Rangers William and Adrian are joined by Ranger Paul Cothren from Cowpens National Battlefield to discuss the 1781 Battle of Cowpens, a brilliant tactical Patriot victory that made a cow pasture famous.

[Violin music]

William: Hey everyone and welcome to Southern War, a podcast about the Southern Theater of the American Revolution. I'm Ranger William from Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail.

Adrian: And I'm Ranger Adrian from Ninety Six National Historic Site.

William: Together we will explore some of the well-known and not so known stories from the American Revolution here in the American South. Time to dive in.

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William: So today our guest is Ranger Paul Cothren from Cowpens National Battlefield. Thanks for joining us, Paul.

Paul: Uh, thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to it.

William: Umm, so can you tell us a little bit about your background. Kind of how long have you been there at Cowpens? What brought you there and what do you enjoy about it?

Paul: I came to Cowpens as a seasonal Park Ranger in the summer of 2019. I really enjoyed my time here and realized that I didn't know anything about the American Revolution like I thought I did. So the story of the Southern Campaign and the Revolution of the South really hooked me, and I've returned. I am currently a GS-6 Park Guide permanent now at Cowpens. I have lived and worked most exclusively in National Parks since 2002. Yellowstone National Park, had toured in the Grand Tetons with the Park Service, I worked in Yellowstone, Cowpens, Vicksburg National Military Park as a volunteer and Buffalo National River in Arkansas as well. And that's both in the private and the public sector, with NPS and other organizations as an interpretive guide.

William: Wow, that's quite a diversified background. It seems like you have a lot of uh, a lot of travels under your belt before you're able to come here to the Revolutionary War.

Paul: I did. I I traveled a lot. Even did some time in Death Valley, uh, I've worked in the Florida Keys as well. I've been around a little bit, lived in every time zone as a matter of fact.

Adrian: What's your favorite area of the country that you've lived?

Paul: I am addicted to the northern Rocky Mountains. And that is my favorite part of the world that I have been able to get to so far.

Adrian: Awesome. I have not been there yet.

Paul: Uh, you should go today. You should back up and go on vacation. I encourage everyone to get to the northern Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone, Glacier, the Grand Tetons. It is the backbone of the world. Almost. Adrian: Alright, so I guess back to our focus. What area or region are we focusing on with the Cowpens story? And where is that then and now?

Paul: The area of Cowpens in the American Revolution time frame is what's commonly referred to as the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution. So umm, think Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and up into Virginia. Cowpens today is a handful of miles away from the southern border of North Carolina. In 1781, Cowpens is what honestly in the wilderness there is not much around here in 1781, it's on the ragged edge of the frontier, butts up against Native American lands and Cowpens is a local landmark for folks. In this part of the world, the Green River Road, the historic Green River Road, cuts through an open area in the middle of the forest in the middle of the wilderness and road may be a generous term to give to the Green River Road, it's a muddy wagon track through the middle of the wilderness. And this open area at Cowpens is, for lack of a better word, it's used as a cow pasture for folks driving their cattle to and from market towns back in 1781, and even before that. There are creeks on each side of the battlefield, along with a natural rivercane thicket that forms a natural fence where folks could stop, let their cattle graze, that become became known locally as the Cowpens. It's not the only cowpens on the frontier or in South Carolina, but for this area of the world at that time, it's a, it's a really well known landmark where Daniel Morgan leads his army in and on January of 1781 and makes a stand against Banastre Tarleton and his British Army. Just a well-known place where everybody can gather up. Today, Cowpens is about 845 acres of the Cowpens National Battlefield, and it's historical resources, it's cultural resources and it's the natural resource park as well. It is a very, very popular destination for folks looking to get outside, get a little exercise on our walking paths, and it's a very popular part with the local folks to come out and do some walking or some biking.

Adrian: So what towns is it nearby?

Paul: Umm, we are near Spartanburg, South Carolina that's gonna be the the largest metropolitan big city. Uh, we're close to Chesnee SC, as well a small little hamlet couple miles away from that, and not far from Interstate 85 near Gaffney, SC. Charlotte, NC, is an hour and a half or so drive from the Cowpens National Battlefield.

Adrian: So if you see the giant Peachoid on the interstate, you're nearby.

Paul: Yeah. Nearby, you're about 10 or 11 miles away. Yeah, the giant peach.

William: So you mentioned a little bit about January and 1781, but can you talk a little bit more about kind of when in the revolution is this event taking place? What are kind of some key moments that have preceded and led up to this moment that we're here at this cattle pasture near a giant peach?

