Opposition: Andrew Pickens, the Wizard Owl

The Mel Gibson movie, The Patriot, features Col. Benjamin Martin, a veteran Indian Fighter who rallies his militia to fight Redcoats in the South Carolina backcountry during the American Revolution.  Some portions of Martin's character backstory echo that of a real life militia leader, Brig. Gen. Andrew Pickens, 1739-1817.  Pickens would later earn the grudging respect of his Cherokee opponents, who gave him the name Wizard Owl.  Wizard, not in the sense of a magician, but someone with an uncanny knack for knowing their tactics as well as they did.  Owls being a mixed-message harbinger of death or of change.  I.e., a powerful warrior not to be trifled with.

Pickens was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, of Scots-Irish and French Huguenot ancestry.  The family drifted to the Shenandoah Valley, and later to the Waxhaws, a frontier area on the border between North and South Carolina.  Eventually, Pickens moved to Abbeville County, South Carolina and married Rebekah Calhoun.  They had 12 children together.  Later, the couple moved to the Seneca River and established Hopewell Plantation, the venue for several councils and treaty parleys with the Cherokee and other tribes.  Hopewell wasn't far from a Cherokee town known as Isunigi.

Pickens got his start as an Indian Fighter in the Anglo-Cherokee War, 1759-1761, where he became known as a Fighting Elder because of his skills on a battlefield and his fatalistic Presbyterian faith.  During the American Revolution, he became a captain of militia.  He would face the Cherokee in 1779 in the Battle of Long Cane.  Loyalists in the area were attempting to recruit the Natives to the British cause and Pickens intended to discourage the practice.  In February, 1779, Pickens' 300 man force overtook a much larger British-Loyalist force at the Battle of Kettle Creek.  Loyalist activity in the area slowed down.  In 1780, when the British successfully besieged Charleston, Pickens surrendered his command at Ninety-Six, giving his parole to remain out of fighting.  Tory marauders attacked Hopewell and Pickens considered his leave of absence over, returning to the fighting. 

Along with Charles Sumter, who had also gotten his start during the Anglo-Cherokee War, and Francis Marion, another Indian Fighter, Pickens became a formidable foe, taking part in the Battle of Cowpens, January, 1780.  At that Battle, he asked his militia to give just three volleys before breaking to let the more seasoned Continentals encounter the main British force, something Martin does in the movie.  Pickens also participated in the Siege of Ninety-Six, Siege of Augusta, and Battle of Eutaw Springs.  He also led a campaign against the Cherokee, his victories forcing land concessions between the Savannah and Chattahoochee Rivers.  His prowess in battle earned him the name, Skyagunsta, the Wizard Owl.  He emerged from the war a Brigadier General of Militia.

Later, he would serve in the South Carolina House of Representatives and represent the state at the Constitutional Convention.  He also served as a United States Congressman.  He was a good friend and close associate of Indian Agent Benjamin Hawkins, who chose to use Hopewell as a meeting place for Native parleys because of its convenient location and because of Pickens' respect among the local Cherokee.  Counties in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina are named for him.  Hopewell still stands on the campus of Clemson, University.