A Sketch of the Life of Brig. Gen. Francis Marion and a History of His Brigade

In 1821, a former soldier sat down to preserve the truth about a legend before myth entirely swallowed memory. William Dobein James had been a boy when he first joined Francis Marion's irregular brigade in the swamps of South Carolina, and now, decades later, he wanted to set the record straight. What emerges is a vivid account of the Swamp Fox himself: a slight man who vanished into cypress swamps and emerged to devastate British supply lines, who made the feared Banastre Tarleton look foolish, who turned the pine barrens into a hell the redcoats learned to fear. James captures Marion not as legend but as commander, friend, and flawed human being. The book stands as the closest thing we have to an inside view of revolutionary guerrilla warfare, told by someone who bled alongside these men. For anyone who wants to understand the real tactics and costs of asymmetric warfare in America's founding moment, this is essential.