Francis Marion did not cut an impressive figure when he joined the Patriot army of Maj. Gen. Horatio Gates in July 1780. The 48-year-old officer stood slightly over five feet and weighed just 110 pounds. He had a narrow face, hooked nose, and his knees almost touched each other when he stood. “I have it from good authority that this great soldier, at his birth, was not larger than a New England lobster, and might easily have been put into a quart pot,” wrote Peter Horry, a fellow militia officer in South Carolina.
But by that time, Marion had become a well-respected military officer fighting the British during the American Revolutionary War. He was intelligent, brave, and ambitious. Although his manner could be harsh, it was largely a reflection of his unbending will. These traits, when combined with his talents as a tactician and strategist, made him a natural leader of men and gave him ample credibility with the raw militia who constituted the majority of the troops in the Patriot armies of the southern theater.