Paul: Uh, James and the giant Peach was not here in 1781. Uh, so in the timeline of the American Revolution, this is the height of the Southern Campaign of the Revolution. The Southern Campaign is the new British strategy to subdue the colonies and try to bring the revolution back in control and bring at least the southern colonies back under control of the crown. By 1780, 1779-1780, it's kind of a stalemate between the British Army and the Continental Army in the northern colonies up around New York and the British are looking to open up a new front. And that front is going to be Georgia beginning in seven, late 1778 and into 1779 they are going to revert to this Southern strategy and bring an Army south. The British are embroiled in what is now a world war. The French have declared war on the British and come in on the side of the Americans along with other nations and the world war is really sapping their, their money for lack of a better word. Uh, they're looking to bring in get the South, particularly Georgia and South Carolina, back under the crown so they can start using the export crops: the rice, the indigo, the tobacco. So to pick that back up, the British have come into Georgia in late 1778 and into 1779, and Georgia has come under almost complete control of the crown. And then the British are pushing into South Carolina after their conquest of Georgia, and Cowpens is taking place at the height of this Southern Campaign. Charleston falls to the British in May of 1780, and then there's a string of victories by the British Army, mostly under Cornwallis, General Cornwallis. Banastre Tarleton is gonna win the Battle of the Waxhaws, then you got the major defeat by the American Army under Horatio Gates in August of 1780. Cornwallis defeats him handily at the Battle of Camden. And really, the next major battle, the height of the Southern Campaign in South Carolina is the Cowpens. Now there's a lot of battles going on, particularly among the populace here, the militias, Musgrove Mill, particularly King's Mountain in October of 1780 as well, and the Cowpens is kind of the culmination of Cornwallis's endeavor to subdue South Carolina for the crown.

Adrian: So sounds like we've got the British and the Continental Army, is that right? Who are some of the key players and you know, main leaders on both sides for the Cowpens battle.

Paul: Alright, we'll start with the home team first. So we'll talk about the Continental Army about this time in South Carolina, around the Battle of Cowpens. You've got Major General Nathanael Greene, who is the overall southern commander of the Southern Army. And Nathanael Greene has the man that I think that every commander in the Continental Army would like to have had in his army leading men, and that's the newly appointed Brigadier General Daniel Morgan. Daniel Morgan has got two superlative commanders under him, he's got uh Lieutenant Colonel John Eager Howard from Maryland, who is gonna be leading the Continentals from Maryland and Delaware here on the battlefield, about 300 strong. And he's also got Lieutenant Colonel William Washington, distant cousin of George, with the Third Continental Light Dragoons. The Battle of Cowpens is gonna be heavily engaged with the militia here as well. So in overall command of all of the militia forces and those are gonna be boys from South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and some Virginia militia as well, the overall commander for all of those is Colonel Andrew Pickens, who might have the slowest heartbeat on the battlefield at Cowpens on January 17, 1781. A really, really good solid militia commander. So you got guys from North Carolina here. These guys, these militia guys, Joseph McDowell is leading the North Carolinians. And then you have South Carolinians under Benjamin Roebuck and all these names will be familiar to the South Carolinians, for sure. Lieutenant Colonel Benjamin Roebuck, with part of the Spartan Regiment. You've got Colonel John Thomas with part of the Spartan Regiment, Thomas Brandon is going to be here with part of the Fair Forest Regiment, Joseph Hayes, here with the Little River Regiment. The Georgia militia are under commanders Cunningham and Hammond, and the Virginians are here under Wallace and Tate and Triplett, just to give a couple of names for those folks, not from South Carolina. Now the British Army in South Carolina by this time is under command overall command of Lieutenant General Cornwallis and Cornwallis has dispatched his best, most reliable, most aggressive commander to deal with Daniel Morgan's piece of the Southern Army, and that man is Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Tarleton has got a really, really crack unit of about 1,100 here at the Battle of Cowpens. And it's gonna be his commanders under him or Major Arthur MacArthur with the 71st Scottish Highlanders. And Lieutenant Roderick McKenzie in there as well. Major Timothy Newmarsh is here with the 7th Fusiliers, the 7th Regiment of Foot. Lieutenant Henry Nettles is here with the 17th Light Dragoons of the British Army, redcoats. And then you have David Ogilvey and John Rousselette are leading both the calvary and the infantry section of the dreaded British Legion.

Adrian: Now Paul, you said a word a couple of times that maybe some of our listeners may not know. What is a dragoon?

Paul: What is a dragoon? Dragoons are mounted infantry, cavalry for lack of a or put it in a better term for folks to understand. Mounted on horseback, going to have a carbine that's a cut down version of a shorter version of black powder musket. Course gonna have sabers and probably pistols as well. The British have at the beginning of the war, at least they have the 16th and the 17th Dragoons from the British Army are the only ones deployed to the colonies, and at the beginning of the war, the Continental Congress has not authorized any American Continental cavalry. That quickly changes when the war really gets heated up and you got the first, second, third and fourth light dragoons raised in the colonies. Now, both sides are going to augment those cavalry forces with either patriots or loyalists from either side and form them into legions, form them into cavalry troops. There are South Carolina mounted dragoons, state troops, on the battlefield at Cowpens under McCall and Jolly.

William: Okay Paul, so we've got a great rundown about we're looking at a cow pasture with a wagon road passing through kind of the northwestern part of South Carolina. We are looking at in the height of the Southern Campaign as you pointed out, we've got some big names involved here, both regular army as well as local leaders. What's actually gonna happen here? What brings these forces to meet at this cattle pasture of the Cowpens? And what's gonna be the result?

