On Christmas Day, 1780, famed rifleman General Daniel Morgan received a present of enormous consequence. A small band of sixty South Carolina militiamen rode onto camp. The leader was church elder Colonel Andrew Pickens (1739-1817); rigid, somber, a man of few words, and the south’s greatest militia fighter. And for Morgan, who would face the gravest challenge of his life at Cowpens, Pickens’ presence would prove a Godsend.
South Carolina provided the American Revolution with three militia generals of renown that carried their own sobriquets of respected honor into battle. Francis Marion, “Swamp Fox,” sly, illusive, and fierce, became a national legend. Thomas Sumter, “Gamecock,” relentless, determined, but self-centered, was the darling of the state. And the third triumvirate leader of southern resistance, Andrew Pickens, “Skyagunsta or Wizard Owl,” long faced, dour, and deadly. He was the lesser known, but of whose actions at the Battle of Cowpens, would spearhead a turning point in the southern theatre that ultimately paved the way to a rebellious nation’s final victory at Yorktown.
Beside countless skirmishes with loyalists, Cherokee, and British regulars, three other actions beside Cowpens distinguished Pickens as a fearless fighter and born leader; Battle of Kettle Creek, Sieges of Ninety-Six and Augusta, and Battle of Eutaw Springs, considered the bloodiest of the war. In war he became a dagger driven into the heart of England’s southern invasion. In peace, he became a distinctive statesman and congressman, as well as a Native American diplomat to the end of his long and impressive life. Among many of our Founders and military leaders, Pickens was a slaveholder.
Early Life
Andrew Pickens was born on September 19, 1739 to Andrew Pickens Sr. (1690 – 1756) and Nancy Anne Davis (1705 – 1760). Like most Scotch-Irish immigrants, they arrived in Philadelphia and settled in Pennsylvania, in Paxton township, Bucks County, just north of the city. Pickens’ great grandparents were French Protestant Huguenots who fled persecution from France to Scotland after the Edict of Nantes in 1685. They later moved to northern Ireland in Ulster. As such, Pickens was the son of Presbyterians who along with other Scotch-Irish in America, would adhere to Whig/patriot sentiments of liberty.
Pickens was only an infant when the family left Pennsylvania, and joined other Scotch-Irish and traveled the Great Wagon Road through the Shenandoah Valley where they settled in Augusta County, Virginia, just west of present-day Staunton. During the years in Virginia, Pickens senior split his time between farming and duties as magistrate. As such Pickens Jr. received no formal education, spending his time tending to the farm and roaming the wilderness, trapping and hunting.
Along with other Scotch-Irish settlers, the family purchased land along the western wilderness of the North Carolina/South Carolina border in the Waxhaws. In 1752, 13-year-old Andrew Jr. moved there with his family and helped clear the land for farming. Pickens’ father was a magistrate and devout Presbyterian. He was one of the trustees of the first church in the region; the ‘meeting house’ that became the Waxhaw Presbyterian Church. As such, Pickens was raised along the frontier with a stout devotion to scriptural doctrine; an atmosphere of rifle and religion in which the two were held inseparable. When word of a Native American uprising to the north reached the Waxhaw region, Pickens’ father raised a company of militia in which Andrew Jr. eagerly joined. The French and Indian War touched the Waxhaw region with the defeat of English General Braddock’s army on July 9, 1755; effectively creating a stream of new settlers passing through to the Long Canes region along the Georgian border. Among them were the Calhouns, in which Pickens would briefly meet his future bride, Rebecca, daughter of Ezekiel (1720-1762) and Jean Ewing Calhoun (1724).
The following year, 1756, sixty-six-year-old Andrew Pickens Sr. died. The home farm was left to Andrew and his brothers Joseph and John. The death of Andrew’s father severed any hope for a classical education. Seventeen-year-old Andrew Jr. picked up the yoke of the family farm and supplemented finances with time spent in the wilderness trapping and hunting.-
War with Cherokee
Encroachment by additional settlers pouring into the region created heightened tensions among Cherokee natives. Clashes of violence occurred with occasional murders and the torching of frontier homesteads, resulting in what has been termed the Cherokee War (1759-1761). On Feb. 1, 1760, twenty-three settlers were killed in the Long Canes massacre, among them Rebecca Colhoun’s grandmother Catherine Montgomery Calhoun. The Calhoun family buried their dead and joined other survivors who fled north to the Waxhaws; upon which Andrew and Rebecca reunited in friendship. Two months after the massacre, in April and May, 1760, Andrew joined a large British expedition out of Charleston. It was led by Colonel Archibald Montgomery who commanded 1,600 British troops and militiamen in a raid against the Cherokee.
