Journeying Back to the Battle of Cowpens

The Battle of Cowpens, January 17, 1781, took place in the latter part of the American Revolution. It became known as the turning point of the war in the South, part of a chain of events leading to Patriot victory at Yorktown.

After General George Washington appointed Nathanael Greene to take command of the Southern army, Greene split his army, sending General Daniel Morgan to cut supply lines and hamper British operations in the backcountry of present-day South Carolina. British General Cornwallis countered Greene's move by sending Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton to block Morgan's actions. Tarleton was only twenty-six, but he was an able commander, both feared and hated - hated especially for having ordered the slaughter of over 100 patriots who had surrendered to the British in a previous battle.

These events set the stage for the Battle of Cowpens as Tarleton chased Morgan across South Carolina. Morgan path would have required fording a river that could not be crossed quickly enough to escape Tarleton, so Morgan decided to stand and fight.  He chose the Cowpens field for battle because of its unique terrain.  Cowpens was well known to farmers in the region because it was a central location to send cattle for grazing.  While Morgan only had 600 Continental soldiers against Tarleton's 1,100, and so was outnumbered nearly 2-to-1, Morgan, a former militia man, put out a call to local militias to join him at Cowpens to resist the British.  Over 1,000 militiamen responded, bringing Morgan's force to 1,600.

Morgan proved to be a genius in battle strategy and tactics.  Recognizing that he had half the number of trained soldiers as Tarleton, he devised a creative way to array his troops in multiple layers of lines, designed to draw Tarleton's forces into heavy fire without unduly exposing any American fighter in the process.  One by one, the lines of fighters fired one or two shots at the British and then dropped back behind the next line.  Each time, the British lost more troops.  Morgan ordered his sharpshooters to aim for the officers, and that tactic was immensely successful.

When Tarleton tried to outflank Morgan by sending in his Highlander reserves, Morgan's troops misunderstood his order to turn and fire at the Highlander, and instead thought he had ordered them to turn about face and march away from the British.  Tarleton, seeing the Yankee soldiers retreating, was sure he was routing them and ordered his soldiers to chase them.  Without many officers to control them, their ranks became highly disordered.  In the meantime, Morgan, discovering the misunderstanding in his orders, next ordered the soldiers to turn about, stand and fire at the advancing British.  They did this, and the British, so surprised that the supposedly retreating Americans had suddenly stood and fired, became highly disordered in their response - not to mention further decimated in number.  At this point, Morgan sent in his calvary reserve to attach the British from one flank, and the militiamen (remember, those guys who faded back behind the lines after their early turns at firing?) attacked the other flank.  This pincer move, called "double envelopment," a tactic first used in the Battle of Cannae in 216 where Hannibal and the Carthaginians defeated a Roman force twice their size - eerily parallel to the circumstances of the Battle of Cowpens.

In any event, seeing that they were surrounded, the British immediately threw down their arms and lay down in surrender.  Tarleton, watching the disaster from behind the battle lines, turned and fled with 50 of his soldiers and eluded capture.

The Battle of Cowpens not only stopped the British advance in the South, but also set up Nathanael Greene for a successful drive, chasing Cornwallis to Yorktown where, surrounded by American troops by land and the French fleet by sea, Cornwallis had not choice but to surrender, effectively ending the war.  Some summarize this impact by saying, "If the Battle of Cowpens had been won by the British, the entire American South would have become a British colony."

With that not-so-short introduction, we decided to visit the Cowpens National Battlefield, only a short drive from our campground.

As it happened, our path brought us across the world-famous "Peachoid," a 135-foot tall water tower that is shaped and painted to resemble a big peach.  Normally it looks like this:

Today, we discovered that it was being repainted and, with its yellow primer coat, looked more like a "Lemonoid" than a peach.  Here we are posing in front of it.  Note the manlift behind Kathy's shoulder.  The guys were painting it as we watched.

On to more inspiring adventures.  We arrived at the NPS Visitor Center just in time to join a ranger walk that took us along the line of battle, across the fields, in about an hour.  As our ranger leader pointed out, the battle lasted about a half hour - less than half the time we spent in taking the ranger tour:

Kathy got so inspired by the ranger's recounting of the battle, that she decided to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with this Continental soldier to turn and shoot at the British troops:

After the ranger walk, we strolled back across the battlefield to the Visitor Center, where we awaited the NPS documentary film on the battle.  Looking around the museum, we stumbled onto this painting of "The Battle of Cowpens," by Charles McBarron.  In it, he captures the decisive moment when the Continental regulars (at the top center) turn and fire on the British (foreground), while the calvary attack from the right and the militiamen from the left:

The museum even has a full set of toy soldiers for the young at heart (yes, that includes Kathy) to handle and set up a miniature diorama of the battle:

Having completed our history lesson, we drove over to the picnic area to have our lunch. Replenished, we set out on the parks trail to see what we could see.

Generally, only the first leaves and buds are in evidence in these Appalachian foothills in South Carolina.  There are some spring bulbs and blossoms, but the landscape still has a wintry cast. Walking through the woods, we encountered a fallen tree still containing its rootball of that famous red clay soil of this area:

Toward the end of the hike, we encountered a bamboo grove!  Here, David is demonstrating how large the grove is:



After our hike, as we drove out of the park, we stopped at the Robert Scruggs house:

Long after the Battle of Cowpens, Robert Scruggs, a farmer from North Carolina, built a cabin on this property in 1828.  Over the years, the family added to the house but preserved the original walls of the cabin within the additions.  The cabin remained in the family until the mid-1970's, when the National Park Service took over the property.  The NPS set about restoring the cabin to its 1828 appearance and condition, tearing down all the additions.  What is left is a typical journeyman farmer cabin of the American Southeast.  It helped us imagine more clearly what the area might have looked like at the time of the earlier battle.