Daniel Morgan’s Masterpiece at Cowpens
On the morning of January 17, 1781, General Daniel Morgan arrayed his Continentals and militiamen for battle in a South Carolina field known as Hannah’s Cowpens. Morgan placed his 1,400 men in three lines 150 yards apart. He instructed the front-rank militiamen to fire two volleys at the British and then retire to the rear and told the second line to do the same. The last line of defense was comprised of 450 battle-hardened Continental Army veterans from Delaware and Maryland, men that Morgan knew would stand their ground.
Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses Daniel Morgan’s masterpiece at the Battle of Cowpens, and why it still matters today.
Images courtesy of The New York Public Library, Library of Congress, The National Gallery, Brown University Library, Royal Collection Trust, Wikipedia.
The Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, was a great victory for Daniel Morgan and his army of Continentals and militiamen. They had virtually annihilated Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s famed British Legion, but Morgan’s contingent was in a dangerous position, with a larger British force under Lord Charles Cornwallis only twenty-five miles away. The race was now on to get to a place of safety.