After Montgomery’s expedition, the war only intensified with more retributed killings. In May and June, 1761, Lt. Pickens joined Scotsman Colonel James Grant’s 2,400 strong expedition against the Cherokee Nation’s middle and upper towns. It was a brutal campaign in which fifteen towns were torched and fifteen thousand acres of crops destroyed, resulting in many Cherokee homeless and starving. This broke the Cherokees’ power to wage war and resulted in a treaty signed in September of the year. When Pickens returned home, he discovered his mother had died while he was campaigning with Grant. His sisters had married, and his brothers were content to run the farm on their own. He also learned that Rebecca “Becky” Calhoun had returned with her family to the Long Canes region along the South Carolina Georgia border.
Settles in the Long Canes
In 1764 (some sources give 1765), Pickens sold off his interests in the farm and headed south to the Long Canes Region. There he purchased land in present day Abbeville County, South Carolina; near the Georgia border on the east side of the Keowee River. He married Rebecca Calhoun on March 19, 1765 and soon after brought his nineteen year old bride to their new home; chosen for the large spring nearby and because it was a favorite stopping place for travelers from the low country to the Savannah River. The two would have twelve children with eleven surviving to adulthood. There, Andrew established his Hopewell Plantation, at first a small log cabin, and in 1768, built a blockhouse near the main house; as a precaution, part of the spring was channeled under the blockhouse so in case of emergency, they would have water. Devoutly religious, Pickens had a meeting house built where visiting ministers would preach the gospel.
Pickens was an industrious farmer: and became quite prosperous; raising horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry with wheat and corn ground at local mills. Pickens also enjoyed a brisk trade with the Cherokee; with native visits of ginseng and pink root, along with skins of beaver, deer, and bear to trade. The increased business caused Pickens to build a warehouse on the Savannah River, opposite Augusta, where all was stored until they were sent down the river to Charleston. Twice a year, he drove large herds of cattle to Philadelphia and brought back needed supplies.
Pickens was also a slaveholder who believed that slavery was sanctioned by the bible. Like many of his fellow Presbyterian settlers, his estate was deemed more valuable by the larger number of slaves one employed to work the fields and his warehouses.
Whig and Tory Hostilities Grow
Though newly married, Pickens was one of the first in his region, nearly 200 miles from Charleston, to raise protests against the Stamp Act. As such, he developed strong Whig sentiments against England’s rights to taxation and legislative rule. Being a hard-working man who “thought much but said little,” he had gained much respect from his neighbors. As such, when Pickens did speak, he influenced all within his voice. During this time, prosperity on the frontier declined as relations with England began to suffer. Those who believed that the Royal government in Charleston, Anglican-church lawmakers, did not represent the needs of backcountry settlers, formed into ‘Regulators’ who demanded reforms. Many of these regulators sided with the growing Whig movement. However, a large faction of Though Pickens was not an active Regulator, he sided with the anti-crown Whigs.
When open hostilities erupted in 1775 with the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the populated district of Ninety-Six, twenty-two miles east of Pickens’ home, was at the heart of the turbulent Whig/Loyalist back fighting. Henry Laurens, president of the Charleston Whig controlled Council of Safety, and Picken’s comrade of arms during the Cherokee War, asked Pickens to prepare the way for two Presbyterian ministers, W. H. Drayton, and the Rev. William Tennent, to explain the patriot position in the dispute with England. He asked that Pickens and all within the region sign a document labeled the ‘Association,’ in support of the coming rebellion. Pickens and others met with Lauren’s delegation and affirmed that most of the settlers in the Long Canes region were in favor of the Revolutionary measures taken in rebellion to England. During this time, wealthy landholder and loyalist Thomas Brown whose plantation was in the Long Canes, had been tarred and feathered and was active in recruiting Tory militia for the crown. By the end of 1775, Brown was driven out of Georgia to Florida while Tory militia gathered militias to confront the patriot movement.
1775: Fort Charlotte and the Snow Campaign
After war erupted north outside Boston, the Long Canes Region formed three militia companies under Major Jeremiah Terry, Captain Andrew Pickens, and Captain James McCall; an able commander, McCall would famously team up with Georgian Elijah Clarke in several major actions before he succumbed to small pox in the spring of 1781 and just prior to the second siege of Augusta. However, before shots were fired, Drayton met with the Tory leaders and in September, concluded a treaty. Pickens and his company were sent home.
Peace would not last long with Pickens seeing his first action of the war. A wagon of ammunition on way to rebel militia was taken by a band of Tory militia. They spread rumors that the rebel ammunition captured was promised to the Cherokee to attack those still loyal to the crown. This prompted recruits to join the Tory forces in great numbers. On November 18, 1775, Pickens company was among other rebel militia under Major Williams was in Fort Charlotte, just west of ninety-six on the Savannah River. He was protecting a large cache of ammunition and arms. A large 1,800 man Tory force attacked the fort, but after three days with little casualties on both sides, an agreement was settled.
The loyalists would withdraw without the ammunition, and the rebels would burn the fort. The Tory forces disbanded with some of the leaders tracked down and imprisoned. Pickens next participated in the Snow Campaign led by Colonel Richard Richardson where as up to 3,000 rebel militia flushed out and hunted down backcountry loyalists; preventing them from organizing while capturing their leaders; culminating in a late December snowstorm action; hence its name.
