The Battle of Cowpens and the Southern Campaign
A Decisive American Victory in the Revolutionary War
Sep 18, 2009
By 1781, the Revolutionary War had been raging for six long years. Early on, The British had won a string of victories in New England and New York, but were unable to secure the countryside. Meanwhile, George Washington had been learning from his mistakes, and managed to fight the British to a stalemate in the north by 1779.
The War Shifts South
The situation in the southern colonies was different from the north. The south had not immediately joined the rebellion when it began in 1775. In the south more than elsewhere, loyalties were divided among the local population. Royalist sentiment ran heavy in some towns, and many of the backwoods population initially wanted to be left out of the conflict altogether.
The British had been fought to a standstill in the north, and France had recently joined the war on the side of the Americans. A new strategy was needed to regain the initiative.
The British Gain a Foothold
The British plan to retake the southern colonies initially went well. During the period of 1779-80, the coastal cities of Savannah and Charleston, as well as the interior town of Camden, were captured. These locations provided essential staging areas for a full invasion of Georgia and the Carolinas. American attempts to oppose the invasion fared badly, and the American forces suffered heavy losses.
It was during these American defeats that Horatio Gates, victor at Saratoga, gained a reputation for cowardice and incompetence. General Washington sent a new commander, Nathaniel Greene, to restore the situation in the south. Greene quickly set about reorganizing his army.
The Stage is Set for Cowpens
Greene split his army and sent General Daniel Morgan, a veteran of Saratoga and a talented commander, south with between 1,100 and 1,500 men. Morgan’s goal was to to harass the British supply lines and delay their advance.
His army included a large number of irregulars from the countryside. These backwoodsmen weren’t drilled to fight in formation like regulars, but tended to be hardy and made excellent marksmen with the rifles they carried.
Morgan intended to live off the land and pick up more local reinforcements along the way.
Banastre Tarleton Gives Chase
Lord Cornwallis, British commander in the south, sent Colonel Banastre Tarleton with about 1,000 to 1,200 men to intercept Morgan’s force. Tarleton had a very aggressive style of command and was something of a controversial figure.
It was said that Tarleton’s dragoons had charged into a regiment of Virginia regulars at Waxhaws, cutting them down while they tried to surrender. This tale was fresh in the minds of Morgan’s soldiers as they prepared for the battle to come.
Morgan led Tarleton on a chase for several days near the area of present day Spartanburg, South Carolina. The ever-energetic Tarleton marched his solders all day, through cold and wet weather conditions in order to close the distance. Finally, Morgan made camp near a wide swath of open cattle pasture, a type of land known in the Carolinas as “cowpens”.
Tarleton was hard on his tracks and marched his men though the night in order to catch Morgan by dawn.
Daniel Morgan’s Plan
Tarleton, thinking to make short work of the colonials, planned a head on assault against Morgan’s forces. He arranged his infantry into a long line with his artillery in the middle, and a detachment of dragoons covering each flank.
Morgan planned to use his forces to maximum effect. He knew his backcountry irregulars and his militia couldn’t stand against a coordinated infantry-cavalry charge. Instead, Morgan instructed them to form two lines, 150 yards apart, with the irregulars out front and the militia behind.
The first line was to take cover behind vegetation, fire one aimed shot at the approaching enemy, then fall back to the next line. There they would join the militia and fire again.
After getting off two aimed shots, they would again fall back behind a third line of Continental regulars who were waiting out of sight to the rear. The regulars would meet Tarleton's weakened force head on and throw them back in a counter-attack.
In the Thick of Battle
The plan worked brilliantly. The British advanced across the field in the face of deadly accurate fire. Officers in particular were prime targets, and suffered heavy casualties. Tarleton grew impatient with the guerrilla tactics employed by the Americans, and ordered his feared dragoons to charge. Accustomed to easy victory, the dragoons were caught off guard by a counter-charge of American cavalry and were forced back.
After firing their two shots as ordered, the militia and irregulars safely fell back to the third line of Continentals and take cover behind it. John Howard, the commander of the Continentals, gave the order to change facing to meet the expected British charge. His order was misunderstood in the heat of battle, and some detachments mistakenly began to withdraw.
Upon seeing this, Morgan intervened and ordered the Continentals to about face and fire a volley at the rapidly closing enemy. This volley decimated the British ranks, and they began to falter.
By now, the American militia and cavalry had reformed, and they began to envelope the flanks of the fully committed British forces. Caught off guard and surrounded, the British started to surrender en masse.
British Retreat to Yorktown
British casualties numbered about 100 dead, 200 wounded, and 600-800 prisoners. Only a small number of men escaped, including Colonel Tarleton. The Americans suffered less than 100 casualties, most of them wounded.
Tarleton managed to rejoin Cornwallis’ army. Now low on supplies and with their numbers reduced, they marched north to seek refuge at Yorktown, Virginia. There, Cornwallis dug in and waited for reinforcement and re-supply by sea.
Washington's army surrounded Yorktown and the French blockaded it by sea. Cornwallis, now in a hopeless position, surrendered in October, 1781. This ended major hostilities and secured American independence.
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