Historic military organization traces its lineage to Francis Marion and a century prior
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATE GUARD, the Palmetto State’s all-volunteer state defense force (organized state militia) celebrated its 350-plus-year heritage during a Veterans Day “Salute to Veterans” ceremony paying tribute to one of its earliest forebears, Brig. Gen. Francis Marion, at Marion’s gravesite on the old Belle Isle Plantation near Pineville in Berkeley County, S.C., November 11.
The ceremony attended by several historians, State Guardsmen, S.C. Representative Sylleste H. Davis, a few Boy Scouts, and a uniformed detachment of the also-historic Washington Light Infantry was presided over by Major General Leon Lott, who has commanded the S.C. State Guard (SCSG) for the past six years and served in the state militia for 20.
PRIDE IN ONE’S HISTORY
“Recognition such as this where we honor heroic S.C. militia leaders and regular Army commanders like Francis Marion is vital not only to the preservation of our state’s extraordinary military history but as a means of instilling within our State Guardsmen the necessary sense of pride in their own lineage which is in many ways the lifeblood of our unique military organization,” said Lott during in an interview earlier this week. “Governor Henry McMaster often talks about the richness of our state’s history – military and otherwise – and it was Sir Winston Churchill who said, ‘A nation that forgets its history has no future.’”
Lott assumed command of the SCSG in 2018 from outgoing commander Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Mullikin, current chair of the gubernatorially established S.C. Floodwater Commission.
MARION AND A CENTURY EARLIER
Like all previous SCSG commanders, Lott traces his command lineage to Francis Marion (aka “the Swamp Fox”), even further back to March 17, 1670, the date the first English colonists and their accompanying men-at-arms set foot on the shores of Albemarle Point – on the west bank (or far side) – of the Ashley River.
Those armed men became known as the 1st Provincial Militia, the sole military force defending the new colony against all threats, and the earliest predecessor organization to the 21st century SCSG. Also interesting to note that Albemarle Point was named for George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle and captain-general of the “Army of the Kingdom of England” and the “first palatine” or Royal authority of the province of Carolina.
“Command of the militia which General Marion held – along with other state militia commanders before and since – is the same post I hold today,” said Lott. “I do not take that authority and responsibility lightly.”
Lott adds: “The uniforms are different, but our hearts are the same. His [Marion’s] enemies were the British. Our enemies are mother nature, and she is every bit as formidable.”
SHERIFF AND MILITARY DEPARTMENT OFFICER
Lott, who has also served as Sheriff of Richland County since being first elected in 1996, has served in various leadership and command positions within the S.C. Military Department (SCMD) since being commissioned into the SCMD’s Joint Services Detachment (JSD) as a major and provost marshal (ranking military police commander) in 2004.
The SCMD oversees the S.C. Army National Guard, the S.C. Air National Guard, the Emergency Management Division, JSD and the SCSG.
In 2006, Lott was promoted to lieutenant colonel in JSD. In 2008, he transferred from JSD to SCSG. That same year, he was promoted to colonel. In 2015, he was promoted to brigadier general in the SCSG. In 2018, he was appointed commanding general of the SCSG. And in 2023, Governor McMaster promoted Lott to major general.
As a legislatively mandated all-volunteer state defense force (SDF or state militia), the SCSG is one of the oldest such state military organizations in existence; perhaps even the oldest mostly continuously existing force of its kind.
Officially, the Massachusetts Bay Colony first formed ranks in 1645, but the Massachusetts militia has been activated and deactivated numerous times since, and currently the state no longer fields an SDF organization.
ALBEMARLE TO FRANCE’S WESTERN FRONT
In 1680, a decade after landing at Albemarle, the settlers including its tiny band of provincial militia packed-up and moved across the river to the east bank of the Ashley on the main peninsula between the harbor and the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. Thus Charles Towne (future Charleston, S.C.) was born, and the rest as they say is history.
In the early days of the Province of Carolina, S.C. militiamen successfully repulsed French and Spanish invaders. They attacked St. Augustine, Florida, in 1706, and they won the Yemassee War in 1715.
Numerous colonial wars and expeditions followed until the eruption of the American Revolution in 1775 and 1776 when S.C. militia units were formed into three brigades under Generals Marion, Thomas Sumter, and Andrew Pickens.
S.C. militiamen also served in the War of 1812 and again with great distinction during the Mexican War, 1846-1848. And they served throughout the entire American Civil War, 1861-1865.
In 1903, the U.S. Congress enacted the Militia Act which established a National Guard, which, unlike the state militias from which the new National Guard was born, could be federalized.
The new S.C. National Guard now also enjoyed a parallel lineage with the S.C. militia. The old S.C. militia was in a dormant period for the next 14 years, but it was reactivated during World War I to fill the gap in S.C. left by S.C. National Guard troops who were deploying to the Western Front in France, 1917-1918.
Then in 1941 as World War II was raging across Europe and the Pacific, S.C. Gov. Burnet Maybank signed into existence the S.C. Defense Force, the final predecessor organization to the S.C. State Guard.
CONGRESSIONAL RECOGNITION AND THE MODERN STATE GUARD
Like its all-volunteer militia forebears, the SCSG is among the first organizations to respond if-and-when natural or manmade disasters strike S.C. In his remarks on the floor of the U.S. Congress in June 2020, Congressman Joe Wilson referred to the SCSG as being made up of “highly trained and ready professionals,” adding that “when serious natural or man-made disasters strike our state, the mission of the State Guard is to quickly respond to protect people and property and to help communities recover.”
Operating in coordination with S.C. National Guard forces, law enforcement (like Lott’s own Richland County Sheriff’s Department), and other state, county, and municipal agencies during time of emergency, the SCSG has proven itself time-and-again.
According to Lott: “State Guard soldiers have been serving statewide – clearing roads and thruways, directing traffic and emergency work and otherwise directly assisting National Guard units, other agencies, and emergency response personnel and they with us – in the wake of the recent hurricane disasters this year. On Veterans Day for instance, the very day we were commemorating the life and legacy of Francis Marion, we had several State Guard soldiers serving and working in nearby towns.”
The Washington Light Infantry, which posted and retired the colors at Marion’s gravesite on November 11, shares a parallel, directly connected history with the SCSG.
As one of the nation’s also-oldest continuously existing militia units, the Washington Light Infantry (WLI) was established in 1807. The WLI is headquartered in Charleston.
