Paul Revere, Henry Laurens, Jack Jouett and the “Swamp Fox”. All descendants of Hugenots.

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Most of the Huguenot congregations (or individuals) in North America eventually affiliated with other Protestant denominations with more numerous members. The Huguenots adapted quickly and often began to marry outside their immediate French communities fairly rapidly, which led to their assimilation.

Paul Revere was descended from Huguenot refugees, as was Henry Laurens, who signed the Declaration of Independence for South Carolina; Jack Jouett, who made the ride from Cuckoo Tavern to warn Thomas Jefferson and others that Tarleton and his men were on their way to arrest him for crimes against the king; Francis Marion, and a number of other leaders of the American Revolution and later statesmen. The last active Huguenot congregation in North America worships in Charleston, South Carolina, at a church that dates from 1844.


Paul Revere (1735 – 1818) was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride. As a result, his "midnight ride" is a legendary part of United States history.

Henry Laurens (1724 [O.S. 1723] – 1792) was an American merchant and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laurens succeeded John Hancock as President of the Congress. He was a signatory to the Articles of Confederation.

John "Jack" Jouett, Jr. (1754 – 1822) was a politician and a hero of the American Revolution, known as the "Paul Revere of the South" for his late night ride to warn Thomas Jefferson, then the Governor of Virginia, and the Virginia legislature of coming British cavalry who had been sent to capture them.


Francis Marion (c. 1732 – 1795) was a military officer who served in the American Revolutionary War. Acting with Continental Army and South Carolina militia commissions, he was a persistent adversary of the British in their occupation of South Carolina in 1780 and 1781, even after the Continental Army was driven out of the state in the Battle of Camden.
Due to his irregular methods of warfare, he is considered one of the fathers of modern guerrilla warfare, and is credited in the lineage of the United States Army Rangers.
He is known as the Swamp Fox.

We got lead, and we got powder.
We don't fight with an empty gun.
Only makes us shout the louder.
We are men of Marion.

Swamp Fox! Swamp Fox!
Tail on his hat,
Nobody knows where The Swamp Fox's at.

Swamp Fox! Swamp Fox!
Hiding in the glen,
He runs away to fight again.

Got no blankets, got no bed.
Got no roof above our heads.
Got no shelter when it rains.
All we got is Yankee brains.
Swamp Fox! Swamp Fox!
Tail on his hat,
Nobody knows where The Swamp Fox's at.

Swamp Fox! Swamp Fox!
Hiding in the glen,
He runs away to fight again.


Got no cornpone, got no honey.
All we got is Continental money.
Won't buy bacon, hominy or grits.
Roasted ears and possum is all we ever git.
Swamp Fox! Swamp Fox!
Tail on his hat,
Nobody knows where The Swamp Fox's at.

Swamp Fox! Swamp Fox!
Hiding in the glen,
He runs away to fight again.

General Francis Marion of the Continental Army back during The Revolutionary War. He was known in History as "The Swamp Fox." This was because he and his men hid out in the Swamps of South Carolina, where he used the "Element of surprise" to defeat his foes. Walt Disney released a TV Mini Series about Marion back in the Late 1950's {starring Leslie Nielson), which helped to make "The Swamp Fox" an American Folklore Legend as well as a Military Hero.