And Then There Were Thirteen with Dr. Henry Lumpkin was an instructional series debuted by SCETV in the mid-1970s. The 20-episode series featured lectures by Dr. Henry Lumpkin of the University of South Carolina Department of History filmed on actual battle sites and campaign areas of the American Revolution in South Carolina.
In this riveting ETV Classic, Professor Henry Lumpkin summarizes the battles leading up to the Battle at Cowpens. Kings Mountain had been fought, and lost, by the British. The wild mountaineers, from the east and west of the mountain had destroyed the best light elements in Cornwallis’s army and killed one of his finest commanders, Patrick Ferguson. At Blackstocks, Thomas Sumter had been seriously wounded, but he and his men took measure of Banastre Tarleton for the very first time. America’s militia had stood against British regulars and the British regulars had been checked in a savage little battle in upper South Carolina.
Nathanael Greene was beginning to form the army which was to march down to South Carolina, retreat up through North Carolina to fight the battle of Guilford Court House and to come back again for the final battle and the final victory in the South. Nathanael Greene’s army divided into a strong reconnaissance force under Daniel Morgan, and the main force under Greene, worked out through the state of South Carolina, to raise the state, to encourage Patriotic Americans, cow the loyalists, to meet and defeat, if possible, the separated elements of the British Army. The British held the main roads and key towns in South Carolina and Greene's partisan armies took every opportunity to harry them from the uplands, forests and swamps. Elijah Clarke, Francis Marion and Thomas Sumter all played roles in Greene's more unified endeavor.
Professor Lumpkin takes us to Cowpens where he describes the backgrounds and personalities of the two commanders involved in the conflict, Daniel Morgan and Banastre Tarleton. The battle that ensued was met by equals on the field of war and in Cowpens Part 2, Professor Lumpkin details the brilliant military tactics which lead to a decisive victory for the Americans, marking a turning point in the course of the revolution.
Side Notes
- Daniel Morgan was indispensable to the Continental Army during the Saratoga campaign, but he grew irritated when he repeatedly failed to receive promotions. The commander-in-chief appointed Morgan colonel of the 7th Virginia Regiment, but he was continually passed over for promotion, forcing him to resign. By 1780, Patriot forces in the South were desperate for Morgan’s services. Morgan initially refused to rejoin the army, but after Horatio Gates’ disaster at the Battle of Camden, Morgan returned to service as a brigadier general. Once Nathanael Greene assumed command of the Southern Department, he gave Morgan command of a "flying army" and assigned him to the South Carolina Backcountry.
- Nathanael Greene (1742 - 1786) Greene’s most notable appointment came in October 1780 when the Continental Congress granted Washington with the power to appoint a new southern commander. Washington selected Greene. Up to that point, Congress struggled to select the right commanders in the South: Robert Howe lost Savannah, Benjamin Lincoln lost Charleston, and Horatio Gates was defeated at Camden, South Carolina. Greene’s martial skills shone brightest as commander of the southern theater. Soon after he took command, the tide of war began to turn in favor of the Patriots.
- Benedict Arnold - Frustrated by the opposition he encountered, Arnold eventually started working for the British even while continuing to serve in the Continental Army. Ultimately his betrayal was discovered and Arnold fled to New York City, accepting a commission in the British Army. Arnold's name has become synonymous with treasonous behavior and is perhaps one of the most infamous figures in American history.
- Horatio Gates (1728–1806) This portrait, representing Revolutionary War hero General Horatio Gates (1728–1806), was painted long after he led his troops to victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.
- John Burgoyne served as a general in the British Army during the American Revolution. Known as “Gentleman Johnny,” Burgoyne commanded a force of 8,500 men during the 1777 campaign season in an attack on the Lake Champlain-Hudson River Vally from Canada. Burgoyne’s defeat at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777 led to the formal alliance between France and the United States in February 1778.
- Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis, served as a general in the British army during the American Revolution. Cornwallis held commands throughout the war, serving in campaigns in New York, Philadelphia, and notably commanding the southern theater in the field after Clinton's departure in June 1780. Best known for his surrender at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, which effectively ended hostilities and led to peace negotiations between Great Britain and the United States, Lord Cornwallis's postwar career demonstrated the resilience and power of the British Empire.
