Cowpens,+SC

=The Battle of Cowpens= The Battle of Cowpens was on January 17, 1781 it took place in the upper part of the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution and of the Revolution itself. 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. The Cowpens victory was over one over a crack British regular army and brought together strong armies and leaders who made their mark on history. In 1779-80, British redcoats were capturing first, Savannah and then Charleston and Camden in South Carolina, in the process, defeating and capturing much of the Southern Continental Army. Such victories gave the British confidence they would soon control the entire South and that Loyalists would flock to their cause. Conquering these population centers gave the British a false sense of victory they didn’t count on so much opposition in the backcountry. Conflict in the backcountry, to their rear, turned out to be their Achille's heel. Later General George Washington sent Nathanael Greene to take command of the Southern army. Against military custom, Greene, just two weeks into his command, split his army, sending General Daniel Morgan southwest of the Catawba River to cut supply lines and hamper British operations in the backcountry, and, in doing so "spirit up the people". General Cornwallis, British commander in the South, 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 his victory at the Waxhaws. There, Tarleton was said to have continued the fight against remnants of the Continental Army trying to surrender. His refusal, tradition says, of offering no quarter, led to the derisive term "Tarleton’s Quarter". These events set the stage for the Battle of Cowpens. On January 12, 1781, Tarleton's scouts located Morgan’s army at Grindal’s Shoals on the Pacolet River in South Carolina’s backcountry and began an aggressive pursuit. Tarleton, worrying about heavy rains and flooded rivers, gained ground as his army proceeded toward the flood-swollen Pacolet. As Tarleton grew closer, Morgan retreated north to Burr’s Mill on Thicketty Creek. On January 16, with Tarleton reported to have crossed the Pacolet and much closer than expected, Morgan and his army made a hasty retreat, so quickly as to leave their breakfast behind. Soon, he intersected with and traveled west on the Green River Road. Here, with the flood-swollen Broad River six miles to his back, Morgan decided to make a stand at the Cowpens, a well-known crossroads and frontier pasturing ground. Cornwallis and his weary army gave up on the Carolinas and moved on to Virginia. On October 18, 1781, the British army surrendered at Yorktown. Cowpens, in its part in the Revolution, was a surprising victory and a turning point that changed the psychology of the entire war. Now, there was revenge – the Patriot rallying cry Tarleton’s Quarter. Morgan's tactical masterpiece had indeed "spirited up the people", not just those of the backcountry Carolinas, but those in all the colonies. In the process, he gave Tarleton and the British a "devil of a whipping".