The Swamp Rifles

The Swamp Rifles: A Tale of the Revolution C. Dunning Clark's serial novel *The Swamp Rifles* depicts American partisan warfare during the Southern campaign of the Revolutionary War. The narrative opens with exposition on guerrilla tactics employed by patriot bands—Marion, Pickens, Lee, Horry, Graham, and Taylor—who, lacking conventional resources, conducted raids from swamp strongholds against British regulars and Tory forces. The story centers on Sile Staple, a rifleman carrying news of Morgan's victory over Tarleton's dragoons at Cowpens, crossing the Pee Dee River to meet Samuel Merrill, a patriot informant. Staple relays intelligence of the defeat, praising the effectiveness of rifles against British cavalry. The encounter is interrupted by Joe Amos, a Tory gentleman and former acquaintance who attempts to extract information and recruit Staple to a royalist enterprise. Merrill's romantic interest in Merrill's daughter Lizzie emerges as subplot tension. The narrative captures period dialect and Revolutionary-era military dynamics.