[imardmd1]

This Banastre Tarleton was a really nasty piece of work, a military leader who had his troops treat the colonists with great cruelty. Cowpens was a key battle prefacing the downfall this monster and the victory over the British general Cornwallis.

Never forget the men who fought and died for our freedom. Are we willing to preserve it also?

[rlmorel]

Thanks for posting this, and I have the same thought as you, and often. Are we willing to do what they did?

Am I?

[Oatka]

The British infantry had been stunned by the fire from the American’s first two lines

I read where Morgan put the militia in the first two ranks. They were known to break and run at the first fire, so Morgan rode down the ranks and said something along the line of "Give me two fires and then you can skedaddle".

They did, but when they skedaddled, they found Morgan had placed Dragoons in the rear to keep them from disappearing. Worked out pretty well.

[VermithraxPejorative]

I’ve visited the gravesite of the great General Morgan in Winchester, VA. It’s also the hometown of Patsy Cline and I remember the puzzled look when asking about Morgan there as opposed to Patsy Cline. Sad how many of those Revolutionary heroes aren’t known.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Tarleton was neither so horrible nor so brilliant as he is usually portrayed -- he had a bit of panache and a lot of confidence that paid off in a few memorable instances.

Interestingly, he oversaw the abortive evacuation of Yorktown. He was convinced that he could raft the British army across the James River under the noses of the French fleet and break through the French troops guarding Gloucester Point, making a forced march to New York possible. He got part of the army across before the weather intervened to prevent further movement.

[gop4lyf]

The villain in the Mel Gibson movie, “The Patriot” is based in that guy, and the climactic battle scene is based on The Battle of Cowpens.

[keat]

Outstanding. I love winning.

[pugmama]

The Battlefield is very close to where we live. We visited there in the fall and found it very moving.

https://www.nps.gov/cowp/learn/historyculture/the-battle-of-cowpens.htm

[neal1960]

We liveabout ten miles from Cowpens Battle ground. Lot of activities coming up to commemorate the battle. A group called “Over Mountain Victory Trail” marchers camp at the original Morgan campsite then march to the “Cowpens” to do a re-enactment. Very informative event.

[windcliff]

Ping

[Godebert]

My ancestor James McCall was there at Cowpens. He commanded the South Carolina State Dragoons.

The Real Life Exploits of an Unknown Patriot: Lt. Col. James McCall

[SES1066]

While the British had taken and held South Carolina's main city of Charleston, the piedmont area of upland SC was in a state of almost constant war between near equal Revolutionaries and Loyalists. It was a very dirty civil war and had many atrocities on both sides.

This area, being Scots-Irish, had differing views of the British and a history of feuds and hard feelings with their neighbors as well. Andrew Jackson, age 13-14, was living in Waxhaws border area between SC & NC and was sword-cut by a British Officer and lost his older brothers and mother before the war ended.

The British commanders had given up on the New England states and thought, with the significant number of Loyalists in the area, that they could hold the South and wear-out the rest of the Colonies from there. The end of that concept can be traced from the Battle of Waxhaws (May 29, 1780) to the Militia victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain (October 7, 1780) and then Cowpens, 3 months later, all in the same close area.

With the able leadership of Daniel Morgan and his commander, General Nathanael Greene, the Americans led a maneuvering fight that exhausted the British with the Battle of Guilford Court House (March 21, 1781) where the British kept the ground but only a tie battle.

From there Cornwallis went to Wilmington, NC and then to Yorktown, VA and the full defeat there. General Nathanael Greene went back south to SC and generally confined the British back into Charleston to end that portion of the war.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

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

[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