The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, July 1949 - April, 1950 Page: 218

Southwestern Historical Quarterly

In his participation in military affairs Francis Marion first saw
service as a volunteer in the Cherokee War of 1759 and was re-
ferred to by General Moultrie as "an active, brave, and hardy
soldier; and an excellent partisan officer." For a brief interim
he was elected to the provincial congress of South Carolina early
in 1775 and served until shortly after the news of the battle of
Lexington and Concord reached his state, helping that body to
resolve "to raise two regiments of infantry, and one of cavalry."
Shortly afterwards Marion was elected a captain in the second
regiment of infantry and saw service in it under Colonel Moul-
trie with Captains Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas
Pinckney. During the years of the American Revolution Marion
advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Continental
army and to the rank of brigadier general in the South Carolina
militia. It was during the campaign of 1780 that Colonel Tarle-
ton, after pursuing Marion for twenty-five miles to Ox Swamp
north of Kingstree on the east bank of the Black River, said to
his men, "Come my boys let us go back, and we will soon find
the game cock, (meaning Sumter) but as for this d--d old fox,
the devil himself could not catch him," and gave up the pursuit.
The story about Francis Marion is told in a free and easy
manner. There are references to many persons of Huguenot stock
and also to persons of English descent. The appendix of thirty-
nine pages contains "copies of letters which passed between sev-
eral of the leading characters of that day." Francis Marion de-
served to have the biography written about him, and the pub-
lisher of the reprint is to be commended for making the biography
available again to the reading public.
RUDOLPH L. BIESELE
The University of Texas
Travels in the Confederate States: a Bibliography. By E. Merton
Coulter. Norman (University of Oklahoma Press), 1948.
Pp. xiv+289. $7.50.
It is appropriate that the projected Southern volumes in the
American Exploration and Travel series should be introduced
with critical bibliographical studies in the field of Southern
travel, 16o6-1946. Professor Coulter's present survey and analysis

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