Your Dollars At Work

Battlefield Restoration
Cowpens National Battlefield is mandated to return the battlefield to the way it looked when the Battle of Cowpens was fought on January 17, 1781. See how this is being accomplished.

 

 

Historic Preservation

Around 1811, Richard Scruggs built a house on property adjacent to the Cowpens Battleground. Family members lived in the structure until in burned in the early 1950s, leaving only the chimney. The Richard Scruggs Chimney ruin is a sophisticated structure. It has an accent band, and a sloping wash. Its refractory design, unusual for this time period, reflected heat into the room, as opposed to a straight chimney, which allowed wind to blow sparks back into the room, potentially causing house fires.

 

The wooden chimney lintel (horizontal block spanning the width between the outer stone supports), meant to be indoors, out of the weather, deteriorated, causing the chimney to nearly collapse.

 

Finally in 2008, the National Park Service received funding to stabilize and restore the historic chimney, and work began in late August. 

In the 1990s, the National Park Service placed wooden supports around the chimney to try to stave off the eventual collapse.