With the Swamp Fox: A Story of General Marion's Young Spies

In addition to that, we had among us one hundred and two as prisoners, and they who had a few hours previous believed the Cause of freedom in the Carolinas was dead, now pleaded eagerly to be allowed to enlist.

They had no love for country; but were ready as ever to join such force as appeared to be gaining ascendancy, and this one victory had put the Cause on a different footing from what it had been since the day we made the attack upon the Prince of Wales' regiment at Nelson's Ferry.

In discussing this engagement afterward, Gavin, Percy and I have decided, to our own satisfaction at least, that not one among our leaders had any idea of the good which might result from what was little less than a chance encounter when the king's officers believed we had been whipped into submission.

We ourselves almost became weary of it as the days passed and this man or that, who had previously declared his allegiance to the king, came into camp, begging the privilege to enlist under the banner of General Marion.

But I am getting ahead of my story, and it is little wonder, for on the night before the battle at the Black Mingo we had considered ourselves outlaws, whose only hope lay in striking one or more severe blows before death should befall us. Then to find that the Cause had suddenly received a new lease of life was so unexpected and happily surprising, that even at this late day I cannot forbear a sense of triumph such as I did not know even on the day peace was declared, when these colonies had become a free nation – a nation such as I doubt not will one day be a power in the world.

We laid in this captured camp sufficiently long to give all our friends opportunity of joining us, and the faint-hearted inhabitants nearabout time to declare their pretended love for the Cause, before attempting to continue the lesson to the red-coats which had been so long delayed.

It was during this time of inaction that we were joined by a young man hardly older than myself, who was destined to make the fourth in our comradeship.

This was none other than Gabriel Marion, the general's nephew, a lad loved by our commander as if he had been a son, and on whom one might pin his faith, knowing full well it would never be betrayed.

This Gabriel did not resemble his uncle in feature, else might we never have come to take him to our hearts as we did. The general wore a somber countenance, while the lad was ever smiling, however great the danger which threatened.

The general rarely spoke in a jovial tone, while Gabriel never lost an opportunity of uttering a jest.

Within half an hour after he rode into the captured camp at Shepherd's Ferry the general sent for Percy and myself, and, when we presented ourselves, introduced his nephew much in the following fashion:

"This lad is as dear to me as a son, and his honor, his courage and patriotism as near to my heart as my own, therefore do I present him to you two lads whom I know to be true and faithful to whatsoever you set your word. Make of him a comrade, and you will please me; hold him to his duties as you hold each other, and you will benefit him."

No words could have been more flattering or more pleasing to us, and it can well be imagined that we were especially careful from this day out to merit the continuance of the same favorable opinion.

Gabriel was a lad whom all would love immediately after knowing him, and once having formed his acquaintance, he was found to be the same one day as another, – a true, lovable comrade.

To him, as a matter of course, we told all that had come to us, since we were regularly enrolled as members of his uncle's force, and in so doing spoke necessarily of Sam Lee.

Although we held ourselves ever ready to meet any enemies of the Cause, it was that young Tory whom we especially hoped to come across.

If I have not heretofore set it down strongly, let it be understood we had never come to a new neighborhood without a strong hope that he might be met, and the three of us were resolved to capture him at the first opportunity whatever the hazard, for in all the Carolinas could be found no more bitter enemy than this same lad who had taken sides with the hirelings of the king simply because of his own vicious nature.

"Without good reason therefore, Sam Lee is, I believe, bent on doing all possible harm to us of Williamsburg, and when we have made him prisoner, holding the scoundrel so close that he cannot escape until the Cause be won or hopelessly lost, we shall have accomplished a good work," Percy said when I had finished the story regarding that young Tory.

"How may he, a lad without influence, do so much mischief?" Gabriel asked, and Gavin Witherspoon replied promptly:

"It is because of being a mere boy that gives him the advantage. Unless our friends know him for what he is, it would naturally be thought that he was incapable of harm. I had rather have him in my clutches than any man short of a major in the British service."

"What prevents our setting out some day and bringing him into camp?" Gabriel asked with a merry laugh; but there was no need I should answer the question, for he knew full well had it been possible we would have had the Tory within our grasp long before this.

Just how many days we remained in camp at Shepherd's Ferry I am unable to set down, because there was much to occupy our time, although such occupation was not directly connected with the Cause.

We four comrades were constantly being sent out as scouts, or to urge that the planters near at hand bring in food, so that one day went by after another with exceeding swiftness and so much of pleasurable intercourse that it was more like a merry-making than a struggle against a mighty king.

However, the day came when word was whispered round about the camp that we were to set out at once for Lynch's Creek, to make an attack upon Colonel Harrison and his Tory Legion.

While we were preparing for the journey, good friends came in with tidings that the renegades were gathering in large force in and about Salem and the fork of Black River.

