When Charleston fell, and the victorious Britons spreading themselves over the country, advanced into the interior, the revived resentments of the royalists, compelled Colonel Pickens, and the steady adherents of the cause of freedom, to abandon their habitations and country, and seek for refuge in North Carolina. So soon, however, as General Greene had taken command of the army, and ordered General Morgan to enter the western division of the state, to check the aggressions of the enemy, and to revive the drooping spirits of the whig inhabitants, Colonel Pickens was found the most active among his associates, seconding his enterprizes, and by gentleness and conciliation, attaching new adherents to the cause. Of his intrepid conduct at the battle of the Cowpens, it is scarcely necessary to speak. It is a well known fact, that he not only prevailed upon his riflemen to retain their fire till it could be given with deadly effect, but, when broken, and compelled to retreat, that he rallied them; and what had never before been effected with militia, brought them a second time to meet their enemy, and by continued exertion, to accomplish their final surrender.

Peace being restored, the voice of his country called him to serve her in various civil capacities; and he continued, without interruption, in public employment until about 1801. By the treaty of Hopewell, with the Cherokees, in which he was one of the commissioners, the cession of that portion of the state now called Pendleton and Greenville, was obtained. Soon after he settled at Hopewell, on Keowee river, where the treaty was held. He was a member of the legislature, and afterwards of the convention which formed the state constitution. He was elected a member under the new constitution, until 1794, when he became a member of Congress. Declining a re-election to congress, he was again returned a member to the legislature, in which post he continued until about 1811. Such was the confidence of general Washington in him, that he requested his attendance at Philadelphia, to consult with him on the practicability and best means of civilizing the southern Indians; and he also offered him the command of a brigade of light troops, under the command of general Wayne, in his campaigns against the northern Indians; which he declined. In 1794, when the militia was first organized conformable to the act of Congress, he was appointed one of the two major generals; which commission he resigned after holding it a few years. He was employed by the United States as a commissioner in all the treaties with the southern Indians, until he withdrew from public life.

Determining to enjoy that serenity and tranquillity which he had so greatly contributed to establish, with the simplici

ty of the early times of the Roman republic, he retired from the busy scenes of life, and settled on his farm at Tomussee, (a place peculiarly interesting to him) where he devoted himself with little interruption to domestic pursuits and reflection. until his death. In this tranquil period, few events happened to check the tenor of his happy and virtuous life. Revered and beloved by all. his house, though remote from the more frequented parts of the state, was still the resort of numerous friends and relations; and often received the visits of the enlightened traveller. Such was the gentle current of his latter years; still, of earthly objects, his country was the first in his affections. He viewed with great interest our late struggle, and the causes which excited it, distinctly perceiving, that in its consequences the prosperity, independence and glory of his country were deeply involved; he was alive to its various incidents. In this hour of danger the eyes of his fellow citizens were again turned to their tried servant; without his knowledge he was again called by the spontaneous voice of his fellow citizens into public service. Confidence thus expressed could not be disregarded; he accepted a scat in the legislature in 1812, and was pressed to serve as governor at this eventful crisis, which, with his characteristic moderation and good sense, he declined. He thought the struggle should be left to more youthful hands.

He died in South Carolina on the 11th of October, 1817. In his domestic circumstances he was fortunate: by industry and attention he soon acquired a competency; and never desired more. He married in early life, has left a numerous and prosperous offspring, and his consort, the sister of John E. Calhoun, formerly a senator in congress, died but a few years before him.

Of the private character of the deceased little need be said; for among its strongest features was simplicity without contrariety or change; from his youth to age he was ever distinguished for a punctual performance of all the duties of life. He was from early life a firm believer in the christian religion. and an influential member of the Presbyterian church. The strong points of his character were decision and prudence, accompanied, especially in youth, with remarkable taciturnity. He was of middle stature, active and robust; and enjoyed, in consequence of the natural goodness of his constitution, and from early and combined temperance and activity, almost uninterrupted health to the last moments of his life. He retained much of his strength and nearly all his mental vigour in perfection; and died, not in consequence of the exhaustion of nature, or previous sickness; for the stroke of death fell sudden, and while his personal acquaintance were anticipating the addition of many years to his life.

PORTER, ANDREW, colonel of the fourth or Pennsylvania regiment of artillery, and subsequently brigadier and major general of the second division Pennsylvania militia, was born in what is now Worcester township, Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th September, 1743. His life affords a striking and useful example of what native energy and genius may accomplish, unfostered and unaided, except by its own exertions. Without the influence of family and friends, without the common advantages of early education, he rose to rank and respectability, both in civil and military life, and held a distinguished station in the scientific world. Nature gifted him with a strong and vigorous intellect, and a clear discriminating mind; and these faculties being applied, although comparatively at a late period in life, to scientific pursuits, with untiring industry and perseverance, their possessor was rewarded with a success seldom attained by those who enter on a similar course under more favourable auspices.

