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Pineville, a historic refuge
Monck's Corner fell to the British April 14, 1780. Charleston fell in May. The Waxhaws (Rock Hill) fell May 29, and on August 15, Lord Cornwallis took Camden. Cornwallis occupied Charlotte September 26. By late 1780, British destruction was so great in South Carolina that all schools and churches were burned or closed. Most of the men between 14 and 60 were engaged in combat, on one side or the other. Whigs (Partisans, Patriots) fought to free America from British rule; Tories (Loyalists, Redcoats) fought for the king. In many families, brothers fought brothers. The tide began to turn when Cornwallis was stopped at King's Mountain October 7 by "Hillbillies"- mountain men from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina militias. Gen. Daniel Morgan defeated Tarleton at Cowpens January 17. Meanwhile, the Swamp Fox, Gen. Francis Marion, continued his harassment of Loyalist and Redcoat forces throughout the Lowcountry. He claimed victories at Black Mingo (September 29, 1780), Tearcoat Swamp (October 25, 1780), and Singleton's Mill (December 12, 1780). Georgetown fell to Marion and Col. Light Horse Harry Lee (January 25, 1781), then the Swamp Fox led the British on wild goose chases at Wiboo Swamp and Mount Hope Swamp. At Sampit Bridge over the Santee River Marion destroyed the British forces (March 28, 1781). As Gen. Nathanael Greene and the Continental Army engaged the British forces along the Wateree River, the little man with the gimp leg, Marion, joined Harry Lee in a campaign against the British forts on the Santee and Congaree Rivers. They laid siege to Fort Watson and with Col. Hezekiah Maham's tower forced the British to surrender (April 15- 23, 1781). Moving up the river, Marion and Lee took Ft. Motte (Rebecca Motte's home) (May 12, 1781). Camden was liberated and Gen. Thomas Sumter, the Gamecock, took Orangeburg the same week. A few days later, Lee and Col. Thomas Taylor drove the British from Fort Granby (across the river from the future Columbia). On June 5, 1781, Lee and Col. Andrew Pickens, the Wizard Owl, forced the British to surrender Augusta. George Washington marched south to meet the fleeing Cornwallis whose supply lines to Charleston had been cut. The French fleet sailed into Chesapeake Bay stranding Cornwallis at Yorktown. At Eutaw Springs, four miles from Marion's home, Gen. Greene hammered the Redcoats (September 6, 1781). In his last military action, Marion forced the British to retreat from Fair Lawn Plantation (August 29, 1782). Cornwallis surrendered to Washington October 19, 1781, but the war was not over. The British finally withdrew from Charleston December 14, 1782. The war officially ended with the Treaty of Paris, 1783. The Swamp Fox wanted to return to a life of farming, hunting, and fishing, but his countrymen elected him to the new South Carolina Senate in 1782 and 1784. He was elected to the Constitutional Convention in 1790 and 1791 and worked to mend the wounds of the bloody war. He voted for federal union. When his term ended, he was appointed commander of Fort Johnson for which he was paid an annual salary of $2,200. Marion married his first cousin, Mary Esther Videau, in 1786, and they retired to his rebuilt home at Pond Bluff. They had no children. He and Mary lived modestly and their doors were always open to neighbors and strangers alike. He died at his home on February 26, 1795. His last words reportedly were, "I can lay my hand on my heart and say that, since I came to man's estate, I have never intentionally done wrong to any." Gen. Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, was buried at his brother Gabriel's Belle Isle Plantation in Pineville.
(Next week: Plantation life)
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