Here it was, so we were told, that Colonel Tynes of the British service had appeared, summoning the people as good subjects of his majesty to take the field against their countrymen, and he brought with him ample supplies of war materials, provisions, and even of luxuries such as our people had not seen for many a month.

Eager though we were to be at Harrison's Tories, the tidings of new muskets with bayonets, broad swords, pistols, saddles, bridles, and of powder and ball which the Britisher had brought with him caused our mouths to water.

Had General Marion neglected to take advantage of such opportunity as seemed suddenly to have presented itself, I believe the men of his brigade, obedient and faithful as they had been, would have burst into loud murmurings, for we were sadly in need of equipments.

Before the day on which this information was brought had come to an end, others who were friendly to the Cause arrived with the definite information that Colonel Tynes was encamped at Tarcote, on the forks of Black River, and apparently so secure in mind regarding his position that such watchfulness as common prudence would have dictated was neglected.

It was just such an advantage as General Marion delighted in; exactly the kind of work for which we of the brigade were best adapted, and every man was in a fever to be at the task which was at one and the same time for the benefit of the Cause and the better equipment of ourselves.

While the officers deliberated, the rank and file announced what articles they most needed, as if it were only necessary to make the statement in order to have their desires fulfilled, and, in short, there was not one among us but that believed we could have for the choosing anything in Colonel Tynes' stores.

Tarleton with his Legion was hot after us, and so every one knew; but thus far we had failed to meet him, and between his force and ours was that gallant general of Carolina, my father's kinsman, General Sumter standing ever ready to interpose lest Tarleton should fall upon General Marion when he was least prepared, and who delighted in leading that British butcher on a wild-goose chase.

Truly we two, Percy and I, had reason to be proud of the men to whom we were bound by ties of blood, for the names of Sumter and James stood high, and with good cause, among the defenders of the Carolinas in those dark days when armed resistance seemed little short of suicide.

I realize that this task which Percy has insisted I shall perform is being done in a halting fashion, because of my speaking overly much, perhaps, of those who remained true during the darkest days known by the southern colonies; but yet how may it be possible to tell any portion of the story of the Carolinas without mentioning again and again the names of those patriots who ventured life and fortune when such sacrifice seemed hopeless?

However, just now must be told what we of the Williamsburg district did with the overly confident Colonel Tynes, and yet the story must be brief, because the adventure was no more than an ordinary occurrence, where neither glory nor honor is to be won, nor great deeds accomplished.

At midnight, eight and forty hours after the news had been brought, General Marion's brigade descended upon Colonel Tynes' camp, and simply overran it.

It seems strange even now that we should have seized upon all that store, throwing so many well-armed men into a panic by simply riding among them, yet such is the fact.

When, in the darkness of the night, the brigade came upon the encampment, we four comrades were sent forward to reconnoiter, and true it is that we failed to find a single sentinel on guard. In some of the camps men were playing cards, in others they slept, and yet more sat around the camp-fires, drinking and smoking.

The officers were making merry in a building hard by, and there were none to oppose our progress.

The reconnaissance was attended with as little danger as if we four had gone out sight-seeing among friends, and when we returned to where General Marion and my uncle the major, awaited our coming, it was with a story so incredible that for an instant they could hardly believe our statements.

Then the word "Forward" was given, and we, as I have said, overran that camp without hindrance.

Neither Britisher nor Tory so much as discharged a gun; the redcoat and renegade Carolinian alike sought refuge in flight, hoping to gain the fastness of Tarcote Swamp, and to have cut them down in their panic would have been like murdering men in cold blood, for how can you take the life of him who offers no resistance?

Twenty minutes had not elapsed from the time we made our report, until the encampment with all its wealth of British stores was our own, and here and there came some scurvy Tory crawling and cringing before our officers as he begged to be allowed the privilege of enlisting.

It was not warfare; but simply a foraging expedition among people who were the same as unarmed.

Colonel Tynes, two of his captains, and fifty-four British regulars were taken prisoners. We hardly troubled ourselves about the Tories, save that Gavin, Percy, Gabriel and I rode here and there searching eagerly for Sam Lee, but finding him not.

When day broke our men overhauled the equipments and the provisions which were intended for those who should take up arms against us, and before we gave heed to breaking our fast the old and patched saddles were replaced by new ones of English make; our powder-horns and shot-pouches were filled; we wore breeches and boots that had been brought for the benefit of our enemies, and, to a man, were as well equipped as any force the butcher Tarleton ever headed.

The prisoners were sent to Kingstree, which town we now believed ourselves capable of holding, and in the fourth encampment that had been wrested from the Britishers or their allies, we feasted and made merry, Gabriel declaring that he was "disappointed in having thus joined a band of foragers when he expected to see somewhat of warfare."

And the poor lad did see warfare in its most bitter phase before many days passed.

