Thomas Sumter was born in Hanover County, Virginia on August 14, 1734. A Virginia militia officer, he originally saw service in the French and Indian War. After that conflict he moved to South Carolina, where he established a plantation. He then served as a lt. col. and later colonel in the 6th South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line, resigning his commission in 1778 for want of action. In 1780 after the fall of Charleston, South Carolina, he rallied the militia and eventually became a brigadier general. After the war he served in the U.S. House from 1789 to 1793 and from 1797 to 1801 and served in the U.S. Senate from 1801 to 1810. He died in South Carolina on June 1, 1832.