Pickens, Andrew
PICKENS, ANDREW (1730-1817), American soldier in the War of Independence, was born in Paxton, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the igth of September 1739. His family settled at the Waxhaws (in what is now Lancaster county), South Carolina, in 1752. He fought against the Cherokees in 1761 as a lieutenant. In the War of Independence he rose to brigadier-general (after Cowpens) in the South Carolina militia. He was a captain among the American troops which surrendered at Ninety Six in November 1775. On the 14th of February 1779, with 300-400 men, he surprised and defeated about 700 Loyalists under Colonel Boyd on Kettle Creek, Wilkes county, Georgia; on the 20th of June he fought at Stono Ferry; and later in the same year at Tomassee defeated the Cherokees, who were allied with the British. Upon the surrender of Charleston (May 1780) he became a prisoner on parole, which he observed rigidly until, contrary to the promises made to him, Major James Dunlap plundered his plantation; he then returned to active service. His command (about 150 men) joined General Daniel Morgan immediately before the battle of Cowpens, in which Pickens commanded an advance guard (270-350 men from Georgia and North Carolina) and twice rallied the broken American militia; for his services Congress gave him a sword. With Colonel Henry Lee he harassed Lieut.-Colonel Banastre Tarleton, who was attempting to gather a Loyalist force just before the battle of Guilford Court House; and with Lee and others, he captured Augusta (June 5, 1781) after a siege. At Eutaw Springs (Sept. 8, 1781) he commanded the left wing and was wounded. In 1782 he defeated the Cherokees again and forced them to surrender all lands south of the Savannah and east of the Chattahoochee. After the war he was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives for a number of years, of the state Constitutional Convention in 1790, and of the National House of Representatives in 1793-1795. He died in Pendleton district, South Carolina, on the 17th of August 1817. He had married in 1765 Rebecca Calhoun, an aunt of John C. Calhoun. Their son, ANDREW PICKENS (1779-1838), served as a lieutenant-colonel in the War of 1812, and was governor of South Carolina in 1816-1818.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
