Preface.



The facts, in the life of Francis Marion, are far less generally extended
in our country than his fame. The present is an attempt to supply
this deficiency, and to justify, by the array of authentic particulars,
the high position which has been assigned him among the master-workers
in our revolutionary history. The task has been a difficult,
but I trust not entirely an unsuccessful one. Our southern chronicles
are meagre and unsatisfactory. South Carolina was too long
in the occupation of the British -- too long subject to the ravages
of civil and foreign war, to have preserved many of those minor records
which concern only the renown of individuals, and are unnecessary
to the comprehension of great events; and the vague tributes
of unquestioning tradition are not adequate authorities for the biographer,
whose laws are perhaps even more strict than those which govern the historian.
Numerous volumes, some private manuscripts, and much
unpublished correspondence, to which reference has been more particularly made
in the appendix, have been consulted in the preparation of this narrative.
The various histories of Carolina and Georgia have also been made use of.
Minor facts have been gathered from the lips of living witnesses.
Of the two works devoted especially to our subject, that by the Rev. Mr. Weems
is most generally known -- a delightful book for the young.
The author seems not to have contemplated any less credulous readers,
and its general character is such as naturally to inspire us
with frequent doubts of its statements. Mr. Weems had rather loose notions
of the privileges of the biographer; though, in reality, he has transgressed
much less in his Life of Marion than is generally supposed. But the untamed,
and sometimes extravagant exuberance of his style might well subject