Battle of Cowpens (9/20)

The Battle of Cowpens was the turning point of the war for the Southern Colonies during the Revolutionary War. American forces began taking back territory and towns from the British in the Carolinas. 

            A small and mobile force of the Southern Continental Army was mobilized on the North and South Carolina border to harass the Army of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Banastre Tarleton, who in turn had been assigned by the British to quell the actions of  Brigadier General Daniel Morgan. 

Near the Broad River, Morgan’s superior force used the tactic of defense-in-depth tactic to wear down the British Army and eventually overrun it. Tarleton’s Army was wiped out and was no longer an effective fighting force in the Carolinas. The battle lead to more poor tactical decisions by the British General Cornwallis until he was finally defeated at the Siege of Yorktown in October of 1781.