Andrew pickens biography

About

ANDREW PICKENS was born in Edgefield County, South Carolina. He attended the College of New Jersey (Princeton University). He served as a Lieutenant Colonel with several infantry units during the War of and commanded one of the regiments raised by South Carolina for the defense of Charleston. Prior to his election as governor, he was a Presidential Elector from North Carolina. During his gubernatorial administration, a program of extensive infrastructure improvements was undertaken in South Carolina, starting with the appointment of an engineer to superintend public buildings and oversee civilian and military works. In addition, cotton prices rose to an all-time high on Pickens&#;s watch as the state&#;s chief executive. After leaving office, Pickens moved to Alabama, where he engaged in cotton planting. He was appointed president of the Alabama State Bank, and served as an agent to the Creek Indians in He died in Pontotock, Mississippi.

Source

Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, , Vol. 4. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 4 vols.

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. New York: James T. White & Company.

Andrew Pickens was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on September 19, Like many of the Scots-Irish, Andrew and his family moved south, traveling the Great Wagon Road in search of new land. Records show they lived first in Augusta County in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, later in the Waxhaw settlement along the North Carolina-South Carolina border, and, eventually, in the Long Cane settlement in present-day Abbeville County, South Carolina, bordering Georgia.

It was in the Long Canes that young Andrew Pickens would marry and begin a family. He not only farmed and raised cattle as many of the other Scots-Irish; he became acquainted with his Indian neighbors through a prosperous trading business. As the American Revolution approached feelings were strong in the South from the start, its inhabitants split between Patriots (Whigs) and Loyalists (Tories). Pickens, as many of his Scots-Irish neighbors, was an ardent Patriot.

It was in the Long Canes, too, that he emerged as a military leader, first in expeditions against the Cherokee, who had allied with the Loyalists in hopes of retaining their lands. In , Pickens was to distinguish himself in a Revolutionary War battle. That year, British commander Sir Henry Clinton sent British soldiers to South Carolina and North Georgia

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