We recently linked Surber on Col. John Gunby. A history buff pal emailed this comment:
Saw your post about the colonel. Cowpens indeed was an interesting battle and a first class case study in the power of effective leadership and using an opponent's aggressive tendencies against him (mental jiu jitsu). The real hero there was Brigadier General Dan Morgan. He was a veteran of French and Indian War (shot through the neck, the bullet knocking out two teeth and exiting through his cheek), present at the disastrous siege of Quebec (where he served with honor and took the responsibility of surrendering when his commander was killed). He led a corps of riflemen at Saratoga (as a colonel) and then, sick and not promoted by Congress, went home to Winchester, Virginia, where his home, named Saratoga, still stands. He came out of retirement to defend the rebellion again during the calamitous situation in the South in 1780 and came up with the strategy that won at Cowpens. Among the British regiments that surrendered there was Fraser's Highlanders, the 1st battalion of the 71st regiment of foot. I own one of the 200+ Second Model Brown Bess muskets issued to that battalion, used as a foraging gun after the war.
Last week, B. and I walked the Cowpens battlefield alone with the chief park ranger on a beautiful sunny day (very unlike the January day the battle actually occurred). It was very evocative, as was the reality that practically no one visits the site anymore (history, what is history?).
The best book on the battle from a detailed perspective is A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens. If you would like to read it I will deliver it to your door.
Ninety Six, North Carolina, where Morgan later conducted a siege that failed through a lack of supplies, also is quite interesting. His engineer for that siege that that bridge guy: Thadeusz Kosciuszko (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadeusz_Ko%C5%9Bciuszko).
Morgan's superior at Quebec, Benedict Arnold, was wounded not killed.
