Francis Marion died on February 27, 1795, in the sixty-third year of his age, deeply regretted by his fellow citizens. He was remembered as one of the most distinguished patriots and heroes of the American Revolution, which elevated his native country to honor and independence and secured liberty and peace. He was honored for the noble and disinterested virtues of the citizen and the gallant exploits of the soldier who lived without fear and died without reproach. To preserve to posterity the burial place of this honored son, the General Assembly of South Carolina replaced his crumbling and broken tomb, then nearly a century old, with an enduring memorial cut from the state's own granite hills.