Battle of Cowpens: January 17, 1781

fold3|||HQ bkig ^ | January 1, 2017 | Trevor

[John S Mosby]

It was Tarleton who was expected in Pyle’s Massacre, but it was Light Horse Harry Lee (Robt. E. Lee’s father) who came riding up in similar dragoon garb to Tarleton’s cavalry. The Loyalist column were recognized by Colonial militia by their red cloth strips/badge and were attacked.

This all happened 2 weeks before Guilford Courthouse’s decisive battle won by Nathaniel Greene.

Incidentally the real first confrontation that presaged the Revolution was the Battle of Alamance in the same area— where yeoman farmers, who did not want to pay high tariffs (on their whiskey and their crops) to finance Gov. Tryon’s palace built in New Bern, NC (still there). Taxes that went right into the brit’s pockets for his “home” and they were having none of it. They were gunned down and mostly hanged- but they got revenge on the crown’s agent Fanning. The Boston Tea and Stamp Act revolts were much later. NC is where the Revolution really began.

[sergeantdave]

Thanks for the informative history lesson, SES1066.

[Adder]

And Guilford Courthouse.
3 lines, raw militia in front.

[21twelve]

Interesting read on your ancestor.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

“Tarleton’s quarter” meant, “Accept no surrender.”

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Washington’s General discusses the career of Nathaniel Greene, who held only two ranks in the American army: Private, and General.

As a private, he was less than distinguished. As a general, he was indispensable as quartermaster. This frustrated him because he wanted to win glory in battle - notwithstanding that “amateurs discuss strategy and tactics, but professionals discuss logistics.”

As matters turned out, the real action in the Revolution always turned out to involve Corwallis - and Greene as well. Washington sent Greene south to repair an apparently lost situation; the British were rolling up the revolution from south to north, and Washington didn’t have much to send south with Greene.

Morgan was under Greene’s orders when he conducted the battle of Cowpens.

[Oatka]

Don't remember anything about dragoons, though.

From the article: "Knowing Tarleton favored frontal attacks, Morgan deployed his infantry troops into three lines—meant to exhaust the energy and resources of the British—with his dragoons positioned in reserve behind the third line."

CIC of the southern operation, Gen. Greene, lost every battle, yet helped win the war. He kept sucking the Brits further and further away from the South and their supply line until the Brits were all the way up into Virginia at a place called Yorktown.

[neal1960]

I was beginning to think I was the only Freeper in CC. Wife and I walk it once in a while. We might just do that in the next couple of days with the temp in the near 70.

[NonValueAdded]

The RevWar/Colonial History/General Washington ping list.

236th Anniversary Battle of Cowpens, held Jan. 14, 2017. Video of ceremony here. A nice turnout by the Sons of the American Revolution. Kudos to the South Carolina Society.

Please FreepMail me if you want to be added to or removed from this low volume ping list. Ping requests gladly accepted.

Recessional of the Sons of the American Revolution:
“Until we meet again, let us remember our obligations to our
forefathers who gave us our Constitution, the Bill of Rights,
an independent Supreme Court and a nation of free men.”

Dr. Benjamin Franklin, when asked if we had a republic or a monarchy, replied "A Republic, if you can keep it."

[bert]

For an interesting week end trip, drive the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail. It is a marked series of roads following as close as possible the route actually traversed. Although it actually begins at Sycamore Shoals, Ft Watauga, in Elizabethton Tennessee, a large contingent and the elected commander came from just up the road at Abington Virginia. They left the Muster Grounds and came to Sycamore Shoals to meet the main body for the march over the mountain to Kings Mountain via Cowpens. They assembled and regrouped at Cowpens before the assault on Kings Mountain. The battle of Cowpens was later.

This is a great trip through the back roads of Virginia, East Tennessee and Western NC. There is great scenery and mountains. There are three very good museums. The first is at Ft Watuga, Sycamore Shoals State Park Elizabethton. It has good exhibits and info on the settlers that got pissed off at he British, formed a strong militia, crossed the mountains and whopped them good.

The other two are National Park Service National Battlefields. The historian at Cowpens made a study of battles in South Carolina and put a green dot on the map. The map is covered with green dots. More Revolutionary battles were fought in SC than any other colony and especially more than NJ.

On our trip over the trail, we began at the small museum on the Muster Ground in Abington and traveled the route according to the published guide to Morganton NC. We went the next day onward to Cowpens and Kings mountain. It is a fun and extremely interesting trip.

I'm not sure where the photo above was taken, but one of my Eagle Scouts built such a fence at the place where the Virginia Militia crossed the Holston river at Bluff City Tennessee enroute to Sycamore shoals on the Watauga river. By the way, the trail goes through a deep wooed hollow containing Ridgewood Barbecue. It is the best barbecue in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overmountain_Victory_National_Historic_Trail

[laplata]

Thank you for the ping, N V A.