Who is Francis Marion Gibson's parents?

Question

He was born in Kentucky in 1864

Answer 1

Marion's family was of Huguenot ancestry. They settled at Winyah, near Georgetown, South Carolina where Marion was born. Marion was born midwinter, 1732, at Goatfield Plantation in St. James Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. When he was five or six, his family moved from Goatfield to a plantation is St. George, a parish on Winyah Bay. Apparently, they wanted to get near the English school in Georgetown. In 1759 he moved to Pond Bluff plantation near Eutaw Springs, in St. John's Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina. He spoke fluently in French as well as English.

His parents were Gabriel Marion and Esther Cordes Marion, both first-generation Carolinians. Grandparents were Benjamin and Judith Baluet Marion, and Anthony and Esther Baluet Cordes. Gabriel and Esther had six children: Esther, Isaac, Gabriel, Benjamin, Job, and Francis. Francis was last born and a puny child. Peter Horry, who served under Francis in the American Revolution, said this of Francis as a child: "I have it from good authority, that this great soldier, at his birth, was not larger than a New England lobster, and might easily enough have been put into a quart pot."

When Francis was 15, he wanted to become a sailor. His imagination had been stirred by the ships in the Georgetown port. When he asked permision from his parents to go to sea, they willingly accepted. They hoped a voyage through the Caribbean would change his puny figure. He soon signed up to be the sixth crewman on a schooner headed for the West Indies. As they were returning, a whale attacked the schooner and it caused a plank to come loose. The captain and crew survived and escaped in a boat, but the boat sank so quickly they had no chance of getting the food or water. For five days, the tropical sun beat down on them. On day six, two crewman died. The next day they reached shore.

Despite his sea troubles, Francis came back in better health. Peter Horry wrote, "His constitution seemed renewed, his frame commenced a second and rapid growth, while his cheeks, quitting their pale, suet-colored cast, assumed a bright and healthy olive." He was done with sailing after the voyage.

He began his military career shortly before his 25th birthday. On January 1, 1756, Francis and his brother Gabriel were recruited by Captain John Postell to join the French and Indian War to drive the Cherokee from the border. In 1761 he served as a lieutenant under Captain William Moultrie in a campaign against the Cherokees.

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Service during the Revolution
In 1775 he was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress; and on June 21 was commissioned captain in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment under William Moultrie, with whom he served in June 1776 in the defense of Fort Sullivan and Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor.

In September 1776 the Continental Congress commissioned Marion as a lieutenant-colonel. In the autumn of 1779 he took part in the siege of Savannah, and early in 1780, under Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, was engaged in drilling militia.

Marion escaped capture at the fall of Charleston on May 12, 1780, because he had broken an ankle in an accident, and had removed from the city to recuperate.

After the capture of Charleston, and the defeats of Gen. Isaac Huger at Moncks Corner and Lt. Col. Abraham Buford at the Waxhaw massacre (near the North Carolina line, in what is now Lancaster County), Marion organized a small troop, which at first consisted of between 20 and 70 men—the only force then opposing the British in the state. At this point he was still nearly crippled from the slowly healing broken ankle.

He joined General Horatio Gates just before the Battle of Camden but Gates had no confidence in him and sent him (mostly to get rid of him) to take command of the Williamsburg Militia in the Pee Dee area and asked him to undertake scouting missions, and to impede the expected flight of the British after their battle. Marion thus missed the Battle of Camden, but was able to intercept and recapture 150 Maryland prisoners, and about twenty of their British guards who had been enroute from the battle to Charleston. The freed northern prisoners, thinking the war to be hopeless, refused to join or aid him and they deserted.

However, with his militia troops for almost all the remainder of the war, he showed himself a singularly able leader of irregulars. Unlike the Continental troops, Marion's Men, as the militia was called, served without pay or promise of pay, supplied their own horses, arms, and often even food. All of Marion's supplies that were not obtained locally were captured from the British or from Tory forces.

He rarely committed to frontal warfare, but repeatedly surprised larger bodies of Loyalists or British regulars with quick surprise attacks and equally quick removal from the field. After the surrender of Charleston, the British garrisoned South Carolina with help from local Tories, except for Williamsburg (the present Pee Dee), which they were never able to hold. The British made one attempt to garrison Williamsburg at Willtown, but were driven out by Marion at the Battle of Mingo Creek.

The British especially hated Marion and made repeated efforts to neutralize his force, but Marion's intelligence was excellent and the British intelligence poor, due to the loyalty of the populace of the Williamsburg area.

