After the disasters at Charleston and Camden, General Horatio Gates had fled and the Continental Army no longer existed in the Carolinas. Francis Marion, a lieutenant colonel in the South Carolina militia, retreated to the swamps of the Pee Dee region with a handful of men - sometimes as few as twenty. From these sanctuary, he raided British supply lines, freed American prisoners, and inspired others to resist. His militia operated under different rules than regular armies: men joined when they could, leaving to tend farms or families, returning when opportunity arose. They provided their own weapons, horses, and food. Marion coordinated with other partisan leaders like Thomas Sumter and Andrew Pickens, but his force remained small and nimble. General Charles Cornwallis sent Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to hunt Marion, but Tarleton chased him through the swamps for hours before giving up, supposedly declaring he could not catch 'the old swamp fox.'

In October 1780, Marion received intelligence that Loyalist militia were gathering near Tearcoat Swamp, a Black River tributary in the High Hills region. Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Tynes had been ordered by Major General Nisbet Balfour to recruit and train a Loyalist force to help pacify the area. Tynes established his camp at the fork of the Black River, placing the swamp at his back for protection. He had gathered arms and supplies from Camden and was building his strength. Marion recognized both the threat and the opportunity: a growing Loyalist force with weapons his own men desperately needed. He decided to attack before Tynes could complete his preparations. But Marion told no one - not even his own men knew the objective. Before departing, he spread rumors that he intended to march on McCallum's Ferry, a deception to mask his true target.

Marion left his camp at Kingstree on the morning of October 25 and led his 152 men toward Salem. They marched all day, forded the Black River after nightfall, and sent scouts to reconnoiter the Loyalist camp. The scouts reported that only a few men were awake, playing cards; security was lax. Marion waited until after midnight when the camp would be most vulnerable. He divided his force into three groups - left, right, and center - the same tactics that had succeeded at the Battle of Black Mingo earlier that month. At his pistol shot, all three groups charged on horseback, yelling and firing. The Loyalists, caught completely by surprise, had no time to organize resistance. The battle ended with the first assault.

The engagement's brief violence produced significant results. Six Loyalists were killed, fourteen wounded, and twenty-three captured. Marion's force suffered no casualties - only two horses were killed. More valuable than the prisoners were the captured supplies: over eighty muskets, bridled and saddled horses, and food supplies that would sustain Marion's militia through the coming weeks. Many of the captured Loyalists were so impressed by Marion's men that they defected to the Patriot cause. Tynes himself escaped into the swamp he had trusted for protection. Marion assigned Captain William Clay Snipes to hunt him down, which eventually succeeded. After Tearcoat Swamp, the Loyalist movement in the Salem area was effectively nullified. Marion had demonstrated again that even with a small force, aggressive action could shift the balance of power.

Tearcoat Swamp was one of dozens of small actions Marion fought in 1780 and 1781. None were major battles by European standards, but collectively they kept resistance alive when British victory seemed certain. Marion's guerrilla campaign tied down British forces needed elsewhere, disrupted supply lines, and maintained Patriot morale. When Nathanael Greene arrived to rebuild the Continental Army in the South, he found a network of partisan fighters who had prepared the ground. The British, unable to secure the countryside despite controlling Charleston and Savannah, eventually withdrew. Marion became a legendary figure, celebrated in Parson Weems' biography and later in Walt Disney's television series. The swamps of the Pee Dee region where he hid remain largely unchanged - black water, cypress knees, and dense forest that concealed desperate men fighting for a nation not yet born.