Battle: Cowpens Part 2, January 17, 1781 | And Then There Were Thirteen (1976) | ETV Classics

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 Cowpens Part 1, 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. In this continuing episode, we stand with Professor Lumpkin on the actual battlefield, with Thicketty Mountain in the distance, where he discusses in detail the forces that met on that day in January 1781. It was on their training, leadership, and morale that the results of the battle hinged. 

The terrain was supportive of cavalry, and Morgan found himself on this spot, with no heavy artillery, with his greatest strength being the expert riflemen. Suffering from malaria and sciatica, and hemmed in by the swollen Broad River, Morgan made his plans to entrap the British forces. Professor Lumpkin details Morgan's brilliant utilization of his available manpower, terrain, and the military tactics which led to a decisive victory for the Americans, marking a turning point in the course of the revolution, and a battle plan proven to be one for the ages.

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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Major Frank Triplett Letter from George Washington to Francis Triplett.
• Major James McDowell - North Carolina Rifleman. The Battle of Cowpens: A Documented Narrative and Troop Movement Maps.
• Andrew Pickens - Watch an eight minute biography of the life of American Revolution militia leader and US Congressman, General Andrew Pickens. Through the use of available archival materials, scholar interviews, and historical illustrations this program details Pickens' military contributions, leading up to, during and following the War of Independence. South Carolina Hall of Fame.
• William Tate, soldier. William Tate’s career began with service as a lieutenant in the South Carolina Line of the Continental Army during the American War of Independence, where he was involved in major actions like the Siege of Charleston before being captured by British forces. After the war, in August 1789, he approached President George Washington seeking an appointment, signaling his ongoing ambition in military and diplomatic affairs. These events help contextualize his later role as commander of the Légion Noire and deepen understanding of his background beyond just the 1797 invasion of Great Britain.
• James Jackson - Sent to Savannah in 1772 to live with a family friend while reading law, the young Jackson’s studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the American Revolution (1775-83). During six years with Georgia state forces, Jackson participated in the unsuccessful defense of Savannah (1778), the Battle of Cowpens (1781), and the recoveries of Augusta (1781) and Savannah (1782).
• 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.”
• 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.
• 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.
• Hannah's Cowpens On Jan. 15, 1781, Morgan wrote to Greene that his force was inadequate to defeat Tarleton's force (“Daniel Morgan to Nathanael Greene,” n.d.). Morgan had an army consisting of 900 personnel, with 340 militiamen. As Morgan's force postured to retreat, news traveled that Tarleton's force was almost in reach of his troops. On Jan. 16, Morgan decided to take a defensive position on a rural farm, known as “Hannah's Cowpens” (“The Battle of Cowpens,” 2019). In his last stand, Morgan knew his forces would have the advantage due to being rested and developing the battlefield prior to Tarleton's forces reaching Cowpens.
• Henry Lumpkin, Jr. Obituary for Professor Emeritus. Henry Lumpkin, Ph.D., on why the British Lost the War (ETV Classics).