1776 Cherokee War
On July 1, 1776, the Cherokee struck along the western frontier backcountry of Georgia and South Carolina. Isolated farmsteads in Ninety Six and northern Spartan Districts were overrun and inhabitants killed. From Long Canes to the Waxhaws, some 130 miles distant, Colonel Andrew Williamson and Pickens gathered their units and undertook a two-month campaign to destroy Cherokee resistance. Along with a series of skirmishes and the destruction of Cherokee Villages, there were two major actions; The Esseneca Battle and the Ring Fight.
Pickens and Williams commanded around a 1,000 rebels. On July 31, 1776, it was learned that a combined Loyalist and Cherokee force of approximately 1,300, led by Alexander Cameron, were encamped on Oconore Creek, about thirty miles northwest of their camp. At six that evening, Williams set out with 330 men to surprise the Cherokee camp and had Pickens follow with reinforcements. Williams failed to send out scouts, confident that the cover of darkness would conceal them. A little after midnight on the 1st, near the Cherokee town of Esseneca [also called Seneca, about five miles east of present-day Seneca, SC] where Williamson planned to cross the Keowee River, he rode into an ambush. Around 1,200 natives and loyalists opened fire behind palisades. At first driven back, the rebels regrouped after a counterattack of horsemen by Colonel Leroy Hammond. When Pickens arrived, he ordered his men to dismount and from a small ridge, poured a relentless fire the enemy. The battle lasted 20 minutes with the Cherokee withdrawing.
Over the next several days, five Cherokee villages were put to the torch. On August 12th, Pickens, along with twenty-six men, fought what has been called the Ring Fight at Tamassee, present-day Oconee County. Pickens was sent to reconnoiter the nearby region and while crossing an open field, the small detachment were suddenly confronted by 180 Cherokee emerging from the woods. Pickens ordered his men into a defensive circle just as the natives attacked. Surrounded, Pickens men carried on the fight, often Cherokee breaking through the ring in fierce hand-to-hand fighting.
Both sides suffered high casualties before the Cherokee broke off, leaving sixty-five dead and fourteen wounded. Eleven rebels lay dead with most suffering some type of wound. Afterwards, legend has it, the Cherokee honored Pickens stand with the title “Skyagunsta,” meaning Wizard Owl.
Invasion of Florida
The Continental Congress was desirous in spreading the revolt both north and south of the present thirteen rebellious colonies. In 1775, they authorized the Invasion of Canada, and in 1776 and again in 1777, with Continental troops and local South Carolina and Georgia legislative assistance, invaded East Florida. Both attempts at East Florida failed dismally due to poor planning and lack of cooperation between federal and legislative militias. In 1778, Congress tried once more and placed General Robert Howe in charge of southern Continental troops. In April, 1778, Ninety Six District militia regiment joined the American force preparing to march to Augustine, Florida; Colonel Williamson led the corps with Major Pickens, his second in command.
Williamson’s South Carolinians rendezvoused with Howard near the coast at Purrysburg, Georgia on the Savannah River. In May, they advanced along the coast through a barren countryside towards Augustine, some 190 miles further south. The trek was difficult with little food and forage under extreme heat. Many became sick, delaying the advance of the militiamen who did not reach Howe’s camp at Fort Tonyn until late June. Pickens had joined Georgia militia leader Colonel Elijah Clarke to try and catch the loyalist militia. The two separated when Pickens advanced to a reported artillery battery under loyalist Florida Rangers’ Colonel Thomas Browne. Brown had already withdrawn, only to set up an ambush that Colonel Clarke rode into. At the Battle of Alligator Bridge, June 30, 1778, Clarke was wounded as his men were forced to withdraw. With supplies dwindling, sickness, high desertions, and many too incapacitated to continue the campaign, General Howe called off the invasion and the rebel force limped home; General Howe headquartered at Savannah. The southern colonies remained quiet until British Lt. Colonel Archibald Campbell of the 71st Foot, recently exchanged for Ethan Allen, arrived outside Savannah in December, 1778, with and invasion force of 3,100 regulars. General Howe surrendered Savannah without firing a shot and Campbell, along with General Provost and his 60th Reg. of Foot from Florida, immediately set in motion plans to placate Georgia.
Battle of Kettle Creek
At the Battle of Kettle Creek, February 14, Pickens would lead militiamen in one of his finest victories of the war. In January, 1779, sent Colonel Campbell and his 71st Highlanders, Sir James Baird’s Light Infantry, and King’s Rangers under Colonel and Indian Agent Thomas Browne, up the Savannah River to Augusta, Georgia. The city was turned over to Campbell without a fight. News of British presence in the backcountry traveled throughout the Carolinas and Georgia and loyalists in large numbers gathered in the Carolinas to march to join Campbell. Meanwhile, Continental Army leader General Howe was replaced with General Benjamin Lincoln. This encouraged rebel militia to answer the call to arms and gather to oppose the British advance into South Carolina.