Paul: Nathanael Greene, in order to cover a little bit more ground in South Carolina, gives his some of his best troops to Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, sends him into this backcountry part of South Carolina for a couple of reasons. He's going to send him here number one to spirit up, the people, help the people realize that they're still Continentals in South Carolina, after the defeat at Camden in August of 1780, and he's looking for Daniel Morgan to gather some supplies. And to counter the splitting of Greene’s Army, Cornwallis has to split his own army as well. Cornwallis is gonna shadow Greene’s army over near the Cheraw district, and he's going to give 1,100 of his best, as we mentioned, to Banastre Tarleton and Tarleton is gonna have one of two objectives. He is either going to bring Daniel Morgan to battle and destroy Daniel Morgan's army, or he's going to push and funnel Daniel Morgan's army back over closer to Cornwallis who’s going to be moving up, and they're supposed to jointly, possibly corner Daniel Morgan's army and wipe it out. When Cornwallis and Tarleton realized where Daniel Morgan's army is, and it's not down near Ninety Six, it's more up here in this upper back country, Tarleton does what he does best. He is going to get on the hunt and he is going to relentlessly pursue Daniel Morgan to up here in this Broad River, Pacolet River basin area. It's about a six- or seven-day hunt for Tarleton and he is at his best again at this is what he does. The problem that Tarleton really has is that Daniel Morgan's got a pretty good head start on him. And he is going to push his British Army past its breaking point just to catch up with Morgan's army up here near the Cowpens. And Daniel Morgan is gonna move the Continental Army in here on the afternoon of January the 16th, guided here by his local South Carolinians, the men that we mentioned earlier, Roebuck, Pickens, those kinds of men. And the whole idea is that Morgan cannot maneuver anymore. He's going to have to make a stand because Tarleton is closed so quickly on him and he is at least come to the Cowpens, gather up your guys, think about what you want to do next, and when Morgan sees the ground at the Cowpens with the flanks protected by the creeks and the ravines and the rivercane, the gently rolling, undulating plane here in this open area, he decides to make his stand. And Tarleton is still on the still on the march, still on the hunt at this point on the 16th, his troopers, his own army actually doesn't go into camp until about 10 o'clock on the night of the 16th after almost two days of forced marches without any rest. Tarleton's army is outstripped, its out-marched it's rations and they are exhausted already before they even get to the Battle of Cowpens on the morning of the 17th of January. The cold morning. Um, they're tired, they're hungry, they march in here to the field at Cowpens and arrive at about dawn after getting up at 2:00 AM and just getting to the Cowpens. Banastre Tarleton brings his army onto the battlefield at Cowpens at about daybreak, and Daniel Morgan has already got his army on the battlefield, well rested, well fed and well aware of what Daniel Morgan wants to battle to play out. Morgan is going to, quite honestly, it's an ingenious plan, uh, of using 3 successive lines of defense. A line of sharp shooters out front to really slow the British Army down as they started advancing and then Andrew Pickens’s approximately 1,000 militia lined up in a second line to again whittle down the British as they advance up the battlefield, and then a third line of the professional Continentals on the back of the battlefield. Three successive lines of more difficult fighting to get to, and it's ingenious, it truly is. And Daniel Morgan has been able to do something in a really short amount of time that I'm not sure that we give him credit for enough and that is taking a professional army of Continentals, meaning the Maryland and Delaware Continental Infantry and the American Cavalry, and then citizen soldiers and quickly melding them into what turns out to be a very powerful army. And he does it really quickly. Mostly based off of his reputation and just the his cult of personality, Morgan has these men believing in him and believing that they can beat Banastre Tarleton’s army before the battle ever starts. And I don't think he gets enough credit for that part of it. Not so sure anybody else could have done that so quickly in such a short amount of time. When the battle commences. Banastre Tarleton is in a rush to begin with. He quickly tries to deploy out the British Army astride the Green River Road. Particularly on the British left, if we're moving from South to North-ish the great rivercane thicket is really gonna slow down the troops on the left trying to get in position. And Tarleton, I think he actually knows that his army is worn out and then he's going to have to close on Morgan quickly. So he deploys them out quickly and the battle lines are not completely formed for him when he starts the British infantry up the battlefield. The sharpshooters from Morgan’s line do their work. They are just supposed to aim for the epaulette men take out as many officers as they can, as the British Army starts up the battlefield, they meld, they fall back in with the main militia line under overall command of Andrew Pickens. Andrew Pickens and all of the men on the American side here have a, know what the battle plan is. Morgan is going to, for lack of a better word, he's gonna use the militia as bait to draw Banastre Tarleton into the battlefield. He wants those militias boys to fire two or three shots at the advancing British infantry line, those militia boys, and have them redeploy to the back of the battlefield, form back up and then get back into the fight. Umm, as it turns out, the British Army, being the professionals they are, the good soldiers that they are closed so quickly on Pickens’s militia that most of them only get off 1 volley. Now Benjamin Roebucks guys are able to get off a second volley and there's a random second volley, but not one full volley of 1000 muskets going off inside of 50 yards at the British infantry line. When that one fire happens, the militia do what they're supposed to do, what the battle plan is, and that is redeploy to the back of the battlefield. Reform up and then get back into the fight. The main reason that there's not a sustained second or third volley is because the British infantry line absorbs that first volley from Pickens’s militia, and then they do what they're supposed to do against militia, and that is charge with the bayonet, and it just doesn't give the the militia time to get off of a second or third volley. When the militia falls back, the British infantry line pushes up and runs smack into the Continentals, who have been waiting on the battlefield. And there's about a 10-minuteish firefight between the main British infantry line and the Continental infantry line. It's quick, hot, deadly work that these boys are doing to each other on the battlefield. On the far right of the Continental line is gonna be one of the major players and that's the Virginia State troops under Wallace and Tate. At some point Tarleton even wrote this in his history of the Southern Campaign that he quickly realized that the main infantry line fight between the two armies was not going to decide the battle. So he's gonna bring in his reserves and that is the elite 71st Scottish Fraser Highlanders. And he's going to bring them around on the American right to outflank the American line. When that happens, Lieutenant Colonel John Eager Howard of the Continental line recognizes this and what he's asking to happen is a wheel right and refuse the right flank order to the Virginians on the far right of the American line. In the heat of battle they misunderstand that order and instead of refusing the right flank and that just means almost closing the door to the right and forming an angle to the right, they follow directly back. That opens up the remainder of the rest of the Continental line to the flanking maneuver by the 71st Highlanders, and at that point the entire American Continental line, umm, redeploys off to the back of the battlefield. Literally about faces and marches backwards. Daniel Morgan sees this retrograde movement, this unplanned redeployment, and he rides over quickly to John Eager Howard and says something along the lines of, "you’re beat and you're retreating" and Howard responds "no, I'm not retreating, I'm just redeploying." Morgan rides to the top of what we now refer to as Morgan Hill. He orders a halt and then there is a quick about face and the British have not stood idle during this they have spontaneously begun charging the Continental line. And why wouldn't you right if you're a British soldier? You've already driven these sharpshooter skirmishers from the battlefield, you've seen the militia run from the battlefield, and now you're seeing what you would think is the Continentals running from the battlefield? I would think that most British soldiers think that this is working out just about right and I'm tired, I'm cold, I'm hungry, if we charge them, we can drive them off the battlefield and I can rest and get a hot meal. So they're spontaneously charged when the Continental line redeploys, only to quickly be surprised when John Eager Howard, the American commander, stops that line. The Americans about-face some reports have it firing within 10 or 15 yards. The British are right on top of them. Let's not forget the militia in all of this, too. Daniel Morgan and Andrew Pickens have rallied the militia. The militia are beginning to sweep around on both flanks. William Washington is also involved in this. He's getting around on the left flank, most of Andrew Pickens’s militia swinging around on the American right flank, the British left flank, and the Continentals execute a bayonet charge right up the middle of the battlefield. You've got American dragoons and a little bit of militia coming around on the American left, the British right, you've got more militia and mounted cavalry swinging around on the American right, the British left and that is this classic that you read about double envelopment move that, Morgan, I honestly don't think you could have planned it if you had to. I think it kind of just spontaneously happens organically happens on the battlefield, but you've got commanders on the field, on the American side who are veterans, they see the opportunity and they just take it when they can. And this is the classic envelopment of the 1,100 man British Army on the battlefield, up the middle with the Continentals, on the left on the right with the militia, and quickly the American lines were able to encircle Banastre Tarleton's army on the battlefield. It is a near annihilation because of this double envelopment. Out of the 1,100 Brits that are here only a couple hundred of them and it's the mounted British Legion that are mainly mostly able to get off the battlefield at Cowpens.

