The Swamp Fox

How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution

by John Oller

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Pub Date Oct 25 2016 | Archive Date Oct 25 2016

Perseus Books Group, Da Capo Press | Da Capo Press

Biographies & Memoirs | History

Description

In the darkest days of the American Revolution, Francis Marion and his band of militia freedom fighters kept hope alive for the patriot cause during the critical British “southern campaign.” Like the Robin Hood of legend, Marion and his men attacked from secret hideaways before melting back into the forest or swamp. Employing insurgent tactics that became commonplace in later centuries, Marion and his brigade inflicted losses on the enemy that were individually small but cumulatively a large drain on British resources and morale.

In The Swamp Fox, the first major biography of Marion in more than forty years, John Oller compiles striking evidence to provide a fresh look at Marion, the man, and how he helped save the American Revolution.

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Available Editions

EDITION	Hardcover
ISBN	9780306824579
PRICE	$26.99 (USD)
PAGES	400

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Featured Reviews

Elizabeth M, Reviewer

I loved it, loved reading about his life, and the places he was at, Mr.Oller has a way at lest with this book that brings to life the story of the Swamp Fox , it's like as your reading it , you're experiencing every thing they went through, it like your watched a movie come to life, while I did know a little bit about the Swamp Fox, I actually learned a lot more not just about him and his guys but also about the American Revolution , thus is a book that needs to be read and added to any book shelf. With that said I would love to say thinks to NetGalley for giving me a chance at reading what turned out to be a great book in a change for my honest opinion.

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Johnny B, Media/Journalist

JOHN OLLER. The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution. Da Capo. Hardcover, 400 pages, $26.99, DaCapoPress.com.
During the American Revolution, Francis Marion led a group of Patriot partisans in guerrilla warfare against British regulars and colonial Loyalists in the South Carolina frontier. Hiding in the swamps, he earned the Swamp Fox nickname, and an updated biography has been long overdue. John Oller writes with convincing authority, although he fails when he tries to be cute: Colonial General Nathanael Greene wanted Marion’s men to supply the regulars with horses but also “to serve, in part, as cowboys – driving cattle to the army and away from the enemy. And no cowboy was ever without a good horse.” Cattle were herded by foot in the Carolinas in those days. Otter documents the savagery on both sides and shows how violent the war was in the South: 66 percent of the 1,000 Patriots killed in action and 90 percent of the 2,000 Patriots wounded in action in 1780 fell in South Carolina. Otter’s book might not replace Robert D. Bass’s Swamp Fox: The Life and Campaigns of General Francis Marion as the definitive Marion biography, but it’s a great study of a complex man in a bloody struggle.
– Johnny D. Boggs
Published in Roundup Magazine, April 2017, in Nonfiction Book Reviews, Western Writers of America, www.WesternWriters.org