Centenary, South Carolina

First timer?  In this formerly once-a-day blog (then every-other-day blog and now a one-to-three-times a week blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48).  I call this “landing.”  I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near.  I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.  To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

Dan –  Wow.  I guess this means I’m on a roll, what with my third USer in a row (and my fourth out of five landings), with this landing in . . . SC; 18/20; 5/10; 1; 155.3.  Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Centenary and the Pee Dee River (off to the east):

Here’s a broader view:

I landed in the watershed of Bull Swamp, on to Mulyn Ck; on to the Pee Dee R (7^th hit); on to the AO.

My GE shot shows a tidy agricultural area:

Check out this fancy place (which, of course, I would call a plantation), located SE of my landing on the above photo:

Here’s a StreetView shot; my landing is about 900 feet away,  in the back of the field near the woods:

As just happened with my Sentinel OK landing, the nearest town (in this case Centenary) comes up a little short on the interest level.  As for Sentinel, I’ll hasten to add that this is nothing against Centenary, and I’m sure it’s a fine little town.

I did find this Panaramio shot just northeast of my landing near the Pee Dee, which discusses the Battle of Blue Savannah:

Here’s a broader view:

This battle features Francis “Swamp Fox” Marion.  When I was a kid, I absolutely loved the Disney TV Swamp Fox series.  Anyway, here’s a picture of the historic Swamp Fox:

From History.com, here’s some info about the battle:

On September 4, 1780, Patriot Francis Marion’s Carolina militia routs Loyalists at Blue Savannah, South Carolina, and in the process Marion wins new recruits to the Patriot cause.

Following their surprising success at Nelson’s Ferry on the Santee River in South Carolina on August 20, Lieutenant Colonel Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion and 52 of his militiamen rode east in order to evade pursuing British Loyalists. They were successful, but during their escape, another, much larger, force of Loyalists led by Major Micajah Ganey, attacked the militia from the northeast.

Marion’s advance guard, led by Major John James, routed Ganey’s advance guard and Marion ambushed the rest, causing Ganey’s main body of 200 Loyalists to panic and flee. The success of Marion’s militia broke the Loyalist stronghold on South Carolina east of the PeeDee River and attracted another 60 volunteers to the Patriot cause.

Marion, a mere five feet tall, won fame and the “Swamp Fox” moniker for his ability to strike and then quickly retreat into the South Carolina swamps without a trace.  His military strategy is considered an 18th-century example of guerilla warfare and served as partial inspiration for Mel Gibson’s character, Benjamin Martin, in the film The Patriot (2000).

More about the Swamp Fox, from Wiki:

[Warning!  The following is more controversial than usual for A Landing A Day!]

The public memory of Francis Marion has been shaped in large part by the first biography about him, “The Life of General Francis Marion” written by M. L. Weems. The New York Times has described Weems as one of the “early hagiographers” of American literature “who elevated the Swamp Fox, Francis Marion, into the American pantheon”. Weems is known for having invented the apocryphal “cherry tree” anecdote about George Washington and “Marion’s life received similar embellishment”, as Amy Crawford wrote in Smithsonian Magazine in 2007.

Francis Marion was one of the influences for the main character in the 2000 movie The Patriot, which according to Crawford “exaggerated the Swamp Fox legend for a whole new generation”.

Around the time of The Patriot’s release, comments in the British press challenged the American notion of Francis Marion as a hero. In the Evening Standard, British author Neil Norman called Francis Marion, a thoroughly unpleasant dude who was, basically, a terrorist.

British historian Christopher Hibbert described Marion as

… very active in the persecution of the Cherokee Indians and not at all the sort of chap who should be celebrated as a hero. The truth is that people like Marion committed atrocities as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the British.

In a commentary published in the National Review, conservative talk radio host Michael Graham rejected criticisms like Hibbert’s as an attempt to rewrite history:

Was Francis Marion a slave owner? Was he a determined and dangerous warrior? Did he commit acts in an 18th-century war that we would consider atrocious in the current world of peace and political correctness? As another great American film hero might say: “You damn right.”

That’s what made him a hero, 200 years ago and today.

Michael Graham also refers to what he describes as “the unchallenged work of South Carolina’s premier historian Dr. Walter Edgar, who pointed out in his 1998 ‘South Carolina: A History’ that Marion’s partisans were “a ragged band of both black and white volunteers.”

British historian Hugh Bicheno has compared Gen. Marion with British officers Tarleton and Maj. James Wemyss; referring to all of them:   “…they all tortured prisoners, hanged fence-sitters, abused parole and flags of truce, and shot their own men when they failed to live up to the harsh standards they set.”

Anyway, here’s a painting by John Blake White of the Swamp Fox.  Below the picture is a description of the painting from Smithsonian.com.

In early 1781, Revolutionary War militia leader Francis Marion and his men were camping on Snow’s Island, South Carolina, when a British officer arrived to discuss a prisoner exchange. As one militiaman recalled years later, a breakfast of sweet potatoes was roasting in the fire, and after the negotiations Marion, known as the “Swamp Fox,” invited the British soldier to share breakfast. According to a legend that grew out of the much-repeated anecdote, the British officer was so inspired by the Americans’ resourcefulness and dedication to the cause—despite their lack of adequate provisions, supplies or proper uniforms—that he promptly switched sides and supported American independence. Around 1820, John Blake White depicted the scene in an oil painting that now hangs in the United States Capitol. In his version, the primly attired Redcoat seems uncomfortable with Marion’s ragtag band, who glare at him suspiciously from the shadows of a South Carolina swamp.

Inspite of the controversy discussed above,  I’m hanging on to my image of Leslie Nielson as Disney’s heroic good-guy Swamp Fox . . .

In more traditional A Landing A Day style, I close with this nearby shot of a cotton field:

That’ll do it. . .

KS

Greg

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