Highlander Lt. Colonel John Hamilton of North Carolina, wealthy businessman who had fought at Culloden, and fellow Scotsman Colonel John Boyd, recruited regiments in North Carolina. In early February, 1779, they marched their forces south to join Campbell in Augusta. Colonel Andrew Pickens led the Upper Ninety-Six militia of around 200 men. He and Colonel John Dooley’s 100 Wilkes County Georgians joined forces 30 miles above Augusta and chased Hamilton’s force of similar size to Fort Carr in northeast Georgia. There, on February 10th, they began a siege. Meanwhile loyalist Lt. Colonel John Moore’s two detached companies joined Colonel John Boyd’s force, adding up to over 800 men. On February 12th, Pickens received a letter from his brother, Captain Joseph Pickens, that Boyd’s path to Augusta was laden with the destruction of rebel homes. Pickens called off the siege and raced northwest to intercept Boyd’s force, leaving Hamilton to carry on and join Campbell in Augusta.
Boyd continued his march southeast along the Savannah River towards Augusta, hoping to link up with Colonel Daniel McGirth’s loyalist band of 500 militia. He crossed over into Georgia at Cherokee Ford on Feb. 11th, and on the 13th, his tired troops camped on a farm along the north bank of Kettle Creek, about 65 northwest of Augusta. On February 12th, Pickens rebels were hot on Boyd’s heels when he crossed the Savannah into Georgia at Cedar Shouls. There he met Colonel Elijah Clarke and 100 Georgia Horsemen. The following day, they camped at Clarke’s Creek, just four miles from Boyd’s encampment. Scouts informed the rebels that Boyd had failed to establish defensive measures, perhaps thinking he was close enough to McGirth’s force for protection. That night, Pickens planned the morning’s attack.
While the loyalists were enjoying a hearty breakfast from slaughtered cattle, Pickens led his regiment of 200 men in a surprise charge into the center of camp. At the same time, John Dooly’s 80 or so men had positioned themselves behind the enemy’s left flank and Elijah Clarke’s Georgians had done the same on the enemy’s right flank; attacking simultaneously. It is estimated that Pickens had only 340 men to face Boyd’s command of 800. The loyalists were under attack on three sides and though they gave ground stubbornly, loyalists began to break and run, especially after Boyd was morally wounded and carried from the field. The fighting was bloody and severe, but ultimately the loyalists panicked and scattered through the marshes and woods for their lives. This defeat was a blow to the loyalist movement to join British forces. The day of the battle, Campbell had already decided to give up the backcountry and started his retreat back to Georgia. For then next year, until the arrival of General Henry Clinton at the head of a large British invasion fleet, the war in the backcountry had reached a stalemate.
Pickens Accepts Parole in 1780 and Remains out of the Fight
The year 1780 was huge for the Carolinas, from the low-lands to the backcountry and the Ninety-Six District. Supreme British Commander, General Henry Clinton had decided to take the war to the south and in February of 1780, landed a large force near Charleston, South Carolina. In March he began a siege of the city and the Southern Continental Army holed up within. The Siege of Charleston ended on May 12, 1780 with the capture of the city and the entire Continental Army, over 5,000 strong, that broke the back of southern resistance. British outposts were established all over South Carolina while Georgia became the only colony to rejoin the British empire. Most rebel militiamen and their leaders, including Andrew Pickens, accepted British pardons and returned home to sit out the rest of the war. However men like Thomas Sumter, and the emerging Continental officer Francis ‘Swamp Fox’ Marion carried on the fight.
It would prove a year with multiple victories on both sides of the fight with no real victor. Among the more notable in the South Carolina backcountry was the May 29th Battle of Waxhaws or Buford’s Massacre (Tarleton’s savage attack on Buford’s Continental Regiment), the Battle of Camden, August 16th (that saw the destruction of the Southern Continental Army), and the Battle of Fishing Creek, August 18th, (in which Tarleton caught in camp and butchered militia General Sumter’s force), and Battle of Kings Mountain, October 7th (in which Major Patrick Ferguson’s Loyalist army was destroyed by Carolina militia). For Pickens, it took a sharp skirmish involving his Georgian comrade in arms, Colonel Elijah Pickens, and a subsequent British raid on Pickens’ farm, to convince the honorable rebel leader to brake his parole and rejoin the war – proving at the south’s most critical moment.
Pickens Returns to the War
On the eve of the Battle of Cowpens, two major events occurred in which Continental Brigadier General Daniel Morgan found himself relying on the proven abilities and dogged fighting skills of Andrew Pickens to command the second line of militia who, scholars will agree, was the critical factor that led to the American victory and set the stage for England’s defeat in the south: The Battle of Long Canes, December 12, 1780, after which Pickens breaks his parole and once more leads rebel militia in battle. And the Battle of Blackstocks, November 20, 1780, where General Thomas Sumter is critically wounded, unable to lead militia – leaving Morgan to count on a militia commander with far more military skills and one willing to work with Continental troops; Pickens.
