Thursday

                        Musings and History

Quote of the day:

“I love men, even though they are lying cheating scumbags.”

                                       Gwyneth Paltrow

At the risk of being ostracized by my redneck buds I must say this. There is a move afoot that is fostering the premise that our enemy is all the Muslims...I mean after all look at all the similarity of the most recent attacks so it must be their religion. I cannot and will not accept that. As I have said before, I have lived about 2 miles from a mosque for about 30 years and not a peep has come from these people. If we are to accept the logic that if an attack comes from their religion then I must look at other religions.

Using that logic what I found was the inescapable conclusion that all Catholics are mass murderers and child molesters. After all look at the 9 Crusades and the Catholic priests that are in the joint for child abuse not to mention coach Jerry Sandusky and Joe Paterno of Penn State, both Catholics. I have no choice but to believe that no one is safe in the presence of a Catholic. How stupid is that?

Here is an addendum to my rant about Michelle Obama feeling guilty about living in the White House that was built by slave labor. In the years of approximately 1650 to 1850 there were a few kingdoms on the west coast of Africa that were ruled by Africans dealing in slaves, gold and ivory. It is documented that many of them became very wealthy at the expense of their brethren. They had regularly scheduled visits from Portuguese, Spanish, French, Dutch and English slave ships and would have holding cells filled with Africans they had captured from the interior waiting and sell them like livestock. Michelle...perhaps you should feel guilty about this also.

Here is a short bio of a man that was a major mover and shaker in the history of South Carolina.

Andrew Pickens was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania on September 19, 1739 the son of Ulster Scot immigrants. His family along with several other Scots immigrant families moved to the Waxhaw district on the North Carolina/South Carolina border in the mid 1700’s. Pickens was a participant in the Cherokee Wars of 1760-61 in trying to subdue the Lower Cherokees. From the very start with settlers trying to settle in the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina to the Savannah River valley in South Carolina and Georgia the Cherokees of various sections were constantly attacking the frontier settlements trying to prevent expansion and understandably so. In 1764 he moved to the Long Cane Creek settlement in present day Abbeville County, South Carolina near the Savannah River. After moving he married Rebecca Calhoun, the daughter of Senator John C. Calhoun and he and she had issue of six children. In 1768 Pickens built a blockhouse in what is today the city of Abbeville, South Carolina. He was between a rock and a hard place, he needed trade with the Cherokees but the Cherokees would launch an attack from time to time. He was described a dour man of few words. He was a farmer, justice of the peace and Presbyterian Elder. When the Revolutionary War erupted he joined with rebel leader General John Williamson at Ninety-Six and was given the rank of Captain. In 1775 he joined with General Williamson in the so-called Snow Campaign against the Loyalists in the back country of South Carolina. In 1776 the Cherokees raided and burned many villages on the frontier killing many. As a result Andrew Pickens led a group of militiamen from the Long Canes and joined with General Williamson in burning the villages of the Lower Cherokee including Essenecca (present day Seneca, S.C.), Tomassee (present day Tamassee, S.C.), Jocassee (beneath the water of present day Lake Jocassee, S.C.), Brass Town (site still exists), Cane Creek (partially submerged beneath the waters of Clarke Hill Reservoir), Chehohee (actual site unknown), Qualhatchie (actual site unknown), Toxaway (site still exists, NC/SC border), Chittitogo (actual site unknown), Sugar Town (site unknown), Tugaloo (site exists), Keowee (beneath the waters of Lake Keowee, SC), among other villages. The largest of them all was Keowee which was about 15 miles west-northwest of present day Seneca, SC. Pickens then joined again with Williamson and went into North Carolina and Georgia destroying the Cherokee villages in the Cherokee Valley totaling 32 towns and villages. After this rape of the Cherokees, Pickens and Williamson joined in the war against the British and failed in the attempt to kick the British out of Saint Augustine, Florida. In 1778 he was appointed as Colonel in Ninety-Six South Carolina Militia. It was right after this that a Pickens led 350 man militia kicked the crap out of a 700 man British/Loyalist army. The British/Loyalist was on their way from the recently captured city of Augusta, Georgia to North Carolina when they were ambushed about 50 miles northwest of Augusta by Pickens and his militia and the Battle of Kettle Creek ensued. The battle ended early when one of the first persons killed was the British commander and the green Loyalists soldiers panicked and it was all over. After this the British gave up on trying to control the back country for the present and withdrew from Augusta. In 1780 Charleston, South Carolina surrendered to the British and Andrew Pickens along with many other Patriot leaders accepted parole and promised to obey British rule. The British then resumed their attempt at controlling the back country. Then Pickens heads for home in Long Cane (Near present day Abbeville, SC) only to find his home burned and his property looted by Loyalists. The extremely pissed Andrew Pickens notified the British that they had violated their end of the parole and all bets were off and he was a Patriot once again. He took over operations in the vicinity of Ninety-Six and over into Georgia. He was in command of the South Carolina Militia at the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina where the Patriot army commanded by General Daniel Morgan out-generaled the infamous British cavalry commander Banastre Tarleton and slaughtered his army and came within minutes of capturing him. After this, Pickens joined with one of the greatest of our revolutionary commanders in Nathaneal Greene in his North Carolina operations. After the Battle of Weitzel’s Mill, Andrew Pickens and his South Carolina Militia, along with the Georgia Militia was called home to take care of local interests. In the spring of 1781 the British military in Augusta surrendered to Andrew Pickens, Elijah Clarke and a Continental army commanded by General Henry (Light-Horse Harry) Lee. Lee was the father of the beloved Robert E. Lee. In June of the same year, Star Fort near Ninety-Six was under siege by the ubiquitous Patriot General Nathaneal Greene. Greene failed in the attempt and withdrew. But on his way out he instructed Pickens to do his utmost to keep the peace in the back country between the Patriots and the Loyalists. In July the British destroyed Star Fort and the associated village and withdrew south. Pickens instructed his men to seek justice and preserve order after the British left. Pickens then joined again with Nathaneal Greene and they moved to attack the British under the command of British Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart based on the Santee River at a place called Eutaw Springs, South Carolina. Upon arrival The Battle of Eutaw Springs was enjoined. During the battle Pickens was struck by a bullet in his sword belt buckle. The wound was not fatal but he was knocked form his horse. In September while recovering from his wound, the Cherokees attacked the frontier villages in Oconee County, South Carolina. With the withdrawal of the British, South Carolina governor Rutledge tried to establish civil rule once again and in January of 1782 Pickens became a member of the South Carolina General Assembly. But before he took office, he led a punitive raid against the Lower Cherokees in Oconee County destroying several town and villages. In 1785 Pickens signed the Treaty of Hopewell where the Cherokees ceded their lands to the state. In 1787 Pickens moved to Seneca and established a plantation he named Hopewell in honor of the treaty. About 1802 he moved to the site of the former Cherokee village of Tomassee, now named Tamassee, South Carolina. There he established a plantation he named after the village. Tamassee is in the very northwest corner of the South Carolina Mountains just a few miles from either North Carolina or Georgia. He died on his plantation in 1817 at the age of 78. He is buried in the churchyard of The Old Stone Church in Clemson, South Carolina. I have ridden by this church many times not knowing what a hero was close by. I will know from now on. Fort Pickens near Pensacola, Florida and Pickens County, South Carolina along with a myriad of other sites and places are named in his honor, and deservedly so.

Thanks for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow