The "Bridges Campaign" was the biggest test for Marion and his men yet. Two weeks of chasing and be chased was similar to that of Grant and Lee on the way to Appomattox Court House, VA. While being hunted there was also the prisoner exchange that was on Marion's mind, injustice fueled him every day towards solutions towards liberty and freedom.
1) Wyboo Swamp proved that while Marion only checked Watson's advance, Watson had not cut off Marion's retreat so he lived to fight another day. It is extremely hard to anticipate the fox's move as most hounds are aware. Marion at this point, post-battle, took up where he left off in a series of correspondences with the British in Georgetown, specifically the commander there Capt. John Saunders, regarding certain named prisoners. The Brits had retaliated against the Postell brothers' raid on Brit supplies by kidnapping John Postell Sr. The 33 prisoners who Marion had from the Monck's Corner raid back in July were a drain on their food resources so Marion sought an exchange in which he said "... on account of his age, and hope humanity will induce you to treat him as a gentleman .." Prior to this, one of the Postell brothers took things into his own hands and led a party to reclaim his family's plantation 20 miles north of Georgetown and busted into the kitchen demanding surrender of the commander Capt. James DePeyster (rumor was that James was the most handsome man in British Army, he came from a Tory family in NY state). DePeyster refused to surrender which then has Postell start the kitchen on fire prompting the commander and 29 soldiers to unconditionally surrender. It was this action that had stalled the prisoner exchange. Saunders had written up a counter offer for prisoner exchange but by then Marion had already shipped DePeyster to a Continental prison camp up north.
2) Marion at this point bet that Saunders would agree to a limited prisoner exchange, four Brits that had been at Snow's Island in exchange for four rebels at Georgetown. This turned out to be a miscalculation as when John Postell approached Georgetown with a truce flag the British captured him and said he had violated parole terms after Charleston's surrender. Postell countered with claims the Brits plundered his home and therefore the parole terms were violated on the British end. Marion even went up the chain of command to Balfour, commander at Charleston, to no avail. Marion even tried dialog with Watson including copies of his attempted dialog with Saunders and Balfour.
3) March 9th Watson sat down at a plantation that Marion had stayed two nights prior (during the Bridges Campaign) and penned a sarcastic and condescending letter treating Marion like a bumpkin. His take was that the rebels and their leaders never followed international conventions and laughed that Marion would use this tactic. He wrote: "Men like his Majesty's troops, fighting from principle for the good of their country, with hearts full of conscious integrity, are fearless of any consequences" Marion made no immediate reply but continued to pick off Watson's sentries and pickets.
4) The next engagement was on March 10th when Marion's men took down a bridge on Watson's route to Kingstree or Georgetown ... Watson's artillery drove the rebels off but Marion managed to get away with his forces intact. Marion knew he could not run forever but had something in mind at yet another Bridge downstream to hopefully turn the tide. (But that is in chapter 15 ... ) Marion did not know if Watson was going to Kingstree or Georgetown but bet that he was really just following Marion. Acting on that intuition, Marion veered away from Kingstree to prevent Watson from upsetting the locals in that Whig stronghold.
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