In early December, 1780, Georgian Elijah Clarke along with Lt. Col. James McCall and Maj. Samuel Hammond were recruiting in the Long Canes region, about thirty miles southwest of Ninety-Six. Many who gave their parole when Charleston fell on May 12, 1780 expected to return home and lead peaceful lives. But by December of 1780, perpetual raids by vengeful bands of Tories and Cherokee and Creek convinced many of these former rebel militiamen to break their paroles and return to war under leaders like Clarke and McCall. Clarke ordered that Pickens be brought to a council of war in which militia leaders tried to convince him to join them. However, Pickens held that the British had given him no reason to sever his vows of parole, and honor of his word would not allow him to do so.
Meanwhile, the British commander of Ninety-Six, Lt. Col. Harris Crugar, got word of Clarke’s efforts and ordered Lt. Col. Isaac Allen to lead a strong force to attack him. On December 12, 1780, in what has been called the Battle or Skirmish of Long Canes, the rebel militia was defeated and Clarke seriously wounded. Lt. Colonel Allen pursued the rebels while plundering and destroying suspected rebel homesteads. When the British regulars came upon Pickens’ farm, Allen allowed it to be plundered and Pickens family harassed and threatened. When Pickens got word of this, he raced home only to be put under arrest and taken to Fort Ninety-Six where he was held for a month, during which Lt. Col. Crugar tried to enlist Pickens to lead Tory units. Once released, Pickens informed the British that they broke his parole which thereby allowed him to once more command his regiment.
General Thomas Sumter, though charismatic, of perpetual energy, and with a larger-than-life personality that attracted droves of rebel militiamen to fight in his corps, he was self-serving, conceited, and uncooperative; refusing to work with let alone take orders from Continental officers. After he was wounded during the Battle of Blackstocks, considered Banestre Tarleton’s first major defeat of the war, he could not lead his North Carolina troops. Had he been at the head of the militia, and based on previous actions by the head-strong leader, most likely he would have either not answered the call to aid Brigadier Daniel Morgan at the Battle of Cowpens, or would not have followed Morgan’s orders. As such, Colonel Andrew Picken’s filled in the gap caused by Sumter’s absence, with an outstanding performance that fitted perfectly within Morgan’s plans for victory.
Cowpens
September 1780 brought renowned leader of riflemen, newly commissioned Brigadier General Daniel Morgan out of retirement and into the Carolina backcountry. On December 5, 1780, Major General Nathanael Greene assumed command of the Southern Continental Army. The two were the finest and most able officers the Americans fielded and their presence would change the course of the southern war. And on Christmas Day, 1780, Pickens’ return to war, at the head of stout, hard fighting militia, could not be more perfectly timed.
In the fall of 1780, General Horatio Gates had established the southern army’s headquarters at Charlotte, North Carolina. On December 5th, General Greene had replaced him as commander of the army. In late December, 1780, General Greene decided to split his army to winter in regions that could supply his men with the necessary food and forage. Greene marched east, into a wilderness region amongst friendly rebellious settlements. General Morgan, whose men numbered the prime veteran Maryland and Delaware Continental troops, headed west, into the Waxhaws and the Ninety-Six District. This placed British General Cornwallis’ army, based at Winnsboro, South Carolina, between the American forces. Cornwallis decided he could not march his entire army after one, leaving the other rebel force to attack his main outposts. But if he dispatched a quick moving unit of mounted legion and light infantry, he could drive one into a trap, a pincer position, caught between the two British forces. And Cornwallis had just the man for this rapid detachment; Lt. Colonel Banaster ‘Bloody Ben’ Tarleton. With all of Cornwallis prime light infantry, along with Tarleton’s Partisan Legion and cavalry, the aggressive dragoon commander took off after Morgan’s detachment. The stage was set for a clash of arms between the best both armies could bring to the field; with the loser suffering a blow that either side could ill afford.
On Christmas day, 1780. Morgan’s detachment camped at Grindal’s Shoals, on the north bank of the Pacelot River, a tributary of the Broad River. The four-day, sixty-mile journey west from Charlotte was an arduous march through country drenched under incessant rains; bogging down troops and wagons and forcing them to ford swollen rivers. Pickens, after his confinement and release from British held Ninety-Six, had renounced his parole and offered his services to the Continental Army. With General Sumpter still recovering from his wounds received at Blackstocks, and fierce warrior Colonel Elijah Clarke also in convalescence from his wounds at Long Canes, Morgan realized his luck and quickly accepted Pickens offer to recruit and lead South Carolina militia.
Though lacking General Sumter’s charisma, Pickens was superior in temperament; an attribute that more than made up for the popular, but imperious and self-centered militia leader. As author Buchanan wrote, “Pickens arrival was fortuitous. Even if Thomas Sumter had been fit to fight and willing to take the field under Morgan, his ego combined with his faulty concepts of tactics and strategy at least would have hampered Morgan and in all probability, runed his mission.” Pickens was willing to work with and take orders from Continental officers. Soon after meeting with Morgan, Pickens rode out to bring in additional promised militia. A few days after Pickens’ appearance, General Richard Davison arrived leading 120 North Carolina militia and left soon after to gather another 500. With proven fighters led by confident, cooperative militia officers, Morgan was in a position to enact a plan of attack that could depend on firm militia support of his veteran Continental troops.
