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Francis Marion (SC)
Topic Started: May 16 2011, 10:24 AM (166 Views)
Francis Marion

Name: Francis Marion
State: South Carolina
Birth Date: May 1, 1742
Birth Place: Georgetown, South Carolina
Profession: Plantation Owner, Guerrilla Warrior
Alma Mater: Self-Educated
Religion: Deist
Political Positions:

-Associated himself with the Anti-Federalists, but held a dissenting view in favor of the constitution. Primarily an opponent to a 'national bank,' also disagreed, but to a lesser extent, with state chartered banks.
- Believes in a large standing army for use in the future pacification and conquest of the west.
- Die hard anti-British. He's a proponent of re-attempting a conquest of canada, particularly the acquisition of french quebec. Supports using non-traditional methods to sow discontent, and fund a Quebecois rebellion.


Francis Marion was born on a large plantation located just outside of Georgetown, SC. Marion began his long, controversial military career when he was 15 years old, during the French and Indian War. In 1757, he was recruited(at the age of 15) to serve with irregulars whose purpose was to push France's Cherokee allies across the western border. Marion quickly established a reputation as a born fighter. By 1761 he was promoted to lieutenant( at 19, the youngest in the colonial army) and given a small detachment of irregulars to pursue the routed Cherokee across the colonial border. At one point in his campaign, his small platoon was surrounded at night, and nearly massacred. Of the 30 men he took out, only 12 returned. This event would color his view on warfare for the rest of his life.

After the war, he returned home and continued his studies. An avid reader of Descartes, Locke, and Hobbes, he hoped to one day open a small school in Georgetown. That opportunity would never come. Upon his father's death in 1770(a member of South Carolina's provincial congress), he was offered to assume his father's seat in government. He accepted.

In 1775, he was commissioned a Captain in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment. His Commander, William Moultrie, had seen first hand Marion's capabilities, and granted Francis the command of his own "irregular" company. Unlike other irregular outfits, Marion's Death Heads(as they came to be called) were all 'regular' members of the new continental army. Marion used his experiences in the French and Indian War to sculpt South Carolina's most viscous and effective guerrilla unit.

Marion's company(which later grew to a two company irregular 'battalion') came to be known as the Death Heads when his company ambushed Prussian Death-Head Hussars as they were exiting their ship in Charleston(at the time, under British occupation). Marion and his men were able to sneak into Charleston(In civilian clothing) just after it fell to the British.

They waited 6 days for the anticipated arrival of Prussian Deathhead Hussar mercenaries, which would be used to push the rebels further south into Georgia - They never got the chance. The ships arrived in the evening of the 7th day. Marion and his men quietly positioned themselves near the ship, as well as inside the bar where the Hussar officers had chosen to meet. At midnight, Marion's men opened fire on the Prussian officers at point blank range. Marion, with about 20 irregulars outside the ship, simultaneously shot and killed the disembarking germans, then rushed aboard, killing everyone aboard, save a few members of the crew. The remaining irregulars boarded the ship, and sailed north along the coast, eventually scuddling the ship and escaping on row boats into the swamps north of Charleston.

Marion and his compatriots stole as much as they could, including the unique skull and cross bones worn by the Hussars. After the raid, Marion's company regularly wore the skull insignia, and even stamped their long rifles with the skull emblem. Often, during their many midnight raids, Marions irregulars would quickly paint a black skull and crossbones as a signature for the bewildered British commanders. As time passed, and their reputation for ruthlessness and terror grew among british troops, they came to be called Marion's Death Heads.

After the war, Marion dissolved his company, and was rewarded with a seat in the House representing South Carolina. Marion was also finally able to establish the Marion Academy in Charleston, SC, a university focusing on philosophy and the art of irregular warfare. The school also serves as an Officer/NCO academy for the South Carolina militia.
Edited by Francis Marion, May 16 2011, 11:50 AM.
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John
Administrator
Approved and masked.

I absolutely adore your bio. Good job!
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Francis Marion

gracias. I basically used Marion's RL myth as a guerrilla warrior and amped it up a couple notches :)

The movie The Patriot is inspired, in part, by Marion.
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John
Administrator
Just for the record (I'm pretty sure you realize this already), that you are not technically playing the RL character.
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Francis Marion

yes, of course. I completely made up the bio. The real marion myth was just the inspiration.
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