A Trip Through Time

10/06/2022

https://www.charlestonmuseum.org/news-events/events/the-charleston-museum-americas-first-museum-book-launch/

09/06/2022

Part of the movie The Patriot was filmed here.

08/15/2022

https://www.charlestonmuseum.org/news-events/events/exclusive-archaeology-tour-the-heyward-washington-house-with-curator-of-historical-archaeology-martha-zierden-and-dr-sarah-platt-of-the-college-of-charleston/

08/14/2022

From Aug. 8-12, a team led by Chester DePratter dug about 120 holes in Beaufort's Point neighborhood, looking for evidence of a lost 17th-century Scottish settlement called Stuarts Town.

08/13/2022

A WARRIOR’S FINAL REST
205 years ago today, 77-year-old Andrew Pickens was at his home, Tamassee, in Pendleton District (now Oconee County), South Carolina about a mile from the site of the “Ring Fight” he had with the Cherokee 41 years earlier. It was Monday August 11, 1817; his next birthday would be the following month. Pickens had been a widower since his wife Becky had died almost 3 years earlier. Hoping to find relief from the heat of the day, he took a packet of recently delivered mail outside and sat down in a chair in the shade of some cedar trees. It was there in this peaceful setting that Brig. Gen. Andrew Pickens – Skyagunsta, the Wizard Owl, survivor of dozens of battles and skirmishes – suffered a sudden stroke and died. He was buried next to Becky in the graveyard of the Old Stone Church near the family plantation of Hopewell.
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Photo credit: Lamar Ledford
IMAGE DESCRIPTION: The tombstone of General Andrew Pickens. It is a gray stone with a laurel wreath carved at the top and text: "GEN’L ANDREW PICKENS was born 13th September 1739 and died 11th August 1817. He was a Christian a Patriot & a Soldier. His Character & actions are incorporated with the history of his Country. Filial affection & respect raise this stone to his memory."

08/13/2022

On August 12, 1776, Major Andrew Pickens, while leading 25 militia men in a scouting party, was ambushed by a large force of as many as 200 Cherokees warriors near modern Tamassee, South Carolina. Pickens ordered his men to form two circles within each other, and to fire in relays, thus leading to the battle being called "The Ring Fight". Two men would fire, then crouch in the tall grass to reload, and the next two men would fire. Some warriors rushed into the ring but were killed by knife or hatchet. The Cherokees fled when Andrew Pickens's brother, Joseph, came with a rescue party and after losing as many as 83 killed. The only know casualty among the militia was Jonathan Downs who was wounded in the abdomen and hands. When his widow Sarah applied for a pension in 1833, she noted that the musket ball that entered Downs’ abdomen “he carried with him to his grave.” Jonathan Downs died in Laurens County, South Carolina in 1818. After this battle, the Cherokee began to refer to Pickens as Skyagunsta, or Wizard Owl.

PHOTO DESCRIPTION: Oil painting of Andrew Pickens from the early 19th century. He is an elderly bald white male with blue eyes and a prominent nose. He is wearing a white shirt with high collar under a dark coat with large buttons. Credit:NPS

08/05/2022

The earthquake was on August 31st, 1886.

08/05/2022

Two hundred years ago , James Madison wrote to W. T. Barry, praising the Kentucky legislature for appropriating funds for general education, which Madison saw as essential for good government. “We the People” needed a good education in order to govern ourselves. As Madison explained,

“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

Montpelier Collections photo.

07/20/2022