Publication of the Francis Marion Papers

David Neilan began working on a manuscript in 2005 to gather all the known letters and material related to Francis Marion. His compilation of those resources, combined with Marion’s Orderly Book entries, created a very accurate chronological view and insights into his actions during the Revolutionary War. David had an unfortunate medical setback around 2012 that did not allow him to pursue getting the manuscript published.

The late Charles Baxley, Commissioner of the SC 250th, and a friend of Dave Neilan, acquired the rights for the SC 250th to publish the manuscript. Baxley had a vision that the work would be put into context with other events going on other places during the war, have biographical references, and also be available to the public at no cost. He then created a partnership with the late Doug Bostick, Executive Director of the SCBT to form a team to ready the work for publication.

Rick Wise and Ben Rubin were tasked as editors to review the manuscript, add military history based analysis and context, incorporate the biographies, and generally get the manuscript ready for peer review for publication. The first work was done by August 2023, and then with Charles Baxley’s input, further revisions were done to provide even more detail to the over 600 letters and other documents involved. Dr. Jim Piecuch and Dr. Steve Smith did the peer review and greatly helped with ensuring the citations and other important aspects of the work were correct. The manuscript as then placed into the very capable hands of Vally M. Sharpe of United Writers Press in Asheville, North Carolina who had done an outstanding job in arranging the work into a configuration that the reader will enjoy.

Please know that the pages presented in what will be these three volumes (1759-1780; 1781; and 1785-1795) will in many ways confirm what we know of Marion, and in some ways change what was thought before. With no fault of their own, prior historians and biographers did not have these primary sources to go on. We have found that some assumptions based on not having these letters are now proven not to be as thought. We look forward to your discovering these facts for yourself within the pages of what we hope to be a significant contribution to our understanding of Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution and Francis Marion history .