marion. Marion was one of the first to ever take on the style of killing the generals or higher leaders first instead of the soldiers like the ‘rules of war’ were. On January 20th, 1780, Francis Marion became promoted to brigadier general under a man named Nathanael Greene, said in the book Swamp Fox: The Life and Campaigns of General Francis Marion. Marion got his nickname from a man named Banastre Tarleton because of his ways for guerrilla warfare and how good he was at them. Tarleton was frustrated with chasing Marion around through Ox Swamp and gave up saying: â€Å"Come, my boys! Lets us go back and we will find the Gamecock. But as for this damned old fox, the devil himself could not catch him!† This was found in the NPS.gov article General Francis Marion. However, despite what he did fighting, he was a father to all. Marion had no children of his own, but treated his nieces and nephews and friends all the same as if he was their father. He cared about them and looked out for them, hence why he would forbid his troops from plundering their Loyalist neighbors, which is again is said in the article Francis Marion. Marion was a father to all; everyone looked up to him and appreciated him for what he did and what he was like. Some people may say that the Swamp Fox wasn’t even a hero, let alone an anti-hero. People think that because of Marion’s guerrilla style way of fighting, he wasn’t a good guy because he went against the ‘rules of war’. With his fatherly ways, people took that as an arrogance thing. That he was stuck up and wanted to treat everyone as if they were younger than him. Others took his humbleness as another form of arrogance and thought of him as disgust. Because of all of this they thought of him as a villain instead of a hero. Though some people may have looked down upon Marion and his actions as a person, the majority of the people who know about him or knew him will say differently. Francis Marion’s ways of being humble, his fighting being an unruly way of attack, and his actions being fatherly, would still make him an anti-hero to all. A day is dedicat ed to Marion for his actions in the wars he has fought in. General Francis Marion Day, which is held on the twenty-seventh day of February, became founded in 2007 said on their official website Revolutionary History, Clarendon Country, SC. The Swamp Fox is a general to never be forgotten for the things he’s done.