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. The