On January 16, 1781, Pickens’ men watched every ford, keeping close tabs on Tarleton’s movements as the brash dragoon commander quickly brought his force forward to battle. Morgan had been keeping ahead of the British force and intended to shift his detachment towards the mountains, hoping to find an ideal defensive position. On January 16, 1781, the old wagoneer was six miles from the Broad that was running high. He could not risk being attacked during a river crossing. Cowpens was nearby; a holding place where cattle were fattened before market. All militia knew its location. Pickens’ men rode hard to spread the word. All were to assemble there. And on the morning of the 17th, hated ‘Bloody Ben’ would be dealt with once and for all.
On the eve of battle, Morgan met with Pickens and other militia leaders. He knew these people. He came from the same mold of hard-working settlers; seasoned fighters by long years of war. He also knew how brave and effective they were if you, as General Moultrie said, “…let them come into action in their own way.” His orders to these men was plain and simple. Four Hundred and eighty Maryland and Delaware Continental and former Continental troops from Virginia would form line on a small rising. Before them, 150 yards, Pickens would command the militia, 300 strong. One hundred and fifty yards in front of the militia, 120 rifle skirmishers from Pickens’ command would soften the British approach before pulling back to the militia line.
Pickens relayed Morgan’s orders to his men. Wait until the British were within 50 yards, then two volleys, turn, and hightail it back to the principal line. There they would reform alongside the Continentals to meet the British charge. Morgan counted on Pickens to hold his men firm in the face of British steel before a rapid retreat. Thinking the militia had been routed, the red wave would surge forward in a disorganized charge, drawing the enemy before the reformed militia and solid wall of steely Continental veterans. In performing his duties as Morgan had hoped, Pickens performed superbly.
Thomas Young, mounted militiaman in reserve had a full view of the battlefield from his elevated position. In his narratives he wrote that the American militia line stood steady, “under the command of the brave and valuable Col. Pickens,” holding the line as the bellowing British line approached, bayonets shimmering in the morning sun. The rebels opened first with a devastating volley. The British infantry rallied and answered with similar volley, but typical among regulars trained not to aim, their fire was high with little or no damage. As the redline continued to swarm forward, stepping over their dead and dying, many among the rebels, under Pickens’ firm orders, released another volley before drawing back. But it was not a desperate run for the rear, but an organized retreat across the front of the waiting Continentals where they began to reform on the left.
Thomas Anderson, watching the militia’s performance from the Delaware line wrote in his journal that Pickens’ command “…Fought well disputing the ground…flying from one tree to another…” So too Sergeant Major Seymour wrote that the militia “retreated in very good order, not seeming to be in least confused.” When a mistaken shift in line to confront a British flanking effort, resulting in the entire Continental line turning and retreating in good order, the militia under Pickens did likewise. What was thought a disaster proved a godsend. Watching the Continental line draw back, the entire British line tore after them in an hysterical charge, thinking victory was at hand. Instead, with perfect field precision, the American line turned and released a horrific volley that stopped the British charge. Followed immediately by an American bayonet charge, the fight was over as those redcoats left standing quickly surrendered. Tarleton and most of his cavalry galloped away to safety, leaving Cornwallis’ entire light infantry corps on the field of battle.
North Carolina, Second Siege of Augusta, Siege of Camden and Siege of Ninety-Six
After the victory of Cowpens, Morgan raced to rejoin Greene’s main army. Most of now General Pickens’ men had gone home after the battle, leaving a small number under the church elder the task of escorting 600 plus prisoners from Cowpens to Major Hayes at the Yadkin (Major Hayes would later give his parole, but when captured, he was hanged). Once done, Pickens rejoined Morgan and Greene at Salisbury, North Carolina. Cornwallis’ army had entered North Carolina, determined to catch and destroy Greene’s army. While Greene moved north in what would be labeled The Race to the Dan (Dan river near the border of North Carolina and Virginia) Pickens was ordered to remain in Cornwallis’ rear; to harass the enemy while attacking foraging parties and disrupting communications. From early February until the decisive pyrrhic British victory at Guilford Courthouse, Pickens’ men remained in their saddles following Greene’s orders which at times placed them as a buffer between the two armies.
