Brigadier General Andrew Pickens

Brigadier General Andrew Pickens was an influential Patriot leader from Abbeville County. Of Scots-Irish and French Huguenot descent, he and his family came to Abbeville from the Waxhaws. He soon married Rebecca Calhoun, one of the survivors of the Long Cane Massacre. Pickens was a noted military leader during the Cherokee War, where the Native Americans nicknamed him “Skyagunsta” as a term of respect. When the Revolutionary War began, Pickens joined the Patriots and distinguished himself at the Battle of Kettle Creek. When Charleston fell in 1780, Pickens accepted a parole from the British government and agreed to stop fighting, but when Loyalists attacked his family and burned his home in Abbeville, Pickens personally informed the British that since they had broken the terms of their agreement to him, he was no longer bound by his promise not to fight. He rejoined the Patriot army and fought in the Siege of Ninety-Six and the Battle of Eutaw Springs. His militia was an important part of the victory at Cowpens, a major success for the Patriots. After the war, he joined the House of Representatives and worked to stabilize relations between the settlers and the Cherokees.