out feeling the nobleness of his character. Courtly in manners,
honorable to a degree, high in aspirations, unselfishly for country,
magnanimous in victory, loyal to authority, affectionate to family,
pure in morality, and earnest for the right, Anthony Wayne's life is a
bright example and legacy to the American youth of all times.
[Signature of the author.]
FRANCIS MARION
(1732-1795)
[Illustration: Francis Marion. [TN]]
Francis Marion, the partisan general of South Carolina, was of
Huguenot descent, the first American settlers of the name being
Benjamin Marion and Judith Balnet, his wife, who came from France in
1690, and established themselves in a plantation on one of the
tributaries of the Cooper River, near Charleston. Gabriel, the son of
Benjamin, married Esther Cordes. These were the parents of Francis
Marion. He was born, it would appear, in St. John's Parish, Berkeley
County, probably in 1732. His early life was passed, till his
twenty-seventh year, in agricultural pursuits, when we first hear of
him in connection with military matters in the period of the old
French war. He took the field with Moultrie, and fought gallantly by
the side of that officer in the Cherokee country against the savages
at the battle of Etchoee. He then returned to his farm, near Eutaw
Springs, ripening for the work of the Revolution, which found him at
the height of manhood, at the age of forty-three. The people of his
district relied upon his understanding, for we find them sending him
as their delegate to the Provincial Congress of 1775, when he was
appointed captain in the regiment of his former superior officer,
Colonel Moultrie. His first duty was to gather a company, which he
speedily effected in the Eastern region, where he was well known. He
was then employed in the neighborhood of Charleston; being engaged in
the occupation of Fort Johnson and the command of Dorchester.
He was with Moultrie, at Sullivan's Island in May, 1776, during that
fierce day of battle when the British were driven from the southern
colonies, and particularly distinguished himself in the gallant
defence.
At the ill-managed attack upon Savannah, by the combined forces of
D'Estaing and Lincoln, which ended so disastrously for the Americans,
Marion was present with his regiment, which did much by its gallantry
to redeem the honor, if not the fortunes, of the day. Next came, in
the winter of 1780, the siege of Charleston, by Sir Henry
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