William: Holy cow. You see, cow, Cowpens. That is a lot of fighting and I kind of wanna point out too, if my timing's not mistaken, the length of the battle is pretty close to how you just described it. Is that correct?

Paul: So yes, the Battle of Cowpens is going to begin and end all within about 30 minutes of each other. Give or take, right? Nobody sitting there with a stopwatch on the battlefield, but it's about a 30-minute fight and there's a whole lot going on both sides in a really short amount of time. Almost, Ranger Will, it's almost everything is going on simultaneously, is one way that I like to put it. It's a small battlefield, only about 5 or 600 yards wide, only about 5 or 600 yards long, with creeks and ravines and boggy ground on each side. So everything right there is happening within sight and it's happening almost simultaneously. The British are pushing forward, the main line is pushing forward, the Americans are absorbing this, they're falling back, cavalry charges on the American left, the British right, all of this is kind of going on all at the same time. Just controlled madness, for lack of a better way to put it. It's a really, really short battle, a really, really important short battle.

William: And I want to highlight that one more time before we do keep moving on. When you look at this like you said that this chaos, you look at this flurry of action and movement. I mean, these men have been working towards this moment, waiting for it, marching towards it for hours, days and in some cases, weeks. And here it is about 30 minutes of controlled chaos. I can't imagine having that that kind of experience.

Paul: One way that I like to put it is these are just regular, ordinary, everyday guys, some of them citizen soldiers. It's their first battle. Some of these men are veterans of many battles in the Southern Campaign and the northern campaigns, and regardless of who, what color they're wearing, whether they're wearing red or whether they're wearing Continental blue, it's just normal people doing really scary things in a really short amount of time.

