Francis Marion is believed to have been born at Goatfield Plantation in St. James Parish, Berkeley County, South Carolina on February 26, 1732. When he was only five or six years of age, his family relocated to a plantation in St. George Parish on Winyah Bay. Later, his family moved to Pond Bluff Plantation near Eutaw Springs, located in St. John’s Parish of Berkeley County.

Francis was a frail child, unsuited for hard labor, so it seemed. When he was fifteen years of age, his parents consented to his request to become a sailor. They felt that the sea life would help him become stronger and less frail. He sailed as a crewmember on a schooner going to the West Indies. As they were making their return voyage, a whale rammed the schooner, causing a plank to separate from the vessel. The schooner took on water so quickly that the captain and crew had no chance to take food or fresh water onto the crewboat. For six days they floated without fresh water or food. Two of the crewmen died during the ordeal. On the seventh day, the survivors reached land.

In spite of the harrowing ordeal, Francis returned healthier than he was when he left! He was huskier and his spirit seemed renewed. However, he was never again heard to say he wanted to go to sea!

On January 1, 1757, twenty-four year old Francis and his brother Job served in the British Army, fighting in the French and Indian War. In 1761, he was a lieutenant under Captain William Moultrie in a campaign against the Cherokee. In a letter to Peter Horry, Marion took great pity on the Cherokee people. In the letter, he wrote, “But to me it appeared a shocking sight. Poor creatures! thought I, we surely need not grudge you such miserable habitations. But, when we came, according to orders, to cut down the fields of corn, I could scarcely refrain from tears. For who could see the stalks that stood so stately with broad green leaves and gaily tasseled shocks, filled with sweet milky fluid and flour, the staff of life; who, I say, without grief, could see these sacred plants sinking under our swords with all their precious load, to wither and rot untasted in their mourning fields."

He was a member of the South Carolina Provincial Congress in 1775. He was commissioned a captain in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment under William Moultrie on June 21, 1776. He served under the command of Moultrie during the defense of Fort Sullivan and Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor.

The Continental Congress promoted him to a lieutenant colonel in September of 1776.
In the fall of 1779, Marion was active in the siege of Savannah. In 1789, serving under General Benjamin Lincoln, he was training and drilling militia.

Charleston fell to the British on May 12, 1780 and Marion narrowly missed being captured. He was out of the city, recuperating from a broken ankle. After the fall of Charleston, the Continental Army experienced several losses. Among them were the losses at Moncks Corner and the Waxhaw Massacre, near North Carolina. At this point, the Continental Army in South Carolina was demoralized. Marion, still suffering from the ankle injury, organized a small command, consisting of, at any given time, between twenty and seventy men. They were the only force opposing the entire British Army in South Carolina at that time.

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