SWAMP FOX




Eventually, I hope to have more Francis Marion "The Swamp Fox" information here.  A

Francis Marion Sweet Potato print reproduction can be seen here.  This is a photo of 

the reproduction given to me by James Vernon Epps.  He has Serial Number 1 of the Print.

Another version of the painting by John Blake White, a South Carolina artist, lawyer, 

and legislator, hangs in the United States Capital Building.  There is no documentary 

evidence for the British officer’s report of having "seen an American general and his 

officers, without pay, and almost without clothes, living on roots and drinking water; 

and all for LIBERTY!", or his turning in his resignation.  However, there is a record

of British prisioners that were released by Francis Marion, returning to duty shortly

after Christmas.



Keating SIMONS served with Francis Marion as an aide from July, 1781 until the end of 

the war, and was a close friend until his death. Mr. Simons had been captured by the 

British when they took Charleston, but had been "released on parole" to his Lewisfield 

plantation.  However when General Greene came to the area, Colonel Wade Hampton went 

to visit his love, Keating's youngest sister.  However, he found a party of British 

there which he and his men defeated.  The British thought that Mr. Simons had broken 

his parole and sent out Black Dragoons to bring him back "dead or alive".  But being 

warned, he joined General Marion at Snow Island.  The hideout was on the end of Snow

Island where Lynches River joins the Pee Dee River.  (My Timmons ancestors lived up 

Lynches River, a few miles away.)  A painting by William T. Ranney, titled, "Marion 

Crossing the Peede" hangs at Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas.  This image of

that painting is from http://www.southerncampaign.org/newsletter/v2n11.pdf (warning, 

large file).  Copies of Ranney’s "Marion Crossing the Peede" are at the Marion County 

and the Greenville County Museum of Art. (Peede is an early spelling variation of what

is now spelled Pee Dee.)



Francis Marion had been in love with Mary Esther SIMONS, but she refused him and married

Jack Holmes. (Source The Simons folder at the SC Historical Society, Letters of  James 

SIMONS, probably a letter from Harrier Hyrne Simons to Mary Simons (Mrs. Horatio Allen).)



After the war, Francis Marion married his first Cousin Mary Esther VIDEAU.  Mary Esther's 

Grandfather was Pierre VIDEAU, who is also my 9 Great Grandfather. The St. Martin de Ré, 

Ile de Ré, 6 Mar 1685 Huguenot register lists the Marriage of Pierre VIDEAU merchand 

from La Rochelle (son of Pierre VIDEAU and Madelleine BURGAND) and Jeanne Elizabeth 

MAUZE (daughter of Joseph MAUZE). He also appears in a denization list.


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