the Tories, happening about this time, gave a
more savage character than ever to the warfare which ensued. Motives of
private anger and personal revenge embittered and increased the
usual ferocities of civil war; and hundreds of dreadful and desperate
tragedies gave that peculiar aspect to the struggle, which led Greene to
say that the inhabitants pursued each other rather like wild beasts than
like men. In the Cheraw district, on the Pedee, above the line where
Marion commanded, the Whig and Tory warfare, of which we know but little
beyond this fact, was one of utter extermination. The revolutionary
struggle in Carolina was of a sort utterly unknown in any other part of
the Union.

* Judge James writes: "Gabriel Marion... was taken
prisoner; but as soon as his name was announced, he was
inhumanely shot. The instrument of death was planted so near
that it burnt his linen at the breast."--A. L., 1996.--

The attempt upon Georgetown was thus defeated. The British had taken
the alarm, and were now in strength, and in a state of vigilance and
activity, which precluded the possibility of surprise. Marion's wishes,
therefore, with regard to this place, were deferred accordingly to a
more auspicious season. He retired to Snow's Island, where he made his
camp. This place acquired large celebrity as the "camp of Marion".
To this day it is pointed out with this distinguishing title, and its
traditionary honors insisted upon. It was peculiarly eligible for his
purposes, furnishing a secure retreat, a depot for his arms, ammunition,
prisoners and invalids--difficult of access, easily guarded, and
contiguous to the scenes of his most active operations. "Snow's Island"
lies at the confluence of Lynch's Creek and the Pedee. On the east flows
the latter river; on the west, Clark's Creek, issuing from Lynch's, and
a stream navigable for small vessels; on the north lies Lynch's Creek,
wide and deep, but nearly choked by rafts of logs and refuse timber. The
island, high river swamp, was spacious, and, like all the Pedee river
swamp of that day, abounded in live stock and provision. Thick woods
covered the elevated tracts, dense cane-brakes the lower, and here
and there the eye rested upon a cultivated spot, in maize, which the
invalids and convalescents were wont to tend.

Here Marion made his fortress. Having secured all the boats of the
neighborhood, he chose such as he needed, and destroyed the rest. Where
the