- Banastre Tarleton (1754 - 1833) Tarleton fought in Lord Charles, Cornwallis's army in the Southern Campaign. He played an active role in the battles of Monck’s Corner, Charleston, Waxhaws, Camden, Fishing Creek and Blackstock's. At the Battle of Waxhaws on May 29, 1780, Continental soldiers accused his dragoons of disregarding a Patriot surrender by attacking the Americans after they laid down their arms. Afterward, Americans ascribed the moniker “butcher” to Tarleton and the “Waxhaws Massacre” or “Tarleton’s quarter” to the Battle of Waxhaws, shouting the latter as a rallying cry at the ensuing Battle of Cowpens.
- Thomas Sumter (1734 - 1832) When Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton’s raiders burned his home, however, he organized a band of partisans to harass the British and their Tory allies. General Charles Lord Cornwallis considered Sumter such an annoyance that he called him one of his “great plagues.”
- Isaac Huger was present when Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene took command of the Southern Department in Charlotte later in December. Serving under Greene, Huger commanded a brigade of Virginia Continentals at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on March 15, suffering a wound. Commanding the same regiment at the Battle of Hobkirk's Hill on April 25, Huger tried to stem the damage from the withdrawal of the Maryland Continentals. With the retreat of the British from the interior to Charleston, Huger was reunited with his family and returned to his home, ending his military service.
- William Washington (1752 - 1810) Distant cousin of George Washington, by late 1779, Washington had risen to Lieutenant Colonel and was in command of the 3rd Regiment of Continental Light Dragoons. While on the move to join American troops in Charlestown, South Carolina in 1780, his forces were blindsided by the British Legion at Monck’s Corner in April and bombarded with another surprise at Lenud’s Ferry in May.
- After revamping his forces in North Carolina, Washington was victorious in the capture of Rugeley’s Fort near Camden, South Carolina in December of 1780. Yet his most notable victory was at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781, where he countered and routed the charge of the enemy cavalry. Washington was 1 of 11 to be awarded a silver medal by Congress for his tremendous service at Cowpens.
- Abraham Buford (1747 – 1833) was a Continental Army officer during the American Revolutionary War, rising to colonel and best known as the commanding officer of the American forces at the Battle of Waxhaws. After the war Buford became a member of the Society of the Cincinnati of the State of Virginia.
- George Washington. Biography of George Washington, Mount Vernon Library.
- Sir Henry Clinton Though an able tactician, he had many critics. His failure to provide timely aid during the doomed Yorktown campaign and led to his resignation in 1781.
- James McCall (1741 – 1781) With Andrew Pickens back in command in late December 1780, McCall was appointed to raise a regiment of dragoons and promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel. The patriot militia of Ninety Six moved to join Brigadier General Daniel Morgan’s camp on the Pacolet River in late December 1780, and McCall’s new command was immediately attached to the reduced ranks of Lieutenant Colonel William Washington’s corps of light horse to pursue a marauding band of Tories. Washington and McCall caught up with the Tories at Hammond’s Old Store and inflicted many casualties on the fleeing band. McCall’s regiment formed the reserve under Washington and fought well in the signal victory over Tarleton’s forces at Cowpens on January 17, 1781. Retreating into North Carolina before Lord Cornwallis’s advance, McCall’s contingent operated as an important shielding force for the main Continental army. He returned to South Carolina in early March. While coordinating an offensive on the British outpost at Ninety Six, he died from the effects of a wound and smallpox in April 1781.
- Francis Marion - Curiosity Trek! An authentic letter from Francis Marion (the Swamp Fox) to Nathanael Greene found at the Georgetown County Museum.
- Elijah Clarke was the leader of the Wilkes County, Georgia militia. He along with Col. Isaac Shelby, leader of the Overmountain men militia, and Col James Williams, leader of the Little River militia, formed a new strategy for attacking the British. This new strategy involved the militia men hiding behind trees and/or rocks so they could take deadly aim at British and Loyalist soldiers. This was a type of fighting with no holds barred. In the Battle of Musgrove Mill, this strategy for the patriots proved to be a ray of hope-- that the British forces were not invincible.
