A tall, bronzed militia captain named Andrew Pickens stealthily led his scouts forward toward the unseen enemy. Captain Pickens and his men were part of an expedition that was pushing deep into Cherokee territory in the upcountry of South Carolina. They were acting as scouts for the main body of men who were coming behind them.

It was the summer of 1776. The newly independent colony of South Carolina was being squeezed between an eastern British naval invasion in Charleston and a savage Cherokee uprising in the western backcountry. While heroes, such as Francis Marion and William Moultrie, were dealing with the British threat, other brave men like Pickens were defending the western settlements from brutal Indian attacks against the settlers, including the women and children. Captain Pickens was a reluctant fighter; he was a patient man who preferred farming to fighting. But he was willing to fight when it was necessary to defend his wife, children, and neighbors.

As Captain Pickens led his twenty-five men through an old cornfield and uphill toward a wooded ridge, they were suddenly assaulted by approximately 200 Cherokee braves that had set up a clever ambush. The Indians saw that they outnumbered the militia by almost 8 to 1! From all directions, they dashed forward with sharp knives and deadly tomahawks to kill and scalp the startled American riflemen.

Although he was surprised by the sudden attack, Captain Pickens remained calm. He was no stranger to frontier combat. Nor was he a man to run away without a fight! With a firm, controlled voice, he quickly ordered his men to form a ring. Surrounded on all sides by the enemy, the twenty-five riflemen patiently awaited the orders of their leader. The captain told them to hold their fire until he himself opened fire on the enemy. At that point, half of the men would fire their weapons and then drop into the grass to reload while the other half remained standing to maintain a steady barrage of ammunition.

The assaulting savages were within 30 feet of the ring of riflemen before Captain Pickens shot an Indian dead. Hearing the report of their captain’s rifle, the soldiers’ rifles rapidly blazed forth their shots! More Indians fell. Astonished, the Cherokee warriors hesitated. Seeing some of the militia fall, they mistakenly thought the Americans were giving up. Then, suddenly, the riflemen popped up again and hot lead poured forth from their ready muzzles!

Unable to break into the ring with their tomahawks, the Indians ran for their own guns. Facing outwardly, the militia fought calmly, following the example of their captain. Eventually reinforcements arrived, drawn by the sound of the shots fired. It was Pickens’s brother Joseph, leading a fresh party of militia into the battle!

By the time the fight was over, Captain Pickens had lost eleven of his brave men. But the Indians had lost seventy-five warriors in the uneven battle, which is known today as “Ring Fight.” Captain Andrew Pickens, a pious and consistent Christian, humbly gave thanks to God for deliverance.

Andrew Pickens was born in 1739. He was descended from Scots-Irish and Huguenot forefathers. He learned early to work hard on his father’s Pennsylvania farm and learned the ways of the woods. He was a skilled hunter and a productive farmer. While still in his teens, he gained his first experience fighting Indians.

The Cherokee were on the warpath during those years. In one case, a wagon carrying the Calhoun family got mired in the mud while crossing a creek. The stranded, defenseless family was murdered by savages who swooped out of the woods and attacked them. The Calhoun’s fourteen-year-old daughter named Becky managed to escape and hide in a canebrake (a thicket of cane) where she, the sole survivor, witnessed the horrifying massacre of her family.

Andrew Pickens deeply admired the beautiful Becky, and a love between the two young people blossomed and matured over the coming years. They were married as soon as the Cherokee uprising settled down. Pickens set about the life of a farmer.

Andrew and Becky Pickens were blessed with twelve children over the span of many years. The couple called the plantation they built together “Hopewell.” The Godly farmer also established a church, which met for many years under a spreading chestnut tree on his plantation until a more permanent meeting house was constructed. Pickens also built and maintained a stockade for defense against the Indians.

When Britain, the mother country, invaded South Carolina, Andrew Pickens was a firm, committed patriot. He was trusted by his friends and neighbors, and he quickly was made a captain in the local militia.

His calm courage at the Ring Fight in 1776 gave him a lasting esteem among his men. Soon thereafter, Pickens was made a colonel. The Indians also respected Pickens, calling him Skyagunsta, which means “Wise Owl.” The American militia called him “The Fighting Elder.”

Andrew Pickens distinguished himself in military engagements, such as the Battle of Kettle Creek. A massive setback came to the patriot cause, however, when in 1780 the British combined a land and naval assault against Charleston, which led to the capitulation of the garrison. Colonel Pickens surrendered a fort near the settlement called Ninety Six; he was paroled as a prisoner of war, which meant he was allowed to go home but forbidden to take up arms.

When Tory raiders threatened his wife and family and destroyed property on Hopewell plantation, Colonel Pickens took up arms again, contending rightly that the British had violated the terms of his parole. Along with patriots Thomas Sumter and Francis Marion, Pickens kept the flames of hope alive during the dark days when the British ran at will through South Carolina.

At the Battle of Cowpens, when another patriot, Daniel Morgan, decisively defeated the feared commander of British dragoons, Banastre Tarleton, it was Pickens who was placed in charge of the American militia. “The Fighting Elder” proved that he could stand up to the British dragoons with as much courage as he faced the Indians. His leadership at Cowpens earned him a promotion to general and an elegant sword presented by Congress as a token of gratitude.

General Pickens fought on until the end of the Revolutionary War, participating in all the battles up to the final victory at Eutaw Springs. Afterward, he went home to his beloved Hopewell and a hero’s welcome. The general was elected to serve in the South Carolina legislature and went on to become a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and then served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

General Pickens’s friends and neighbors trusted him to be their leader and spokesman just as they had years earlier at Ring Fight. One of his sons and later a grandson eventually became governors of South Carolina in their own generations. Andrew Pickens, still known as Skyagunsta, “The Wise Owl,” by the Indians, had earned and held their respect over many long years. He was no Indian-hater, and he always dealt truly and justly with the Cherokee, earning their friendship. General Pickens was instrumental in crafting several enduring treaties with the Indians, some of which were negotiated on his own plantation.

He spent his final years reading his Bible and watching his grandchildren play in the fields at Hopewell—the fields that he had fought to free. Shortly after his noon meal one afternoon, he stepped outside to sit on his porch. There he died, at the age of seventy-eight, surveying the domestic scenes of peace that he loved best. “The Fighting Elder” was a man of peace, yet a man who also was willing when necessary to take up arms to defend a righteous cause. His character and example have stood the test of time.

Sources and Further Reference:

Reynolds, William. Andrew Pickens: South Carolina Patriot in the Revolutionary War. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2012.