Col. Banastre Tarleton, sent out to capture him, despaired of finding the "old swamp fox," who eluded him by following swamp paths. Tarleton and Marion were sharply contrasted in the popular mind, with Tarleton hated because he had burned and destroyed homes and supplies, whereas Marion's Men, when they requisitioned supplies (or destroyed them to keep them out of British hands) gave receipts for them. After the war many of these receipts were redeemed by the new state government.

After Marion showed his ability at guerrilla warfare, making himself a serious problem for the British, Governor John Rutledge (in exile in North Carolina) made him a brigadier-general of state troops.

When Gen. Nathanael Greene took command in the south, Marion and Lieutenant Colonel Henry Lee were ordered in January 1781 to attack Georgetown, but they were unsuccessful. In April, however, they took Fort Watson and in May Fort Motte, and they succeeded in breaking communications between the British posts in the Carolinas. On August 31 Marion rescued a small American force hemmed in by Major C. Fraser with 500 British; and for this he received the thanks of Congress. He commanded the right wing under General Greene at the Battle of Eutaw Springs.

In 1782, during his absence as State Senator at Jacksonborough, his brigade deteriorated, and there was a conspiracy to turn him over to the British. In June of the same year he put down a Loyalist uprising on the banks of the Pee Dee River; and in August he left his brigade and returned to his plantation.

After the war, he married Mary Esther Videau. After the war, his nephew Theodore hinted to his uncle to get married. Along with Theodore, his relatives and friends informed him that Mary always listened with glowing cheeks and sparkling eyes when anyone began reciting the exploits of the Swamp Fox.

He served several terms in the South Carolina State Senate, and in 1784, in recognition of his services, was made commander of Fort Johnson, practically a courtesy title with a salary of $500 per annum. He was originally supposed to receive 500 pounds a year, but economy-frightened politicians reduced his payment to 500 dollars. He died on his estate in 1795.

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Popular culture
The Hollywood movie The Patriot (2000) is based loosely on his biography. The protagonist "Col. Benjamin Martin," played by Mel Gibson, was an amalgam of Gen. Marion, Gen. Andrew Pickens, Col. Thomas Sumter and Col. Daniel Morgan of Virginia.

A television version of Marion's exploits, a 1950s Walt Disney series called The Swamp Fox, was a less-successful follow up to Disney's Davy Crockett series. As with Crockett, it featured the lead actor (Leslie Nielsen) singing the show's theme song.

In 2004 a graphic novel chronicled the adventures of the Swamp Fox, using animals in the roles of the historic characters. The work was released by Ambition Studios and was created and drawn by Jonathan Myers.

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Controversy
According to the entry for the movie The Patriot on the Internet Movie Database website, Mel Gibson's character was originally to be Francis Marion, but "after historians informed the filmmakers of some of the more sordid aspects of Marion's life (slaughtering Indians, raping his female slaves) they decided to create a fictional story and a more likeable hero." [1]

This controversy derives in part from comments made by British historian Christopher Hibbert at the time of the movie's release. Hibbert described Marion as "very active in the persecution of the Cherokee Indians and not at all the sort of chap who should be celebrated as a hero. The truth is that people like Marion committed atrocities as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the British." [2]

In a commentary published in the National Review, conservative talk radio host Michael Graham rejected Hibbert's criticisms:

Was Francis Marion a slave owner? Was he a determined and dangerous warrior? Did he commit acts in an 18th-century war that we would consider atrocious in the current world of peace and political correctness? As another great American film hero might say: "You damn right."
That's what made him a hero, 200 years ago and today. [3]
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Landmarks
The Francis Marion National Forest near Charleston, South Carolina is named after Marion, as is the historic Francis Marion Hotel in downtown Charleston. Numerous other locations across the country are named after Marion (see link below).

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Gravestone
On his grave stone it reads:

Sacred to the Memory
of
BRIG. GEN. FRANCIS MARION
Who departed this life, on the 27th of February, 1795,

IN THE SIXTY-THIRD YEAR OF HIS AGE
Deeply regretted by all his fellow citizens
HISTORY
will record his worth, and rising generations embalm

his memory, as one of the most distinguished
Patriots and Heroes of the American Revolution:

which elevated his native Country
TO HONOUR AND INDEPENDENCE,
AND
Secured to her the blessings of
LIBERTY AND PEACE
This tribute of veneration and gratitude is erected

in commemoration of
the noble and disinterested virtues of the
CITIZEN;
and the gallant exploits of the
SOLDIER;
Who lived without fear, and died without reproach