On
January 17, 1781, he met Morgan at the Cowpens, about thirty
miles west from King's Mountain. Morgan, not quite sure of the
discipline of his men, stood with his back to a broad river so
that retreat was impossible. Tarleton had marched nearly all
night over bad roads; but, confident in the superiority of his
weary and hungry veterans, he advanced to the attack at daybreak.
The result was a complete disaster. Tarleton himself barely got
away with two hundred and seventy men and left behind nearly nine
hundred casualties and prisoners.
Cornwallis had lost one-third of his effective army. There was
nothing for him to do but to take his loss and still to press on
northward in the hope that the more southerly inland posts could
take care of themselves. In the early spring of 1781, when heavy
rains were making the roads difficult and the rivers almost
impassable, Greene was luring Cornwallis northward and Cornwallis
was chasing Greene. At Hillsborough, in the northwest corner of
North Carolina, Cornwallis issued a proclamation saying that the
colony was once more under the authority of the King and inviting
the Loyalists, bullied and oppressed during nearly six years, to
come out openly on the royal side. On the 15th of March Greene
took a stand and offered battle at Guilford Court House.
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