Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/333

 PICKENS

PICKENS

With the aid of Colonels Darby and Clark he defeated Colonel Boyd, Kettle Creek, February, 1779; covered the retreat at the battle of Stono, June, 1779, where his horse was killed under him. and routed the Cherokee Indians at Tomas- see during the same year. He was engaged in the battle of the Cowpens, Jan. 17, 1781, where, according to Lee's memoirs, as " Col. Morgan's foremost counsel and aid," he commanded the militia, and rallied and turned the retreating ranks, for which service congress presented him with a sword. He was soon after promoted brigadier-general. At Haw River, N.C., when with Colonel Lee he pursued Tarleton, he met and utterly defeated Colonel Pyle and his men, who had fallen in with General Pickens's force, supposing them to be British, Acting jointly with Lee lie laid siege to Augusta, Ga., May 23, 1781, and compelled its surrender on June fifth. In the same month he took part in the campaign against Fort Ninety-Six under Gen. Nathanael Greene. At this siege his brother Joseph, who commanded a company, was shot while reconnoitering the fort, and another brother was taken prisoner by the Tories and delivered into the hands of the Indians, who scalped and burned him. At the battle of Eutaw Springs, General Pickens commanded the left wing, Marion commanding the right, and was severely wounded. He was judge of the district courts at Abbeville and at Ninety-Six. and a representative in the state legislature, 1783-93. In 1793 he settled at Hopewell, on Keowee river, the place where the Indian treaty was held in 1776. He was presidential elector from the first district, 1793 and 1797; a representative in the 3rd congress, 1793-95, declining re-election, but serving in the state legislature, 1795-96, and declining to accept the nomination for governor in 1796, although assured of his election. He was commissioned one of the two major-generals of the state militia in 1794, which commission he resigned after a few years. General Washing- ton requested his attendance at Philadelphia for consultation on the practicability and best means of civilizing the Southern Indians, and also offered him the command of a brigade of light troops in General Wayne's campaign against the northern Indians, which he declined. He was one of the commissioners who settled the boundary line between South Carolina and Georgia, and was appointed commissioner of the United States in all treaties with the Southern Indians until he retired from public life to his farm at Tomassee. The historical papers, letters, and manuscripts, which he there collected, were handed to his son Joseph before his death, but through negligence were lost or destroyed. He died at Tomassee, near Pendleton, S.C, Aug. 11, 1817.

PICKENS, Andrew, governor of South Carolina, was born in Waxhaw district, S.C, Nov. 13, 1779; son of General Andrew (q.v.) and Rebecca (Calhoun) Pickens. He was a student at the College of New Jersey, Princeton; was appointed lieutenant- colonel in the U.S. army, and served in the war of 1813 on the Canada frontier, fight- ing at the battle of Lundy's Lane, July 24, 1814, and com- manding a regiment of state troops in the south in 1815. He was a presidential elector from the third dis- trict of South Carolina in 1813, and governor of South Carolina, 1816-18. In 1820 he received a commission from congress with full power and authority to hold conferences and make treaties with the Creek tribe of Indians in the state of Georgia. Subsequently he removed to Alabama, where he engaged in cotton planting, and was appointed president of the state bank by the legis- lature. He married Susan Smith (1788-1810) of St. Paul's parish, daughter of Francis and Susan Wilkinson, and descendant of Landgrave Joseph Morton, colonial governor of South Carolina, 1682-85, who married Elizabeth Blake, niece of Admiral Robert Blake. England (1598-1657). Of their two children, Francis Wilkinson and Susan, the latter married James Calhoun, nephew of John C. Calhoun. Andrew Pickens died, while on business in Mississippi, June 24, 1838.

PICKENS, Francis Wilkinson, governor of South Carolina, was born in Togadoo, St. Paul's parish, S.C, April 7, 1805; son of Governor Andrew and Susan (Wilkinson) Pickens, and grandson of Andrew and Rebecca (Calhoun) Pickens. He attended South Carolina college, and was admitted to the bar in 1829, practising in Edgefield district, S.C. While a representa- tive in the state legislature in 1832. he made a report on the unity of sovereignty and allegiance, claiming that congress, as the agent of the states, had no claim to allegiance and could exercise no sovereignty. He was a representative in the 24th-29th congresses, 1835-45; a state senator, 1845-46; a delegate to the southern convention at Nashville, 1850-51, and a delegate to the Demo- cratic national convention at Cincinnati in 1856. He was married first to Eliza S., daughter of Col. Eldred Simkins of Edgefield county, S.C, and maternal grand-daughter of Gen. Elijah Clarke of Georgia; secondly, to Marion, daughter of Col. William Dearing of Georgia: and thirdly, at Marshall. Texas, in 1858, to Lucy, daughter of Beverly Holcomb, a native of Petersburg, Va. She died at Edgewood, S.C. Aug. 8, 1899. He was U.S. minister to Russia. 1858-60. and during his residence at St. Petersburg his daughter.