Andrew Pickens ( congressman ) Andrew Pickens ( September 13 , 1739 – August 11 , 1817 ) was a militia leader in the American Revolution and a member of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina . Early life . Pickens was born in Bucks County , Pennsylvania , the son of Scots - Irish immigrants , Andrew Pickens , Sr . and Anne ( " née " Davis ) . His paternal great - grandparents were Robert Andrew Pickens ( Robert André Picon ) and Esther - Jeanne , widow Bonneau , of South Carolina and La Rochelle , France . In 1752 his family moved to the Waxhaws on the South Carolina frontier . He sold his farm there in 1764 and bought land in Abbeville County , South Carolina , near the Georgia border . He established the Hopewell Plantation on the Seneca River , at which several treaties with Native Americans were held , each called the Treaty of Hopewell . Just across the river was the Cherokee town of Isunigu ( " Seneca " ) . Military career . He served in the Anglo - Cherokee War in 1760 – 1761 . When the Revolutionary War started , he sided with the rebel militia , and was made a captain . He rose to the rank of Brigadier General during the war . On February 14 , 1779 , he was part of the militia victory at the Battle of Kettle Creek in Georgia . Pickens was captured at the Siege of Charleston in 1780 . He saw action at the Battle of Cowpens , Siege of Augusta , Siege of Ninety Six , and the Battle of Eutaw Springs . Pickens also led a campaign in north Georgia against the Cherokee Indians late in the war . His victorious campaign led to the Cherokees ceding significant portions of land between the Savannah and Chattachoochee rivers in the Long Swamp Treaty signed in what is currently Pickens County , Georgia . Pickens was well regarded by Native Americans that he dealt with and was given the name Skyagunsta , " The Wizard Owl . " He and three hundred of his men went home to sit out the war on parole . Pickens ' parole did not last , however . After Tory raiders destroyed most of his property and frightened his family , he informed the British that they had violated the terms of parole and rejoined the war . During this period of the war , Pickens would join Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter as the most well - known partisan leaders in the Carolinas . Sumter also resumed fighting under similar circumstances . Pickens was soon operating in the Ninety Six District . Family . He married Rebecca Floride Calhoun in 1765 . They had 12 children , including Andrew Pickens who later became governor of South Carolina . He was also an uncle of Floride Calhoun , the wife of John C . Calhoun . Andrew Pickens died near Tamassee , South Carolina , in Oconee County , on Aug . 11 , 1817 . He is buried at Old Stone Church Cemetery in Clemson , South Carolina . Memorials . Fort Pickens in Florida is named in his honor as is Pickens County , Alabama ; Pickens County , Georgia ; and Pickens and Pickens County in his adopted home state of South Carolina . Pickens was a 7th great grandfather of former Senator and 2004 presidential candidate John Edwards . He is also the namesake of Pickens High School . " The Patriot " . Pickens and his actions served as one of the sources for the fictional character of Benjamin Martin in " The Patriot " , a motion picture released in 2000 .