He possessed extraordinary personal magnetism, and his power extended beyond the Creek nation to the Choctaws and Chickasaws and the Southern Cherokees.

He had long been wooed by the Louisiana authorities, but there is no evidence that he had made alliance with them prior to the Revolution.
* Probably about 1741 or 1742.

Some writers give 1739 and others 1746.

His father landed in Charleston, Pickett ("History of Alabama") says, in 1735, and was then only sixteen.
Early in the war he joined the British, received a colonel's commission, and led his formidable Creeks against the people of Georgia.

When the British were driven from the Back Countries, McGillivray, in his British uniform, went on with the war.