Francis Marion – Swamp Fox – I

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: From the opening of hostilities at Lexington and Concord in 1775 until signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, the Revolution was America's longest war until the Vietnam conflict. While tension between Loyalist and Patriot sympathizers continued throughout the former colonies, active fighting for the most part had shifted to the South after 1779. First Savannah then Charleston fell and British forces under Lord Cornwallis began a series of raids into the interior culminating in the Battle of Camden, South Carolina in August, 1780. Patriot forces under the command of General Horatio Gates suffered a disastrous defeat. After that there appeared almost nothing standing in the way of ultimate victory for the British commanders.