Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, born at Charleston, South Carolina, on
the 25th of February, 1746, was educated in England. Having qualified
himself for the legal profession, he returned to his native State and
began the practice of law in 1770, soon gaining an enviable reputation
and being appointed to offices of trust and great responsibility under
the crown. The battle of Lexington, however, changed his whole career.
With the first call to arms, Pinckney took the field, was given the
rank of captain, June, 1775, and entered at once upon the recruiting
service. Energetic and efficient, he gained promotion rapidly, taking
part as colonel in the battle at Fort Sullivan. This victory securing
peace to South Carolina for two years, he left that State to join
the army under Washington, who, recognizing his ability, made him
aide-de-camp and subsequently honored him with the most distinguished
military and civil appointments. When his native State again became the
theatre of action, Pinckney hastened to her defence, and once more took
command of his regiment. In all the events that followed, he bore his
full share, displaying fine military qualities and unwavering faith in
the ultimate triumph of American arms.
At length, after a most gallant resistance, overpowered by vastly
superior numbers, and undermined by famine and disease, Charleston
capitulated in May, 1780, and Pinckney became a prisoner-of-war and
was not exchanged until 1782. On the 3d of November of the year
following, he was promoted to be brigadier-general. Impoverished by
the war, he returned to the practice of law upon the restoration
of peace; and after declining a place on the Supreme Bench, and the
secretaryship, first of War and then of State, he accepted the mission
to France in 1796, urged to this step by the request of Washington
and the conviction that it was his duty. Arriving in Paris, he met
the intimation that peace might be secured with money by the since
famous reply, “Not one cent for tribute, but millions for defence!”
The war with France appearing inevitable, he was recalled and given a
commission as major-general; peace being restored without an appeal to
arms, he once more retired to the quiet of his home, spending the chief
portion of his old age in the pursuits of science and the pleasures
of rural life, though taking part when occasion demanded in public
affairs. He died in Charleston on the 16th of August, 1825, in the
eightieth year of his age.