British Prelude

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So good afternoon, Park Ranger Roland Bissonnette from Cowpens National Battlefield. Thank you for joining me on location outside here today. I’m gonna be covering a little bit of the British aspect from the point where Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton gets orders from Lieutenant General Cornwallis to find Morgan, up to the point where Tarleton learns that Morgan is here at the Cow Pens. Um early January, um after Morgan has camped at Grindal Shoals, and after Lieutenant Colonel Washington defeated a group of Georgia loyalists, so at a place called Hammond’s Store, about 10 miles north of Ninety Six, Lieutenant General Cornwallis is getting messages in, and he has spies and scouts coming in, as well, so advising him that Morgan is up here in the backcountry, so he is raising a militia, um he needs to be dealt with al all costs. So Lieutenant General Cornwallis dispatches Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton to find Morgan. So his orders are to push him to the utmost. Um Morgan, uh, Tarleton gets on Morgan’s trail. He first goes down to Ninety Six because Cornwallis is thinking and feeling that that is Morgan’s objective. Tarleton gets down there, realizes that Morgan is not anywhere near Ninety Six at all, so he has moved more North. So Tarleton starts his advance up the northern route to find Morgan to follow Cornwallis’s orders. The book, The Papers of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis cover all of the dispatches between Cornwallis and Tarleton going back and forth. There is a little bit of a miscommunication between these two that will have dire consequences at the battle here. Uh, when Morgan is camped at Grindal Shoals, Tarleton crosses about 6 – 10 miles from that location at a place called Easterwood Shoals. Um Morgan leaves Grindal Shoals, and he camps up at a Burrs Mill, about 10 miles north. Once Morgan learns that Tarleton has camped – has crossed at um Easterwood Shoals, he leaves Burrs Mill, and he comes up here to the Cow Pens. Tarleton will move his army in to Burrs Mill on January 16th. Um he sends out his scouts and spies uh to find where Morgan is. He sends a very quick dispatch back to Cornwallis, “I have been cruelly retarded by the waters. I wish that Morgan could be stopped. General Morgan has made his way the byways to Cherokee Ford coming up here to Island Ford.” That is – that is the last message Cornwallis gets from Tarleton until Tarleton rides in to his camp at Turkey Creek and tells him about the battle here. Um, once Tarleton’s spies and scouts find Morgan here, they ride the 12 miles back to Burrs Mill, advise Tarleton about 1:30 in the morning that Morgan is up here. So Tarleton raises up his men. They have been moving for days on no food and very little sleep. Um, and Tarleton forces a 12-mile march through like icy streams and muddy roads up here to the Cow Pens, and Tarleton arrives here around daybreak, around 7:00, 7:30 in the morning. So thank you very much, and have a nice day!

Park Ranger Roland Bissonnette. Thank you for uh joining me on location again at Cowpens National Battlefield. Right back there, the backdrop is like the actual battlefield here at uh Cowpens. Uh, continuing on talking, uh talking the British army that Tarleton brings here. So Lieutenant Colonel Tarleton has about 1150 British troops. Some of them are British regulars, some of them are loyalists. The easiest way to tell them apart: the loyalists are like the British Legion Cavalry or Infantry or the Prince of Wales American Regiment are dressed in green coats. Light Infantry has waist short green coats. Regular infantry has like a little bit longer coats, almost down to the back of the leg here. Um regular British units: the 7th Fusiliers, the 71st Highlanders, the 16th Light Infantry, um the 17th Light Dragoons are all dressed in red coats with either tan or blue facings on the cuffs right here. The British artillery – Tarleton has two 3-pound grasshopper cannons and about 24 cannoneers. Those men are dressed in blue. If you put a Royal Artilleryman and a Maryland or Delaware Continental infantry, it is basically the same um, the same uniform. It’s a red coat – it’s a blue coat with red facings here. That covers the British Army. So thank you very much and have a nice day!

So thank you for joining me again on location at Cowpens National Battlefield. So I am right here on the Historic Green River Road, at the point where Tarleton deploys his men on the morning of January 17th. I’m gonna be covering where Tarleton so initially deploys his men like on the field. Off to my left-hand side over here is where Tarleton puts on the flank, twenty-five 17th Light Dragoons, the Light Infantry companies of the 7th, the 71st, British Legion, and Prince of Wales American are all placed. Starting right here on the road and moving off to the right is the British Legion Infantry. Down there further on the right is the 7th Regiment of Foot. Anchoring them on the right side of the line is twenty-five more of the 17th Light Dragoons. In reserve, in back of the 71st – back of the 7th – is the 71st Highlanders, Scottish Highland Regiment. Straight back there, so looking down the road is where like Banastre Tarleton and his staff are; so and that’s also where the British Legion Cavalry is also kept in reserve as well. Um the morning of the 17th uh Tarleton will order a charge straight – straight up the road – off the battlefield in back here. So we will cover the actual battle like at a later time. Thank you very much, and have a nice day!

Duration:

8 minutes, 15 seconds

Join Ranger Roland as he discusses the British preparations leading up the January 17, 1781 Battle of Cowpens!