posted. In this action, he bore his part with his usual intrepidity, for which he received a vote of thanks from Congress. The British, having retired into Charleston, a short time after this event, contented themselves with partisan excursions. While General Marion was attending the state legislature in February, 1782, of which he had been chosen a member, his brigade was surprised near the Santee river by a party of the British, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Thompson. Major Benson and some others of the Americans were killed, and the brigade dispersed; but, in a few days, they again re-assembled, the British having retired into their own lines, as soon as the expedition had effected its object. General Marion, after the evacuation of Charleston, retired to his plantation in St. John's parish, where he was born, and continued a member of the state legislature until that body commissioned him to put Fort Johnson into repair, with a salary of two thousand two hundred dollars per annum, which after peace was reduced to five hundred. This was a kind of sinecure given him as an indemnity in part for the losses of property he had sustained. After the close of the war, he married a Miss Videau, who brought him an affluent fortune. Enjoying the pleasing reflections of having eminently assisted, in the establishment of his country's independence, in the society of his amiable lady, and friends, he died in February, 1795, leaving no issue. As a patriot and soldier, he deservedly ranked among the foremost of those, who achieved the revolution. His warfare was of the partisan kind, in which no officer in either army was better skifled or more successful. In his person, General Marion was thin, of low stature, and of the smallest

size. He was reserved in conversation; possessed, by no means, a prepossessing visage, and was far from being captivating in his manners. His understanding was sound, but unaided by books or travel. In his diet, he was very abstemious, and ever an enemy to the Bacchanalian board.

General H. Lee, of the partisan legion of horse, informs us in his memoirs, that the father of General Marion removed from the spot, on which his father had settled on Cooper river, to the vicinity of Georgetown, where he resided the remainder of his life, that Francis Marion who was the youngest of five sons, was born there, and received only a common school education. As his three elder brothers became of age, his father gave them portions; but embarrassments in his affairs, deprived the two younger from participating a like inheritance. Hence they were compelled to depend upon their own exertions, to carry them through the rugged and thorny paths of human existence.

COMMODORE

JOHN BARRY.

THE father of the Commodore, was a respectable farmer in the county of Wexford, Ireland, where his son, the subject of this memoir, was born in the year 1745. After having received the first elements of an English education, to gratify his particular inclination for the sea, his father entered him in the merchant service. When about fifteen years of age, he arrived in Pennsylvania and -selected it as the country of his future residence. With the circumstances, which induced him to

leave his native land and to take up his abode in a foreign country, we are not acquainted. Of this, however, we are certain, that they cannot have been, in the least, injurious to his character, as we find, that in the capital of the British provinces, in the northern section of the western hemisphere, he was, for a number of years, in the employment of many of the most respectable merchants, of whose unlimited confidence he ever retained the full possession. Among the many gentlemen in whose service he was, Messrs. Meredith, Welling and Morris, and Nixon, stand most conspicuous. The ship Black Prince, a very valuable vessel, belonging to Mr. Nixon, engaged in the London trade, was commanded by him, at the commencement of the American revolution; but was shortly after purchased by Congress and converted into a vessel of war.

In reviewing the causes, which led to hostilities between Great Britain and her colonies, Barry was satisfied that justice was on the side of the latter. He therefore engaged under the banners of freedom and resolved to devote his best exertions to the emancipation of the colonies from the thraldom of the mother country.

Confiding in his patriotism, Congress, in February, 1776, a few months prior to the declaration of Independence, appointed him commander of the brig Lexington, of sixteen guns, and his was the first continental vessel, which sailed from the port of Philadelphia. His cruises were successful. Congress had caused to be built three large frigates, one of which was called the Effingham, to the command of which he was appointed immediately after that memorable æra, which gave to the United States a name among the nations of the world. During the following

winter, as his naval employment became nugatory, in consequence of the inclemency of the weather, he, from an aversion to inactivity, became a volunteer aid, in that season of peril, to the intrepid General Cadwallader.

The city of Philadelphia and forts on the Delaware fell into the hands of the British, in the following year, 1777, and Commodore Barry with several vessels of war, made good his retreat up the river, as far as Whitehill, where, however, they were afterwards destroyed by the enemy.

Prior to the destruction of these vessels, he successfully employed those under his command in annoying the enemy and cutting off their supplies.

After the destruction of the American squadron, and soon after the capture of Philadelphia, he was appointed to command the Raleigh, of thirty-two guns, which, on a cruise, was run on shore by a British squadron on Fox Island, in Penobscot bay.

Subsequent to the above disasters, he commanded a vessel commissioned with letters of marque and reprisal, and engaged in the West India trade for some time.

When Congress concluded to build a 74 gun ship in New-Hampshire, he was ordered to command her. It was, however, afterwards determined to make a present of this vessel to his most Christian Majesty, when that august body gave bim the command of the Alliance Frigate.

The situation of American affairs becoming important, in a foreign point of view, colonel John Laurens, of South Carolina, son of Henry Laurens, then a prisoner in the tower of London, was ordered to France on a special mission. Commodore Barry sailed in the Alliance from Boston for L'Orient in February, 1781, having the minis

ter extraordinary and suite on board. After landing the ambassador and suite at L'Orient, in the early part of the same year, the Alliance sailed on a cruise.

On the 29th of May following, at day-light, Commodore Barry discovered a ship and a brig on his weather bow, appearing afterwards to wear the British flag. He consequently prepared for immediate action. The British ship proved to be the Atalanta, Captain Edwards, of between twenty and thirty guns, and the brig Treposa, Captain Smith. An action shortly commenced, and by three P. M. both vessels struck. Barry was wounded early in the engagement; but notwithstanding his sufferings, in consequence of this casualty, he still remained on deck, and it was owing to his intrepidity and presence of mind, that the Alliance was the victor.

On December 25, 1781, he sailed in the Alliance for France, from Boston, having on board the Marquis de la Fayette and count De Noailles, who were desirous of going to their native country on business of the highest importance. He had scarcely arrived at his destined port (L'Orient,) than he sailed in February, 1782, on a cruise, during which he fell in with an enemy's ship of equal size and had a severe engagement. The enemy would have been captured, had it not been for two consorts, which, however, were kept at a distance during the action by a French fifty gun ship, which hove in sight. The continental ship Luzerne, of twenty guns, had her guns thrown over-board before the battle began, in order to facilitate her escape, as she had a quantity of specie on board from Havanna, for the use of the United States. The Captain of the British frigate, who was soon after advanced to be Vice