William: I like that, normal people doing scary things.

Adrian: Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. So you mentioned the British Legion, Paul. Who are they? Where are they from? And do they represent anything specific for the Southern Theater or about the Southern Theater?

Paul: The British Legion is Banastre Tarleton's Legion. Now when they get formed into a legion, it is in the northern colonies, specifically New York, and this is gonna happen in 1778. I mentioned a little bit earlier that both the American and the British side are trying to bolster their forces by using men loyal to the king or Patriots loyal to the revolution cause, and that is what the British legion is. That's where these men are gonna come from. It's going to be men formed into this legion, then there's also a second legion as well, but this is the British Legion, and these are boys from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut. There's gonna be deserters eventually in here from the Continental Army, mostly from Maryland and Pennsylvania. Tarleton is eventually given command of this legion. It doesn't take long. He is rising quickly through the ranks of the British Army. With a very good reputation of being a a really hard fighter, a really good young commander. And their operating in the northern colonies to, in the beginning of the of their inception. It's interesting with the British Legion, they quickly gained a reputation, a dubious reputation even in the northern colonies, of being extraordinarily overzealous at times and undisciplined. So much so that, umm, 50 of the 17th Light Dragoons that we mentioned a little bit earlier are permanently assigned to the British Legion when they're stationed in Connecticut to try to instill more discipline in the ranks. They serve well in the northern colonies, and then when the British revert to the Southern Campaign strategy, they come down with the British Army for the second invasion of Charlestown, Charleston, SC in 1780 and quickly become a vital piece of Cornwallis's southern campaign. They are again, as we mentioned, mounted infantry. They move really quickly. Tarleton is like a hunting leopard as he's been described before, and they quickly gain and keep supporting this reputation that they have already gained in the northern colonies. Tarleton has molded them into a really formidable fighting force and being colonists loyal to King George the Third, they show a complete lack of patience and maybe even sympathy for the colonists that are fighting against the crown. And they gain a fearsome reputation, mostly, and mainly coming from Buford’s Defeat at the Waxhaws, and there's a lot of other fighting they're doing at Lenud’s Ferry, they're part of the expedition that burns Thomas Sumter's home not long after the surrender of Charleston that brings him back into the war. They are also going to be split up at times, the British Legion, not always under command of Banastre Tarleton. There's a punitive expedition up the Peedee River basin by Major Weymss and part of the British Legion is on this punitive expedition against the citizens of South Carolina up the uh, up the basin there in southern South Carolina. So even though they're not being led by Tarleton at times pieces of them, they're still the citizens of South Carolina are still seeing these mounted horse troopers in green, and they're gonna wear green to separate themselves from the regular British Army redcoats. So as these punitive expeditions and burning down people's plantations or homes like Sumter and the punitive expedition up the Peedee River, South Carolinians are seeing these green coated troopers throughout the state and their reputation just continues to grow. And Banastre Tarleton, who even to this day is a very, very controversial figure in the American Revolution, he's the main commander of this of this group of British Legion running roughshod at times over other militia forces in South Carolina, particularly at the Waxhaws. And there's a lot of questions about Banastre Tarleton and his legion in the 21st century, in the late 20th 21st century. Does Tarleton really and his legion really deserve the reputation that they have been given in the history of the American Revolution? Most of it is gonna come from the Battle of Waxhaws, Buford's massacre. And whether Banastre Tarleton is as brutal as the history books make him out to be can be debated. Maybe he is, and maybe he's not. But I think there may be two pieces to this. Number one is that the American propaganda machine really grabs a hold of this story of Tarleton at the Battle of Waxhaws, where undoubtedly American soldiers are killed while surrendering and after surrendering at the Battle of Waxhaws. I guess the question is always gonna be as whether Banastre Tarleton personally orders this or not. The evidence says that he probably didn't, but that does happen, and irregardless, the Americans grab onto this and use it as a really good piece of propaganda against the British. It's Bloody Banastre Tarleton and Tarleton's Quarter from the Waxhaws. And on the other side of that is that I think Banastre Tarleton plays into this role of being the bad guy as well. I think he plays into that. I think he grabs ahold of that. Whether he is actually as brutal as we make him out to be, but he plays that role really, really well at times, not exclusively, but at times and it helps his legion. It helps him accomplish his goal to win battles and instill fear in the American militia and the Continentals before he even gets to the battlefield, so I think he relishes that role a little bit.

Adrian: Sounds like it might save him some fighting.

Paul: And it does at times, right? When you hear that, particularly at the Battle of Kings Mountain, possibly right, the men at the Battle of Kings Mountain, the overmountain men literally do everything as quickly as they can to get off that mountain because they hear that Banastre Tarlenton’s legion’s coming and they vamanos off that mountain as quick as they can because they don't want to have to deal with Tarleton and the Legion. Now we're talking about this nearly 250 years after the events, right? And what we are doing is debating this topic of whether Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion are as brutal and as bloody. But maybe, quite honestly, it doesn't matter what we think 250 years later, in the 21st century. To the people of South Carolina in 1780, in 1781, he is Bloody Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion is a brutal loyalist provincial force that is coming down the road and they're coming to your plantation, and they're coming to your homestead. I think it's their opinion matters more than our debate at this point.