Now that I am come to the closing acts in this life which we knew for so short a time and loved so well, I must hasten over them because of the bitterness which comes to me with the memory that has never faded.

We three comrades – meaning Gavin, Percy and myself – had seen the darkest days of the struggle, and then suddenly participated in the joy which came to us when, seemingly without good reason, we were once more triumphant.

Gabriel had come at the moment when we were flushed with the excitement of unexpected success, and he saw but little of it, poor lad!

While we lay at Salem receiving every day new recruits from those who had been lukewarm to the Cause, and from the cowards who believed safety lay only in friendship with the "rebels," word was brought that Lord Cornwallis had begged Colonel Tarleton to "get at" General Marion.

It was said that the butcher had arisen from a bed of sickness brought about by his own excesses, with a vow that he would capture "the scurvy Swamp Fox," and that his Legion, which was before Camden, had orders to meet him on the Wateree River, from which place he would set out to make a prisoner of our general.

This information came to us at a time when we were not only ready, but willing, to meet the infamous Tarleton, although in his Legion were two men, where there was one of ours, and, as my uncle said with a grim smile, when speaking to Gavin Witherspoon after orders had been given us to prepare for the march, "we would make Colonel Tarleton's mission as easy of accomplishment as was possible, so far as showing him the whereabouts of the Swamp Fox was concerned."

Our horses were in good condition; every man among us eager to measure strength with this human brute who had devastated the Carolinas wherever he marched, and we hardly drew rein until arriving once more at Nelson's Ferry, on the Santee River.

This was the second time we had crossed the entire district of Williamsburg with a swiftness such as astounded the British horsemen, and it is little wonder that our general received from them the name in which we of his brigade gloried.

Exactly how strong the Britishers were there was no means of knowing, although one might guess that Tarleton would not come out with less than his full legion, which numbered upwards of eleven hundred men; but yet we pressed forward even after having come upon their trail, and knowing how much greater their force was than ours – pressed forward close upon their heels until the hour came when it would have been folly to continue on, because the horses were winded.

Then we made camp in the woods, Gabriel Marion complaining bitterly because his uncle had called a halt, although the steed the lad bestrode could not have advanced five miles more at an ordinary pace.

Near the enemy, as we knew ourselves to be, it was necessary to take every precaution at this encampment, and we were yet hard at work while our steeds were feeding, throwing up such rude shelters as would suffice for the use of the sharp-shooters, when Colonel Richardson, who served under General Sumter until wounded and had then retired to his plantation for a time, came into camp.

Percy and I were acting as sentinels when he first arrived, and, fearing some treachery, for he was a stranger to us, would have prevented him from even speaking with one of our officers, had he not referred to his services under our father's brother with such minuteness of detail that we could not longer remain incredulous.

I conducted him to where General Marion and Major James sat upon the ground amid a clump of bushes discussing plans for the next day's work, and had hardly more than saluted when a great light flashed up on the western sky.

"It is the flames of my dwelling," Colonel Richardson exclaimed bitterly, even before the general and the major had time to welcome him. "Tarleton's Legion is within five miles, bent now as ever upon their work of devastation!"

"And you have fled at such a time?" my uncle, the major, said, in a tone very nearly that of reproach.

"I would willingly have given up my life in defense of those whom I love; but that you are in the greatest danger. Hidden with my wife and children in one of the outbuildings – no other able-bodied man on the plantation to aid me in a defense which would have been vain – I saw a lad, whom I believe to be one of the Tory Lees from nearabout Kingstree, ride up and demand audience of Tarleton. So near was the butcher to me at the moment that I heard plainly the young scoundrel's speech, and it was to the effect that General Marion with his brigade lay here at this place. There was no longer any course left me save to give you warning, for as soon as my plantation has been ruined and the butcher satisfies himself I am not at hand to be hanged, he will make a descent upon you."

"We have come to give him that opportunity," my uncle, the major, said proudly, whereat Colonel Richardson showed signs of great alarm.

"You can easily be surrounded here, and, with a force such as Tarleton has, must be cut to pieces, however bravely your men may fight. To make a stand would be useless sacrifice of life, and I conjure you, General Marion, that you seek a more advantageous place in which to meet the enemy; but whatsoever may be your decision, I here offer myself as a recruit until you shall have given the British cutthroat a proper lesson."

CHAPTER X.

GEORGETOWN

The information which Colonel Richardson brought regarding the renegade who had acquainted Tarleton with General Marion's whereabouts, fired us four comrades to such a degree that right willingly would we have pushed forward alone in the hope of taking him prisoner, even while surrounded by his British friends.

As has already been set down, we gave Sam Lee credit for doing whatsoever was in his power against us, but, while it was no surprise that he should have continued making every effort to work harm to the friends of freedom, there was mingled with our righteous anger something of astonishment at his success.

