Battle of Cowpens Monument

On January seventeenth, seventeen eighty-one, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan led Continental and militia forces to a decisive victory here at Cowpens over a British column under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Tarleton was among the most feared British commanders in the South, notorious for ruthless tactics that later generations labeled "Bloody Ban." Morgan used the terrain and his mixed force with unusual tactical sophistication, placing militia in front to fire two volleys and fall back, drawing the British into a charge before his Continental regulars delivered a disciplined counterattack.

The result was a near-total destruction of Tarleton's force: over three hundred British soldiers killed or wounded and over five hundred captured. Cowpens was a turning point in the Southern Campaign and helped set the stage for Cornwallis's eventual surrender at Yorktown nine months later.