Adrian: Perspective. It's all in how you see people, right?

Paul: I think so. So it's ultimately those people that lived it. But my first summer in ’19, Adrian, I was at the front desk here and this ancient little old lady, great grandmother, she was 100 years old if she was a day, she brings her walker up to the counter near the register and she tells me this story and I wish I would have been a good enough park Ranger at the time to realize I needed to do an interview for this. But she said when and she grew up on a plantation down in rice king country, and she said that when she was a little girl, uh, her great grandmother used to come on the porch of the house where all the kids and the grandkids were playing and scream at them ‘You little Tarletons, get off of this porch and go play in the yard. Get out of here, you little Tarletons.’

Adrian: God! [Laugh]

Paul: And I wish again that I would have been versed enough to do an interview with her as a brand new Park Ranger to get that on, get that recorded. So that is the legacy of Banastre Tarleton in South Carolina 250 years after the event, when her great grandmother, who's probably 100 years old as well right, is referring to kids as little Tarletons get off this porch. I thought it's one of the greatest stories that I've heard about Tarleton and the Legion and their legacy in South Carolina 250 years later. So at the height of the battle when Banastre Tarleton is realizing yelling militia charging Continentals coming directly up the battlefield encircling his army on the battlefield, we mentioned the 71st Scottish Highlanders being in a reserve position, kind of the shock troops, well, the British Legion at Cowpens is somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 and 550 strong. Some of them on foot as infantry the vast majority of them on horseback, as cavlary, as dragoons and Tarleton has held back two hundred 250 of those boys in green, the British Legion, and as the Americans begin sweeping up the battlefield and overrunning the British lines, Tarleton orders the two hundred 250 or so British Legion boys on horseback to salvage the battle, charge up the battlefield with sabers, and begin cutting the American lines to pieces to salvage the battle, get his guns back, and the British have two pieces of artillery at the Battle of Cowpens as well. The Americans have none. And those British boys, quite literally about face and they ride off the battlefield as quickly as they can. There may be 2 pieces to this, probably more than that, but a lot of these British Legion boys by the time of the Battle of Cowpens are recruits from South Carolina, some of them are even POWs from the American POW camps down around Camden, so they are not exactly the original makeup of New Yorkers, and New Jersians and Pennsylvanians. Tarleton has been fighting, and fighting hard in South Carolina in 1780 and ‘81. He's taking casualties and he's having to replace these Legion troops with again POW, deserters, whoever they might be, so they may not be as totally as enthusiastic as the the original makeup of the British Legion. And in addition to that, as I think that they have realized by this point that, uh, Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton has bitten off more than he can chew at the Battle of Cowpens. And has been out-generaled, and unfortunately, the British boys on the battlefield paid for Tarleton’s impetuous nature so to speak, when he attacks, maybe prematurely on the battlefield at Cowpens.

William: So, Paul, thanks for that that in-depth look at who these guys were, not just the British Legion, but kind of what they represented, what the myths that surrounded them at the Battle of Cowpens and the larger Southern campaign. So you see, we've seen how they flee the field. The British army’s defeated, I mean like you described Tarleton as this hunting leopard. He's been defeated. He's been in detail, chased off the battlefield. Surely this has some massive impacts? Some, some ripples throughout this Southern campaign. What is this going to do to the Southern Theater of the Revolution?

