Dance Of The Swamp Fox: A Song History
"Dance Of The Swamp Fox" is one of the twelve pieces in Ellen Pratt's Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 4, a 64-page book she published herself, where it is set as four dulcimer parts in DGD tuning.[1] The listing does not name a composer for the piece, and the sources consulted here do not show whether it is Pratt's own tune or an older melody she arranged.[1][2] By her own account, Pratt began composing for the dulcimer around 2004 and turned to ensemble pieces for groups of players after she joined a dulcimer orchestra in northeastern Connecticut.[2]
Allen & Ginter, Red Fox, from the Wild Animals of the World series (N25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes, commercial color lithograph, 1888. Shown for the nickname; it has no connection to the tune.
"Swamp Fox" was the nickname of Francis Marion (about 1732 to 1795), a South Carolina militia officer who led partisan raids against the British during the American Revolution.[3][4] The sources explain the name differently: Britannica says the British gave it to him because his tactics made him so hard to pin down, while the National Park Service links it to the Low Country swamps where he took cover to evade the British.[3][4] The usual story credits Banastre Tarleton, a British cavalry commander who reportedly abandoned a long pursuit of Marion in November 1780 and grumbled that not even the devil could catch this "damned old fox."[5][6] The sources consulted here do not say whether Pratt's title refers to Marion.[1][2]
Sources
- Ellen Pratt: "Ensemble Arrangements For The Mountain Dulcimer, Volume 4".
- DulcimerDownloads: "Ellen Pratt".
- Britannica: "Francis Marion".
- National Park Service, Ninety Six National Historic Site: "General Francis Marion".
- South Carolina Encyclopedia: "Marion, Francis".
- American Battlefield Trust: "Ox Swamp Battle Facts and Summary".
- Image: Allen & Ginter, Red Fox, from the Wild Animals of the World series (N25) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes, commercial color lithograph, 1888. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.