Cowpens Administrative History

¹ Work Projects Administration, A History of Spartanburg County (Columbia: South Carolina Department of Education, 1940; reprint, Spartanburg, SC: The Reprint Company, Publishers, 1976), 11-20.

² Edwin C. Bearss, Historic Grounds and Resource Study, Cowpens National Battlefield, South Carolina (Denver: National Park Service, 1974), 129-143; A History of Spartanburg County, 11-20.

³ John Buchanan, The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1997), 3-4.

⁴ Ibid., 4-16, 25-27.

⁵ Ibid., 25-26, 34-72, 80, 157-172; Thomas J. Fleming, "Downright Fighting": The Story of Cowpens (Washington: National Park Service, 1988), 18-19.

⁶ Buchanan, 225-241; Fleming, 22.

⁷ Buchanan, 275-318; Fleming, 21-46.

⁸ Traditionally, accounts of the battle have placed Morgan's troop strength at around one thousand. However, recent research into pension records by Historian Lawrence E. Babits has indicated that Morgan had a troop strength of around two thousand, which agrees with the estimate provided by Tarleton after the battle. Babits's hypothesis is that Morgan did not include the militiamen in his official counts in an effort to portray Cowpens as a victory by regular troops. Morgan was one of a number of military commanders who wished to rely exclusively on a standing army in the colonies' struggle against Great Britain.

⁹ Lawrence E. Babits, A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 150-160; Buchanan, 315-318; Fleming, 42-46.

¹⁰ Babits, 150-160; Buchanan, 316.

¹¹ Buchanan, 321; Fleming, 63-64.

¹² Buchanan, 320-326; Fleming, 63-77; Babits, 150-160. The quick collapse of these well-disciplined British troops is attributed, in part, to inadequate food and lack of rest.

¹³ Buchanan, 326; Fleming, 72-76, 78-80, 83; Babits, 150-160.

¹⁴ Buchanan, 334-383; Fleming, 16-17, 84-85.

¹⁵ Buchanan, 397-399; Fleming, 16-17, 84-85.

¹⁶ Buchanan, 319-333; Fleming, 83-85.

¹⁷ Buchanan, 328.