Paul: It's a really good question, Ranger Will, and I think Morgan's complete victory here, reset the entire chess board for the Southern Campaign and maybe even arguably for the entire Revolution as a whole. Cornwallis, who is only 30 miles away from here on the morning of the Battle of Cowpens with about 1,300 Redcoats in camp, he's got another 13 to 1,500 within a day or two's march coming up from Charleston, but the troops that he loses here at the Cowpens are the best that he has. We mentioned the elite 71st Scottish Fraser Highlanders, he loses the two pieces of artillery, but more importantly, this army, that is all but annihilated here on the battlefield are his best Light Infantry, which are playing a pivotal role on battlefields by this time of the American Revolution. These are the hardiest they're the fastest moving troops in an army, and the British have quickly adopted this idea of having to fight irregular soldiers, meaning American militia on the battlefields and the Light Infantry plays a huge role. By the time Tarleton finds his way back to Cornwallis camp over near Turkey Creek on the day after the battle, Cornwallis is already trying to figure out a way to replace these troops because they are gone. Tarleton has lost 110 killed, 230 or so wounded that are left at the Cowpens and then Daniel Morgan and his army have rounded up over 600 POWs and they are marching them over the Broad River at Island Ford, trying to put more distance between his army and Cornwallis's army, and Cornwallis, it takes him a day or two to kind of recover from this shock. At one point, there is an American POW in Cornwallis's camp who related that it was such a shock to Cornwallis when he is listening to this story from Banastre, Tarleton, that he leans on his sword so hard, he snaps it in half, it's a huge blow. It takes Cornwallis a couple of days to try to wrap his mind around what has just happened, and then he begins the pursuit of Morgan's army out of South Carolina, into North Carolina. Having read some of Cornwallis's correspondence, I don't think that Cornwallis is sad to leave South Carolina. I think he's been trying to do it for a while. This ungentlemanly form of warfare amongst the militias in the population he doesn't like it. He's never liked it and he wants to get out of South Carolina. He's already tried once to get out of South Carolina, because of this defeat at Cowpens it gives him the final reason to pull his main redcoat army British Army out of South Carolina. He wants his prisoners back that Morgan is moving out of here. Morgan is going to link back up with the rest of the Southern Army under Nathanael Greene. I think Cornwallis is just really happy to get out of the South Carolina. And as I mentioned earlier, I think it resets the whole chess board. Nathanael Greene does a masterful job of leading Cornwallis's army through North Carolina on the the famous Race to the Dan River, up to the Dan River on in Virginia. It is a logistical and maneuverability campaign. It is brilliant. Cornwallis exhausts himself, he's exhausted his army. He's burning wagons. He's burning personal baggage just to try to catch up with Nathanael Greene’s Army and Greene does a masterful job of staying just out of reach of Cornwallis. Greene eventually turns around and comes back into North Carolina and makes a stand at Guilford Courthouse on March 15th of 1781. Cornwallis gives him battle at Guilford Courthouse, but he loses another third of his army in casualties. And here is where I think that the Cowpens in the Southern campaign really comes into focus. Cornwallis loses those best troops here at Cowpens. He loses another third of his army at Guilford Courthouse. He falls back to the coast of Wilmington, NC after the Battle of Guilford. He resupplies. He rests up a little bit and then he makes a conscious decision, probably without orders to and move into Virginia. I believe that he is more than half expecting Nathanael Greene’s Southern Army, to follow him to Virginia. But Nathanael Greene does not do that. He pulls back down, meaning Greene, pulls back down into South Carolina and begins a systematic dismantling of the British strongholds in South Carolina: Camden, uh Ninety Six, among others. Now, Greene doesn't win a whole lot of battles in South Carolina, but he is persistent and systematic in reducing these fire bases. He loses the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill. He loses the Battle of Eutaw Springs. And I don't know how Adrian Ranger Adrian feels about this, but ultimately loses the siege at Ninety Six because he's not able to take it and he has to pull out. But with Cornwallis's main Southern army now in Virginia, the Southern campaign for all intents and purposes is gonna come to a close after Ninety Six is abandoned. Almost all the British troops end up in Charleston and get bottled up by Greene in Charleston. And then, of course, George Washington and the French surround Cornwallis at Yorktown. We all know that story. It's always been written and been said by many people that there would not have been a Yorktown, Virginia if it wasn't for the Battle of Cowpens, and I think that I think that that is really true. Now, there's a lot going on between Cowpens and Yorktown, even contemporaries at the time of Cornwallis were writing that had Cornwallis had the let's call it, 900 men, that he lost at the Cowpens that Yorktown would have been different. It's hard to deal in absolutes or what ifs, but if people at the time in Cornwallis's army or writing and saying this, it’s got to have a little credence to it. So the Battle of Cowpens to sum that up resets the whole chess board. It gives Cornwallis a different mindset about where he wants to go, where he wants to be, and where he wants to be is anywhere but South Carolina, and he makes that happen.

Adrian: I think that might be one of the few things that “The Patriot” gets right. What is one of your favorite stories from either the battle itself or from the surrounding area as a whole?

Paul: There's so many stories, right? Umm, I guess the one that I find myself using to help explain the civil war amongst the population in South Carolina during the entire Revolutionary War, not just the Southern Campaign, is that there are three brothers with a militia company called the Dugan brothers here at the Battle of Cowpens, Robert, James and William. They come here, they're in Daniel Morgans army and during the fighting believe it's Robert, dispatches a British officer on the battlefield as a militia soldier, and then, after the battle, Robert goes out, finds the officer and takes his sword. Those boys from are from down around Orangeburg about a day's horseback ride away or so, they leave the battlefield on the day of the battle, head back down to Orangeburg. Two of them go to their family homestead moms house, Robert and James do, William goes off on his own and an indeterminate amount of time later, and some people put this in with Bloody Bill Cunningham's raid, maybe not, but at some point, not long after the Battle of Cowpens, the word has gotten out what has happened here. Loyalists down around Orangeburg go around and begin raiding and taking prisoners of their patriot neighbors, and they find themselves at night with other prisoners at the Dugan homestead. They begin ransacking the cabin. Robert James are there. And as the Loyalist are ransacking the homestead, they find the officers sword that Robert had taken from the battlefield at Cowpens. At that point, they bring the two brothers out, the Loyalists bring the two brothers out, literally to the front yard, and this is it's it's no way I can sugarcoat what's about to happen here, y'all, so I'm sorry, but they hang the brothers in the front yard and then they use the the British officer sword that they found and literally hewed the body to pieces. Both brothers in front of the neighbors in front of their family. They even kill another one of the prisoners who is trying to escape and who can blame him right after watching that, why would you not try to get away? But the one thing that the Loyalist didn't count on is that the other brother William was not there and sometime after this horrible event, William tracks down all of his Loyalist neighbors who did this to his brothers, and he exacts his revenge on those Loyalists. And I use that as an example when I'm giving tours of the battlefield, because that is almost everything that is happening to Loyalist and Patriot families within South Carolina. In a nutshell, this is murder and it's revenge and it's rinse, wash and repeat from family to family, district to district throughout the entire American Revolution in the South.