On February 16th, north near the Dan, a legion of cavalry and infantry arrived at Pickens’ camp. The leader of militia met Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee for the first time. Ordered to join Pickens, the two would campaign together for most of the rest of the southern war. Shortly after, Lee and Pickens destroyed a large band of Loyalists riding to enlist under Tarleton; labeled Pyle’s Massacre, February 24, 1781, that left over a hundred Tories dead and many others dreadfully wounded. Pickens and Lee continued to harass the fringes of Cornwallis’ army; clashing with Tarleton briefly on March 2nd at Clapp’s Mill. By now, most of Pickens’ militia, volunteers all, had gone home, to check on families, rest, and gather to attack remaining British outposts in South Carolina and Georgia. South Carolina Governor Rutledge expressed concern over his state’s protection to General Greene and on March 8th, Pickens was allowed to return to South Carolina; thereby not participating in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Having returned to the Waxhaws, Long Canes, and the Ninety-Six District, General Pickens organized a concerted effort to attack the remaining British outposts in the region. Several smaller garrisons soon fell to rebel attacks. Meanwhile Elijah Clarke had recovered from his wounds and joined Pickens’ militia forces. After Guilford Courthouse and Cornwallis’ retreat to the coast, Greene marched south into South Carolina, determined to take the British strong posts at Camden, Ninety-Six, and Augusta. Pickens and his militia took part in each of these efforts. Only the Second Siege of Augusta resulted in a successful attack by rebel forces (under Pickens, Lee, and Clarke). The other two sieges at Camden and Ninety-Six resulted in the British eventually abandoning the posts that summer, marching east for refuge at Charleston, South Carolina. It was during the siege of Ninety-Six that Pickens older brother Capt. Joseph William Pickens (1737 – June 2, 1781) was killed and is buried at the fort’s cemetery.
Wounded at Eutaw Springs; the Bloodiest of the War
When General Cornwallis chased after Greene’s army, he left Colonel Lord Francis Rawdon in charge of the southern British outposts. By early August, Rawdon had retreated his forces to Orangeburg, about seventy-five miles northwest of Charleston. Rawdon, who had been fighting the Americans since Bunker Hill, Boston, had turned over command to Colonel Alexander Stewart and sailed for England. By the end of the month, Greene had received correspondence from General Washington that he was intent on attacking Cornwallis’ army and that the elusive general might slip away and head south to reinforce troops at Charleston. Greene sought to crush the remaining British force outside Charleston, leaving him to march north to intercept Cornwallis if he advanced south. With Pickens (also in command of Sumter’s men) and General Francis ‘Swampfox’ Marion, along with Lee and Colonel Washington leading cavalry, Greene moved forward to battle Colonel Stewart’s southern British force who had withdrawn to Eutaw Springs, about 55 miles northwest of Charleston.
The two enemies of near equal numbers met at the Battle of Eutaw Springs, September 8, 1781 in what is considered the bloodiest action of the war. Lee’s Legion led the American vanguard followed by North Carolina militia and South Carolina militia under Pickens and Marion. They were followed by Continental troops under Greene’s direct command. Washington’s cavalry brought up the rear. Early dawn, the rebel vanguard routed a British detachment of cavalry under Captain John Coffin of American Volunteers, sent to bring in a party of foragers. Greene thought he had driven back the main British force and marched Pickens’ and Marion’s militia forward, followed by the Continentals.
The determined militia, sure of victory, moved forward, only to find themselves facing the entire British army of partisan regulars, 2,300 strong in three defensive lines. Pickens was in the thick of the fight while artillery on both sides ripped gaping holes in the lines, leaving mangled bodies in their wake, the militia, unlike previous major battles, held their ground and fought like veteran regulars. Greene, watching the militia stand toe to toe with the redcoats, later wrote to General von Steuben that “…such conduct would have graced the veterans of the great King of Prussia.” It was only when the North Carolina militia holding the center broke and ran, were Pickens and Marion forced to stubbornly retreat. The Continentals filled in the center and pushed the British back, regaining the original line. Greene pressed his opponent by bringing his Continental reserves and cavalry to bear.
The battle continued with renewed fury as British units poured a devastating fire into the American flanks. Colonel Washington was wounded and captured. Shortly after, Pickens fell from his horse. Picked up for dead, he was carried to the rear. There it was discovered that a musket ball had deflected off a sword buckle, and it was the buckle that was driven into his breast bone; miraculously saving his life. The rebels were able to push the British back, past their camp. The attack had occurred so quickly that the redcoats had been eating breakfast when called to action. The famished Americans fell upon the food, and plundered the camp, thinking the battle over. This gave Colonel Stewart time to rally his men and regain the camp. By then, both sides were bloodied and exhausted and called it quits. Of the forces involved, approximately thirty percent, or one in three who fought that day were killed or wounded; the highest of the war. Similar to Guilford Courthouse, the British force, though held their own and fought to a stalemate, but was fatally ruined. Eutaw would be the last major battle in the south. British forces retreated to Charleston where but for foraging parties, remined until evacuated the following year.
Pickens Recovers and Leads Expeditions against Tory Bands of Murderers and Cherokee
After the battle, Pickens would remain at nearby Burdell’s plantation while recovering from a wound that would haunt him throughout his life. He was for a plan by Governor Rutledge that would pardon Tory militia, allowing them to return home to their families without fear of retribution. After Pickens and the North Carolina militia went home, ‘Over the Mountain men’ Colonels Isaac Shelby and John Sevier reinforced Greene’s tiny army. Pickens also went home to his family, but remained in command of militia regiments patrolling the Carolina backcountry. Until the end of the war, the backcountry saw much violence between bands of roving Tory raiders who vindictive attacks often resulted with all prisoners brutally hanged or cut to pieces. Pickens suffered personal tragedy when his younger brother John Pickens (1745 – Dec. 16, 1781), while foraging corn outside Augusta, was captured by Loyalists. John was turned over to the Cherokee who burned him alive at the stake.
