The Battle of Cowpens and A Devil of a Whipping.

Banastre Tarleton launched a frontal attack on Daniel Morgan’s polyglot force at Cowpens in 1781 and his force was largely destroyed. This post is about the 1781 battle and also a review of the book about it by Lawrence Babit.

All internet images have been removed from this post, sorry.

Banastre Tarleton was the dashing and infamous leader of his British Legion, a force of Loyalist cavalry and infantry. They were charged with cutting down surrendering troops at Waxhaws. After the battle of Camden some of his troopers raped local women. This caused a fuss as it turned out these women were betrothed to other Loyalist officers. This says something about the discipline among his dragoons. Among the Rebels, Tarleton’s Quarter was shorthand for not taking prisoners.

 

Some have wondered why Tarleton made such a rash frontal attack. He had a string of successes based on just that. Hard, killing marches at Rebel troops followed by immediate attack either caught them by surprise, or forced them into precipitate, demoralizing withdrawals, leading to short, brutal, one-sided fights.

 

As a young officer, he and a small scouting party captured Rebel General Charles Lee. This assured Tarleton’s rise to prominence. Later, in the southern theater at the head of his Legion and others, Tarleton’s aggressive style  won a succession of victories. Monck’s Corner, Waxhaws, Lenud’s Ferry and Fishing Creek all saw Rebels badly defeated. At the battle of Camden Tarleton’s dragoons rode down fugitive militia and then fell on the rear of De Kalb’s Continentals.  At Blackstock, his frontal attack was given a bloody nose. A lucky shot by his retreating troops badly wounded the rebel partisan leader Thomas Sumter. The Rebel militia scattered and Tarleton was able to claim a specious victory. You might think that would have given him pause for thought, that the enemy was beginning to see how he operated.

 

In January 1781 he made one of his punishing marches to catch Morgan’s force of mixed Continental veterans and militia. Morgan was that rare seasoned commander who knew how to motivate his militiamen. He had his troops rest and eat breakfast while the British slogged towards them and prepared a plan to meet a frontal attack, taking time to explain his plan to his troops. Rested and reassured that Morgan knew what he was doing, the troops were ready. The plan worked perfectly. A defense in depth, militia to the fore was followed by an ad hoc double envelopment. Even errors worked in Morgan’s favor. Most of the British infantry were captured, along with their two light guns. Some of the British cavalry were defeated by William Washington’s dragoons. Most of Tarleton’s dragoons turned and ran after they saw the infantry surrender. British losses were over 800, including some 500+ prisoners. Continental losses were reported for many years as 12 dead and 60 wounded, though Babit’s research has changed that number. At least double that number is now accepted. Why the discrepancy?

 

The small initial number is what Morgan reported. Those were likely the losses suffered by his Continental troops. After the battle, knowing that Cornwallis and the rest of the British Army would be looking for revenge, the Continentals made off with speed to join the rest of their army while the militia scattered back to their farms. They didn’t hang around to count noses or file reports. Babit delved through pension applications, which included the stories of militia soldiers who had fought at Cowpens. Many told of seeing friends killed or wounded at the battle, people who hadn’t been counted by Morgan. The number of these showed that Morgan hadn’t counted the militia losses, no doubt because he was busy getting as much distance between him and Cornwallis as possible. In any case, doubling Morgan’s losses to ~150 still pales beside the 800+ British losses.

 

After nearly wiping out Tarleton and then evading Cornwallis, he headed home to nurse his ailing body, beset with sciatica. He was out of the war, leaving on a high note.

 

The meticulous research in Babit's A Devil of a Whipping also indicates that both sides had more troops than has been assumed previously, with a bit more militia present. Again, no surprise since Morgan was busy bolstering the morale of the militia instead of counting them.

 

I do take some of the reconstruction of the battle in the book with a grain of salt. The author seems to be a reenactor. He can fire 6 aimed rounds in a minute if he starts with a loaded smoothbore musket. My brief experience with a black powder muzzle-loading rifle leaves me in awe of that. I suspect the number of troops in Morgan’s army who could match that feat would be a slim minority. Powder and lead cost money, and money was scarce in the colonies. That scarcity was part of what drove the rebellion in the first place. Years of blockade by the Royal Navy had made things worse.  In any case, expecting more than two rounds a minute from most of the troops at the battle would be a slim chance.

 

But that’s just a minor quibble. If you are at all interested in Morgan’s finest moment (rivaling his heroics at Saratoga), do read this book. Well researched, well written, well worth the time.

 

PS, for those of you who read most of my stuff, please ignore this repeat info. Old guys repeat themselves. I first became acquainted with Tarleton from the 1959-1960 Disney TV series The Swamp Fox. In that series, Tarleton was a middle-aged man. The guerilla leader Francis Marion was a young fellow who would steal into occupied Charleston to scale the balcony and romance Tarleton’s comely daughter a la Romeo and Juliet, before sneaking out to raid British rear areas. Marion was played by Leslie Nielson, who would later become the hilarious buffoon in Airplane and The Naked Gun. I goaded my mother into buying me a young reader’s biography of Marion. This revealed that Tarleton was in his 20s and single, while Marion was in his 40s. It was my introduction to Hollywood’s approach to historical accuracy.