f this little band of freemen he soon returned to his own
State, and took the field against the victorious British. He made this
gallant effort at a time when the inhabitants had generally abandoned
the idea of supporting their own independence, and when he had every
difficulty to encounter. The State was no longer in a condition to
pay, clothe, or feed the troops who had enrolled themselves under his
command. His followers were, in a great measure, unfurnished with arms
and ammunition; and they had no magazines from which they might draw a
supply. The iron tools, on the neighboring farms, were worked up for
their use by common blacksmiths into rude weapons of war. They
supplied themselves, in part, with bullets by melting the pewter which
they were furnished by private housekeepers. They sometimes came to
battle when they had not three rounds a man; and some were obliged to
keep at a distance, till, by the fall of others, they were supplied
with arms. When they proved victorious they were obliged to rifle the
dead and wounded of their arms and ammunition to equip them for their
next engagement. . . . . .

General Francis Marion was born at Winyaw in 1733. His grandfather was
a native of Languedoc, and one of the many Protestants who fled from
France to Carolina to avoid persecution on the account of religion. He
left thirteen children, the eldest of whom was the father of the
general. Francis Marion, when only sixteen years of age, made choice
of a sea-faring life. On his first voyage to the West Indies he was
shipwrecked. The crew, consisting of six persons, took to the open
boat without water or provisions; . . . . they were six days in the
boat before they made land. Two of the crew perished. Francis Marion
with three others reached land. This disaster, and the entreaties of
his mother, induced him to quit the sea. . . . . .

On the approach of General Gates he advanced with a small party
through the country towards the Santee. On his arrival there he found
a number of his countrymen ready and willing to put themselves under
his command, to which he had been appointed by General Gates. This
corps afterwards acquired the name of Marion's brigade. . . In all
these marches Marion and his men lay in the open air with little
covering, and with little other food than sweet potatoes and meat
mostly without salt. Though it was the unhealthy season of autumn, yet
sickness seldom occurred. The general fared worse than his me