This and other atrocities of murdering bands of Tories, particularly Bloody Bill Cunningham, prompted Pickens to once more lead his militia. In the winter of 1781-82, he steered an expedition into the wilderness against Tory and Cherokee Nation. Though arduous marches over a cold, snowy countryside proved fruitless, ultimately, by the time Pickens returned home, the number of raids by both Whigs and Tories in what had degenerated into a Civil War had lessened. In the summer of 1782, Pickens would be called upon by Greene to face the threat of British forces attacking from Charleston; however, after a show of American forces, the threat never materialized. In mid-September, 1782, Pickens led his last raid on the Cherokee, leading 300 militiamen into the Georgia wilderness. Several villages were destroyed and dozens of male Native Americans brutally killed. A few Tory leaders were caught and hanged. A peace agreement was finally reached by mid-October, 1782. Thus, from the first action of the war in South Carolina, 1775, until the last actions against frontier Native Americans and Tory marauders seven years later, Pickens had led troops.
After the War
By war’s end, both of Pickens’ brothers had died by violent means. His home was plundered and family subjected to harsh treatment by partisan regulars and bands of loyalists. He returned to the Long Cane Settlement and carried on his role as Church Elder and prominent citizen. A slaveholder, with peace he continued to farm his Hopewell Plantation on the east side of the Keowee. An expert on Native American affairs, in the mid to late eighties, Pickens became an avid negotiator with the Cherokee, Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creek Nations. In 1796 he finalized the Treaty of Coleraine, a firm peace agreement with native tribes.
For over thirty years Pickens was active in state and federal politics:
- 1776 – 1788 Represented the Ninety-Six District in the State House of Representatives
- 1790 – 1793 Represented the Pendleton District in the State Senate.
- 1793 – 1795 Represented South Carolina in the US House of Representatives
- 1796 – 1799 Represented Pendleton District in the General Legislature
- 1812 – 1814 Represented Oconee County in the General legislature – coming out of retirement to aid the state in preparation for war with England.
In 1802, at age 63, Pickens retired and resettled on his plantation, Tamassee, twenty-seven miles northwest of Hopewell Plantation in Oconee County; named for the Cherokee village of Tamassee that Pickens destroyed during the 1776 Cherokee War. On August 11, 1817, at age 78, Pickens died at home. An elder at the Old Stone Church near his Hopewell Plantation, he is buried at the Old Stone Cemetery in present day Clemson, South Carolina. Of Note: Pickens’ grandson, Francis Wilkinson Pickens, was governor of South Carolina from 1860 – 1862, leading the state through secession and the early years of the Civil War, he authorized the bombardment of Fort Sumter which triggered the start of the war.
Andrew Pickens Eight Minute Video on Youtube care of South Carolina Educational TV
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Babits, Lawrence E. A Devil of a Whipping – The Battle of Cowpens. 1998: Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, NC.
Buchanan, John. The Road to Guilford Courthouse. 1997: John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York, NY.
Coleman, Kenneth. The American Revolution in Georgia, 1763-1789. 1958 reissue 2021: University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.
Hatley, Tom. The Dividing Paths: Cherokees and South Carolinians Through the Revolutionary Era. 1995: Oxford University Press, NY.
Heider, Karl G. “The Gamecock, the Swamp Fox, and the Wizard Owl: The Development of Good Form in an American Totemic Set.” The Journal of American Folkore, Vol. 93, No. 367 (Jan. – Mar., 1980), pp 1-22.
Majtenyi, Joan E. “Andrew Pickens.” Oconee County Historical Society, 1992.
McCall, Hugh. The History of Georgia Containing Brief Sketches of the Most Remarkable Events up to the Present. Vol. 2. 1816: Seymour and Williams, Savannah, GA.
McCrady, Edward. History of South Carolina in the Revolution 1775-1780, Vol. III. 1969: Russell, New York, NY.
McGehee-Floyd, Mandy. “November, 1775: The First Battle of Ninety Six.” November 3, 2023: This Month in SC History. South Carolina Historical Society.
Mills, William Hayne. The Life of General Andrew Pickens. 1958: Clemson, SC.
Runyan, Conner and Harris, C. Leon. “Colonel Andrew Pickens and the Long Cane Skirmish.” August 15, 2023. All Things Liberty.
South Carolina Encyclopedia. “Cherokee War (1759-1761)
Southern, Ed (editor). Voices of the American Revolution in the Carolinas. 2009: John F. Blair Publishing, Durham, NC.
Waring, Alice Noble. The Fighting Elder Andrew Pickens (1739 – 1817). 1962: University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, SC.