Adrian: John Wick of the American Revolution.

Paul: I know, right?

William: So, Paul, as you've been sharing with us, there's just so much to understand and to research and learn about, not only this battle, but like you just shared with the Dugan brothers, kind of these surrounding connecting stories. And whenever there is something like this that is important and I don't want to say popular history, but it is remembered, and there's many stories that come out of it. There's always going to be misconceptions, or there's always going to be legends that grow bigger than the stories themselves. Do you have some favorites that you've kind of run across and heard at the national battlefield, either the most frequent questions that you get or misconceptions that a lot of visitors have about the Battle of Cowpens?

Adrian: Where's the bathroom?

Paul: Yeah the number one question in national parks is “where's the bathroom?” and number two is “have you seen my husband?” So I guess Ranger Will, I guess I'll go with some misconceptions over frequently asked questions. A lot of the visitors that come into the visitor center at Cowpens are surprised to learn that the Cowpens National Battlefield is not a Civil War battlefield and that it's a Revolutionary War battle from nearly 250 years ago. And when we start talking about the Revolution in the South, the Southern campaign that is so vital to both sides during the war, many of them say, and I've heard this repeatedly is “I had no idea the American Revolution came this far South.” And I think that speaks volumes as to how underrepresented, underreported, misunderstood the Revolution from 1775 until 1783. For most Americans, I think it's, umm, minute men in Massachusetts, it's the Declaration of Independence, it's George Washington, and it's Cornwallis surrendering at Yorktown. And I think I mentioned this earlier that as a historian, and as a someone who is reads a lot of military history, I thought I understood the American Revolution when I accepted the seasonal position here in 2019. And then I stepped off into the Revolution in South Carolina and realized that I knew nothing. Which is again what put the hooks hit me in and really got me wanting to come back here so I could learn more and explain more to visitors to the battlefield. When General George Washington surrounds Cornwallis's army in September of 1781 at Yorktown, it's the first time since the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse in late June of 1778 that George Washington is leading an army on a battlefield. And that is 3 years time frame between the Battle of Monmouth Courthouse and the Yorktown campaign. And if George Washington is not fighting battles with the Northern Continental Army against the British Army, then where is the American Revolution being decided? And it's here in South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, in this southern campaign. And I think that is, I think it's a shame that we don't, as a people with our history, really understand the Southern campaign and and what went down in South Carolina in particular in the American Revolution.

William: Nice.

Adrian: So Ranger, Paul, if people are interested in learning more about Cowpens, where can they go?

Paul: Well, first, I'm gonna encourage everybody to come to the Cowpens National Battlefield near Chesnee, SC, right off the highway 11 near the big peach in Gaffney, come see us. We'd love to have you come in the visitor center if you've got the time and the means. If you're on your way and during spring vacation to Florida or the South Carolina coast, we are easily accessible off I-85. Stop in, say hello, we'd love to see you in the National Park and get you out on the battlefield. Otherwise, there are many different outlets these days. You can visit us at the Cowpens National Battlefield website through the National Park Service, we have a Facebook page for Cowpens as well, it’s the national battlefield, there's even a Twitter account for the Cowpens National Battlefield. And if none of those digital outlets work for you, or you can't come physically to the battlefield, send us a letter and ask for some information and we'll be happy to mail it to you with the United States Postal Service.

Adrian: Are there any books that people could maybe read to learn more; really good ones you would suggest?

Paul: Uh, they are some really good books. One of the main go-tos that the staff uses here at Cowpens is Doctor Lawrence Babits, “A Devil of a Whipping,” that is one of the main go-tos. Another good option is Buchanan’s “The Road to Guilford Courthouse” that begins with the Battle of Cowpens and follows up with what we talked about a little bit earlier that race to the Dan River between Cornwallis and Nathanael Greene. That is two really good resources, really good books. There are also biographies on Daniel Morgan and a really new scholarship, a good one, by an author named John Knight on Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion called “War at Saber Point” as well if you want to get a little bit more into the personalities. Good stuff.

Adrian: Awesome.

[Violin music]

William: Well, thank you so much, Paul. I really appreciate your time here discussing with us and all of our listeners, one of the quicker but very important battles of the Southern Theater, and that is going to conclude another episode of Southern War, a podcast about the Southern Theater of the American Revolution. To learn more about the American Revolution, our home National Park sites for Ranger Paul, you can check out www.nps.gov/COWP, for Ranger Adrian and Ninety Six National Historic site head to nps.gov/NISI, and for myself, Ranger William and the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, nps.gov/OVVI. So thank you for listening, we hope you enjoyed, and we'll see you next time we revisit the Southern Theater of the American Revolution.

Adrian: Bye.

Paul: Thank y'all. (musket shot)