On February 29th, we enjoy the extra “Leap Day”, and on that occasion, I will take the tour past the scene of Charleston’s most famous leap, made in 1780 by Francis Marion. The Spring of 1780 saw Charleston (Charles Town until 1783) under siege by British forces on land and at sea. Marion was a Colonel in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment defending the city, and took time away from his duties one evening to attend an officer’s gathering at the John Stuart House on Tradd Street. The officer hosting the affair began offering toasts to be drunk, which put Marion in an awkward position.
As an austere Huguenot, he preferred not to drink, but apparently didn’t want to offend his host, so he tried slipping out of the house unnoticed by leaping from a second story window. Marion broke his leg with the leap, and had his servants take him out to his Berkeley County plantation to recover. While he was there, Charles Town and the soldiers defending it were surrendered. Within a year, Marion was back in the fray, leading a guerilla campaign against the British by hiding in wetlands and mounting surprise cavalry attacks that earned him the nickname “Swamp Fox.”
Marion’s influence on the outcome of the war was significant as the British eventually gave up South Carolina, as Lord Cornwallis marched his troops North to Yorktown in 1781, and the final disastrous Red Coat defeat.
Thank you Francis Marion, for making your historic leap.