Pickens's Punitive Expeditions
Pickens's Punitive Expeditions
PICKENS'S PUNITIVE EXPEDITIONS. Andrew Pickens first fought against the Cherokees in 1761. As a major of militia he led the forces that destroyed their settlements in the western Carolinas in the summer of 1776, winning a key victory at Tugaloo River on 10 August 1776. In 1779 the Cherokees again allied with the British in hopes of retaining their lands after the war ended. Starting in late August, General Pickens led a campaign of less than three weeks in which he killed forty Cherokees, burned thirteen towns, and took many prisoners while sustaining a loss of only two wounded. In his Memoirs (1827), Harry Lee commented on 'Pickens's effective use of mounted troops, against which the Indians proved to be surprisingly vulnerable. In 1782 Pickens and Colonel Elijah Clarke again moved against the Cherokees, first in March and April, then in September and October. These two swift campaigns forced the Cherokees to surrender all their lands south of the Savannah River and east of the Chattahoochie to the state of Georgia.
SEE ALSO Georgia Expedition of Wayne.
revised by Michael Bellesiles