“Fortunately for the Republican cause, an accident prevented Marion being among the prisoners when Charleston fell, and he was yet at liberty, having no parole to violate, to arouse his countrymen to make further efforts against the invaders. While yet unable to be active, he took refuge in the swamps upon the Black River, while Governor Rutledge, Colonel Horry, and others, who had escaped the disasters at Charleston, were in North Carolina arousing the people of that State to meet the danger which stood menacing upon its southern border. Marion’s military genius and great bravery were known to friends and foes, and while the latter sought to entrap him, the former held over him the shield of their vigilance. ‘In the moment of alarm he was sped from house to house, from tree to thicket, from the thicket to the swamp.’” “It was while in the camp of Gates that Governor Rutledge, who also was there, commissioned Marion a brigadier, and he sped to the district of Williamsburg, between the Santee and Pedee, to lead its rising patriots to the field of active military duties. They had accepted the protection of British power after Charleston was surrendered, in common with their subdued brethren of the low country; but when Clinton’s proclamation was promulgated, making active service for the crown or the penalty of rebellion an alternative, they eagerly chose the latter, and lifted the strong arm-resistance to tyranny. They called Marion to be their leader, and of these men he formed his efficient brigade, the terror of British scouts and outposts. Near the mouth of Lynch’s Creek he assumed the command, and among the interminable swamps upon Snow’s Island, near the junction of that stream with the Great Pedee, he made his chief rendezvous during the greater portion of his independent partisan warfare.” Having thus refreshed your memory with the facts just given, remember that that which follows is the work of Rufus Randolph, and not of your friend, JAMES OTIS. THE MINUTE BOYS OF SOUTH CAROLINA CHAPTER I GABRIEL AND RUFUS The king’s forces laid siege to Charleston, in the State of South Carolina, on the very day that Gabriel Marion was sixteen years old, and when I was come to the same age the Continental forces made their first sortie, as I remember full well because of the fact that General Moultre’s brother was then killed. Thus it will be seen that Gabriel was my senior only by fifteen days, for it must be fresh in the minds of every one that Sir Henry Clinton opened fire on Charleston the fifth day of April, in the year of grace 1780; that the Americans made their first sortie on the twentieth; that on the sixth day of May the besiegers completed their third parallel, and on the twelfth the city was in the possession of the king’s troops.