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.