He might have lived twice the ordinary lifetime of a man without being able to do as much mischief as in this case, when our people were making ready to fall suddenly upon Tarleton's forces.

Now, however, that was impossible. Even Major James realized that, instead of pushing on, we must beat a retreat once more, and without loss of time.

From this moment until that sad hour when Gavin, Percy and myself, to say nothing of the general, were so sorely afflicted, there is nothing of particular moment to write, except that I set down the different movements made by our brigade, and the situation of affairs in the Carolinas.

In less than twenty minutes from the time Colonel Richardson came into the encampment, were we urging our jaded steeds through that gloomy swamp known as the "wood-yard," and two hours later the command was halted on Jack's Creek.

We had covered only six miles in all that time, owing to the condition of the horses; but it was sufficient, so far as eluding the Britishers was concerned, because they might not find us unless, perchance, more spies were lurking around, until after the day should break.

While Colonel Tarleton was a butcher – a man who had no idea of mercy or compassion, it is only just to give him the credit of being a good soldier after his own particular fashion.

As a man to lead rough-riders, he was perhaps the best in the king's service, and we who were fleeing before him understood that not a single moment would be lost in the pursuit. Ride as fast and as constantly as we might, his men would be ever on our heels, so long as they could hold the pace, and it was endurance and the speed of the horses which should give the final result.

At daybreak our brigade was on the march once more, making its way over bogs and through swamps until it was arrived at Benbow's Ferry, about ten miles above Kingstree, where was a strong natural camp.

It was a place with which we were all familiar. It commanded a passage of the river, and was within easy riding distance of all the country roundabout from which we must draw provisions and provender. As a rallying point it could not have been equalled in the Carolinas, and should we be hard pressed there were three difficult passes through the swamp in the rear where, if necessary, we might make a stubborn fight.

Strong as was this position, General Marion set about strengthening it yet further.

Trees were felled, breastworks put up, and in eight and forty hours we were prepared to meet Tarleton's much-vaunted legion, reasoning that our defenses made up for lack of numbers until we were fully the enemy's equal.

Now we believed that a decisive battle would soon be fought – one in which the victory could not be doubtful, but where the conquerors might for a certain length of time hold undisputed possession of the Williamsburg district, and we counted on being those conquerors.

It was not destined, however, that the struggle in the Carolinas should be brought to so speedy a conclusion.

Tarleton pursued our brigade, losing time here and there to burn dwellings which sheltered only women and children, until he was come to within less than twelve miles of our camp, when, to the surprise of enemies as well as friends, he turned suddenly about and marched with all speed for Camden.

It was afterward said by the Tories that Lord Cornwallis had expressly ordered him to return; but more than one of us believed then, and yet hold to it, that the redcoated Britisher who could be so courageous when he had none but old men, boys and women in front of him, was absolutely afraid to measure strength with General Marion.

Now while we laid here in safety, gathering numbers every day, much was done by our friends in other parts of the colony.

General Sumter, our kinsman, gave battle to Tarleton at the Blackstock farm on the banks of the Tyger, defeating him utterly, but at a terrific loss, so far as the Cause was concerned. The Britishers had ninety-two killed and one hundred and four wounded. Among the Americans only three were slain and four wounded; but in the latter list was the general himself, who bore as marks of the victory a severely dangerous wound in the breast.

His gallant followers, true to him as was our brigade to General Marion, lashed him in the raw hide of a bullock which was slung as a litter between two horses, and thus, guarded by an hundred picked men, he was carried to the upper colony, so we were told, where he lay hovering 'twixt life and death.

It was also while we were encamped here that the battle of King's Mountain was fought, when the British, under Major Ferguson, were defeated handsomely, the killed, wounded and captured of the enemy amounting to eleven hundred men, and among the dead was the major himself.

Two exceedingly fortunate encounters for us – encounters such as guaranteed to us final victory if we could but hold out as we had begun, and this seemed most probable, for, as ever will be the case, a successful commander finds plenty of recruits.

We of Williamsburg were not inactive during the days spent in camp; but made forays here and there, capturing in some places bands of Tories on their way to Georgetown, or, having the good fortune to come across detachments of the redcoats who were guarding store-trains, until, should I attempt to repeat all the little adventures which befell us, I might continue this writing until so many pages were filled that one would shrink from the reading because of the magnitude of the task.

It is with the more adventurous, but yet the sadder part of our service under General Marion that I must close this record which has been intended only to show what we comrades did, up to the time Snow's Island was fortified, when we ceased active operations during the year.

The British post at Georgetown was the one place which our people most needed as a base of operations against Charleston, and, in fact, to hold our own in Williamsburg district.

Situated as it was, we were constantly menaced, wherever our brigade might be, by the enemy holding possession of the place. In addition to that, it was a depot for supplies of salt, clothing and ammunition for the king's troops, and of such goods, we who fought for the Cause were grievously in need.