Cowpens Battle 219th Anniversary - John Robertson
Subject: Cowpens Battle 219th Anniversary
From: John Robertson
Date: January 08, 2000

15 and 16 January
Cowpens National Battlefield.

This map
http://www.nps.gov/cowp/map2cowp.gif
will show you how to get there.  The park is about 10 mi. NE of Spartanburg
SC and about 10 mi. NW of Gaffney on SC Hwy 11.

If you are within reasonable driving distance to the Spartanburg SC area,
and are a Rev War buff, this is an event you will not want to miss.  

There are two days of events and it is hard to take them all in.  

The Cowpens Forum (in its 2nd year) will have several major authors of
studies of the Rev War in the South.  This Patriot victory, fought 17 Jan
1781 at daybreak, literally kept the revolution alive when it was near its
lowest ebb.

The battlefield is visited regularly by those studying military science
since it is deemed the tactical masterpiece of the war.

The full agenda of events is given at 
http://www.nps.gov/cowp/events.htm

The Mel Gibson movie "The Patriot" is a *fictional* account of the Rev War
in the Carolinas and will be released this June.  Bring your children and
grandchildren to Cowpens on 15 and 16 January and learn what *really*
happened!  

You can find all kinds of info about the park (plus some excellent
historical articles) at
http://www.nps.gov/cowp/menu.htm

You will find me there.  I'll be conducting guided tours of the battlefield
(they let me!).  When I tell the story, you can share the terror of
standing in that long militia line (as did my ancestor), commanded to "wait
until you can see the whites of their eyes", watching that line of British
bayonets moving relentlessly toward you, and knowing that you would likely
have only have *one* shot with your long rifle before they were upon you.
Only Daniel Morgan would have conceived such a tactic and only he could
have persuaded 1000 Carolina militiamen to have done such an unnatural
thing.  

You will also share the dismay and anguish of the 71st Highlanders,
arguably among the finest combat troops in the world, as they astoundingly
experienced defeat and capture that day.  

Morgan's opponent at Cowpens was none other than the feared Lt.Col.
Banastre Tarleton, the Brit's best cavalry commander on the continent.  He
had more than twice the dragoons (all regulars) and yet, amazingly, Dr.
Larry Babits concludes that it was the superior use of cavalry by the
Patriots that tipped the balance in favor of Morgan.  It is even more
incredible when you learn that 1/3 of Morgan's badly outnumbered dragoons
were *militia* who had only had *one hour* of training in the use of the
sabre!

It is a great story and I never tire of it.  Come hear the rest of it.

John Robertson

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