His father, Mr. Robert Porter, a native of Ireland, who emigrated to this country in early life, was a respectable farmer, but in moderate circumstances, and having a large family of children, he was unable, had he been so disposed, to expend much upon their education. Andrew, the subject of this notice, had shewn an early taste for reading what few books he could procure; and when at the age of eighteen or nineteen, his father had determined on his learning the trade of a carpenter, with an elder brother, that brother, after a few months trial, declared he must give him up; that Andrew was too fond of books and of figures, and too little disposed to work, ever to be useful to him as an apprentice. About this period of his life a circumstance occurred, laughable in itself, but which had a serious effect in giving a direction to his future pursuits. He had from the first discovered a taste for mathematics, and had read some few books in that branch of science, in which he was directed by an Irish gentleman, named Patrick Mennon, whom he occasionally met, and who taught a school some twelve or fifteen miles from Mr. Porter's residence. Seeing in those books the draft of a sun-dial, and the principles upon which it was constructed, he conceived the idea of making one for himself. He started off to a soap stone quarry on the banks of the river Schuylkill, near Spring Mill, and having selected a suitable stone, he carried it to his father's residence, a distance of eight or ten miles, where, his brothers being absent, he reduced it to a proper size and shape by the use of their saws, planes, and chissels, but in his operation completely spoiled the tools: the dial was finished; but on the return of his brothers he

was banished from the carpenter's shop. His father then attempted to confine him to the business of farming this too failed; and believing that his aversion to labour, and his fondness for books, were so great that he would never be successful as a farmer or mechanic, he determined on fitting him, in some measure, for the humble occupation of a country school-master. He was sent for a short time to Mr. Mennon's school, during which he made rapid improvement, especially in the mathematics, and then opened a school himself in the neighbourhood of his father's residence, pursuing his favourite study at every leisure moment.

Understanding that Dr. Rittenhouse was spending some time at his farm, in Norriton, young Mr. Porter paid him a visit for the purpose of borrowing some work on fluxions, or conic sections. The doctor enquired whether he had ever had any mathematical instruction: from whom, and for what period of time; and finding that he had received but a few months regular tuition. told him he thought he could not comprehend the work which he wished to borrow. Our young mathematician, however, insisted that he was prepared to enter on the subject, and a conversation ensued, which so satisfied the Doctor of the correctness of his knowledge, that he advised him not to bury himself in the country, but immedi ately to proceed to Philadelphia, and open a mathematical school there.

In the spring of the year 1767, he removed to Philadelphia, and took charge of an English and Mathematical school, which he conducted with much reputation and celebrity, until the spring of the year 1776, when, at his country's call, he bade adieu to his peaceful avocations, to defend her cause. During his residence in Philadelphia, he was the associate of Doctors Rittenhouse, Ewing, Rush, and other distinguished scientific men, made great progress in his favourite studies, and became an accurate astronomer.

On the 19th of June, 1776, he was commissioned by Congress a captain of marines, and ordered on board the frigate Effingham. At this time his school contained about one hundred scholars, and enabled him to support, comfortably, a family of five small children, who had recently lost their mother; but all considerations of family or self seemed to him to be lost in the cause of his country. Not finding in the marine service the opportunity of rendering his country the service he desired, he was shortly after transferred to the artillery, a corps, in which, from his previous studies, he was qualified to be eminently useful. He continued to serve as a captain of artillery, with great reputation for science and bravery, until the year 1782, when he was promoted to a ma

jority, to rank as such from the 19th of April, 1781. He was subsequently promoted to the successive ranks of lieutenant colonel, lieutenant colonel commandant, and colonel of the fourth, or Pennsylvania Regiment of Artillery; which latter station he held at the disbanding of the army.

While in the army, he was personally engaged in the cannonade at Trenton, and in the battles of Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown. In the latter action, nearly all his company were killed or taken prisoners; and in the first, he received on the field, in person, the commendation of General Washington, for his conduct in the action. In the month of April, 1779, he was detached with his company to join General James Clinton's brigade, in the operations under General Sullivan, against the Indians. He left the grand park of artillery at Pluckamin, on the sixth, and arrived at Albany on the 13th of May, where he joined General Clinton, with whom he proceeded to Canajoharic on the Mohawk river. Hence the troops were marched to the head of the Otsego lake. Here it was that Captain Porter suggested to General Clinton the idea of damming the outlet of the lake, to collect a sufficiency of water for the conveyance of the troops in boats to Tioga point, where they were to meet General Sullivan's army. The experiment was tried; the water in the lake raised, by stopping the outlet, to the height of three feet, and an artificial fresh created, which answered the proposed purpose, and the effect of which on the river was felt as low as Northumberland. The troops arrived safely at Tioga Point, joined General Sullivan, and having by the battle of the 29th of August, and the subsequent destruction of the Indian towns, cornfields, &c. accomplished the object of the expedition, the artillery rejoined the main army, and wintered at Morristown.

When the siege of Yorktown was determined on, Colonel Porter was ordered to proceed to Philadelphia, and superintend the laboratory, at which the various kinds of ammunition for that siege were prepared. He remonstrated against being thus removed from a station in which he might distinguish himself in the field, to the superintendance of what was generally considered a mere chemical laboratory. His objections were silenced at once by this remark of the Commander in Chief: "You say you are desirous of being placed in that situation in which you can render your country the most ef ficient services: our success depends much on the manner in which our cartridges, bombs, and matches are prepared. The eye of science is required to superintend their preparation; and if the information of General Knox, who knows you well and intimately, is to be depended on, there is no officer