While he was in Gates's camp, the Whigs of Williamsburg District, who had arisen in arms, sent for him to be their commander. Governor Rutledge gave him the commission of a brigadier on the spot, and he hastened to organize that brigade, which we shall hereafter meet frequently among the swamps, the broad Savannahs, and by the water-courses of the South. **
Fort Motte, where the brave Marion exhibited his skill and courage, was the principal depot of the convoys between Charleston and Camden, and also for those destined for Granby and Ninety-Six.
The British had taken possession of the fine large mansion of Mrs. Rebecca Motte, *** a widow of fortune, which occupied a commanding position. They surrounded it with a deep trench (a part of which is yet visible), and along the interior margin of it erected a high parapet.
Mrs. Motte and her family, known to be inimical to the British, were driven to her ton with dispatches for Lord Rawdon. They were on the point of leaving, when Marion and Lee appeared upon the height at the farm-house where Mrs. Motte was residing.
After cautiously reeonnoitering, Lee took position at the farm-house, and his men, with the field-piece sent to them by Greene, occupied the eastern declivity of the high plain on which Fort Motte stood. This gentle declivity is a little southwest of the rail-way station, in full view of passengers upon the road. Marion immediately cast up a mound upon a hill north of the mansion, and their place was supplied by a garrison of one hundred and fifty men, under Captain M'Pherson, a brave British officer. After Colonel Watson eluded the pursuit of Marion and Lee, and crossed the Congaree (see page 681), those indefatigable partisans moved upon Fort Motte. A few hours before their arrival at that place,
M'Pherson was re-enforced by a small detachment of dragoons sent from Charles-
* Colonel Otho H. Williams, in his Narrative of the Campaigns of 1780, thus speaks of Marion and his men, at that time: "Colonel Marion, a gentleman of South Carolina, had been with the army a few days, attended by a very few followers, distinguished by small leather caps and the wretchedness of their attire; their numbers did not exceed twenty men and boys, some white, some black, and all mounted, but most of them miserably equipped; their appearance was, in fact, so burlesque, that it was with much difficulty the diversion of the regular soldiery was restrained by the officers; and the general himself was glad of an opportunity of detaching Colonel Marion, at his own instance, toward the interior of South Carolina, with orders to watch the motions of the enemy, and furnish intelligence.