Battle of Cowpens

choi

Alan Pell Crawford, A Brawling Upstart and His Victory. Wall Street Journal, Dec 15, 2018
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dan ... victory-11544827382
(book review on Albert Louis Zambone, Daniel Morgan; A revolutionary life. Westholme, 2018)

the first four paragraphs:

"For muchof the night of Jan. 16, 1781, Daniel Morgan went from campfire to campfire to visit his troops, hunkered down in an open pasture in Spartanburg County, SC, known as the Cowpens. A brigadier general in the Continental Army, Morgan had placed his army with their backs to the Green River. The next day, the British, under the fearsome Banastre Tarleton, were expected to attack, and if his untested men panicked, Morgan wanted to be sure that there was only so far they could flee.

"For much of the war—a good deal of American mythology to the contrary notwithstanding—militias had been a problem for the Patriot cause. George Washington had blamed the loss of Long Island five years before on the “behavior and want of discipline” of the poorly trained and inexperienced militias, which had 'done great injury to the other troops.'

"A rough character from Virginia's Shenandoah Valley—he was a teamster before he became a soldier—Morgan enjoyed a rapport with the men in the ranks that Washington, for all his other fine qualities, lacked. And at the Cowpens, Morgan devised a plan to turn the militiamen’s weakness into strength. He gave his troops specific instructions: Fire once, if possible twice or three times, and retire from the field. That was all he asked. 'Just hold up your heads, boys,' he would say, as a member of the 3rd Light Dragoons later remembered. 'Three fires, and you are free! And then, when you return to your homes, how the old folks will bless you, and the girls kiss you, for your gallant conduct.”

"When dawn broke, the British charged. The militiamen held their ground briefly, fired their weapons, and then—as Morgan had commanded—left their posts and got out of harm’s way. The trap had been set. Tarleton mistook their departure as a panicked retreat and charged on, anticipating a rout. His troops ran smack-dab into a line of concealed Continental regulars, and by mid-morning it was all over. Tarleton lost 75% of his army in what Morgan later called a 'devil of a whipping,' and the piecemeal destruction of the British Army in the South had begun in earnest. Ten months later, at Yorktown, Lord Cornwallis would surrender.

Note:
(a) This review is available to the public, but there is  no need to read the rest.
(b)
(i) Battle of Cowpens occurred and was named after Cowpens, South Carolina
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowpens,_South_Carolina
("was named on account of pens for cattle near the original town site")
(ii) Battle of Cowpens
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cowpens
(Jan 17, 1781)

Quote: "The battle was a turning point in the American reconquest of South Carolina from the British.  Morgan's forces conducted a double envelopment of Tarleton's forces, the only double envelopment of the war.

There is no need to read the rest. Do view the two graphic of section 3 Battle, where W Washington is Colonel William Washington (George Washington's second cousin; both were Virginians)
(c) envelopment
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Envelopment
("According to the United States Army there exist four types of envelopment")
(d) Cowpens National Battlefield | The Battle of Cowpens. National Park Service, undated.
https://npplan.com/parks-by-stat ... tional-battlefield/
(e) USS Cowpens (CG-63)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cowpens_(CG-63)
(Dec 5, 2013 at South China Sea)