Thomas Sumter, born in Virginia on Aug. 14, 1734, was a frontiersman and Indian fighter who had settled in South Carolina by 1760. He was a member of the First Provincial Congress, called in 1775 because war with England threatened. In 1776 he was commander of the 6th Regiment, South Carolina, and brigadier general of the South Carolina militia, becoming known as the "Gamecock of the American Revolution." After the war he returned to his Stateburg plantation and business and sought pensions for veterans. He was elected to the South Carolina Assembly in 1782, the Continental Congress in 1783, the U.S. Congress from 1789 to 1793 and from 1797 to 1801, and the U.S. Senate from 1801 to 1810. Sumter served under the first three presidents, Washington, Adams, and Jefferson, and was known as a strong states' rights man.