Last updated: June 26, 2022
Place
The Cavalry (Dragoons) at Cowpens
NPS Photo / Mike Puckett
The open forests proved well suited for cavalry action. Fastmoving, hard-hitting mounted troops called Light Dragoons bolstered the 18th century infantry.
At least seventy South Carolina and Georgia mounted militiamen, armed with pistols and sabers issued for use in this campaign, augmented the veteran eighty-plus-man American Dragoons of Lt. Col. William Washington. Posted in a swale nearby, they were hidden from the British.
Few officers saw more combat than Lt. Col. William Washington, a second cousin of George Washington, the commanding general. A veteran of many battles and skirmishes, he and his Third Continental Dragoons were the main reserve at Cowpens. Hidden by terrain behind the Continental line, they were close enough “as to be able to charge the enemy, should they be broken.”
At least seventy South Carolina and Georgia mounted militiamen, armed with pistols and sabers issued for use in this campaign, augmented the veteran eighty-plus-man American Dragoons of Lt. Col. William Washington. Posted in a swale nearby, they were hidden from the British.
Few officers saw more combat than Lt. Col. William Washington, a second cousin of George Washington, the commanding general. A veteran of many battles and skirmishes, he and his Third Continental Dragoons were the main reserve at Cowpens. Hidden by terrain behind the Continental line, they were close enough “as to be able to charge the enemy, should they be broken.”