A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens

Lawrence Babits has packed a thorough study of the Battle of Cowpens into a slim book.
The forty-minute battle was crucial to our success in the war. It was a devastating defeat for the British, specifically "Bloody Tarleton," whose British Legion had been the scourge of the Carolinas. The defeat was so total because of the Masterful plan and seamless execution by General Morgan and his subordinates. Too few Americans know about Cowpens and its place in steering Cornwallis ultimately to Yorktown.
The author had a mission: to dissect the Battle of Cowpens through pension records of participants and memoirs in order to construct an accurate placement of troops during the battle, the size of American forces present, the total of British casualties and the duration of the affair.
He has done his work well and convincingly. In the process, Babits clarifies and rectifies some commonly held notions of Cowpens. The militia line made an orderly retreat through the Main line through previously established gaps in that line and not around the flank; Morgan's troop totals and casualties in his report were only for Continental troops -- the militia doubled Morgan's probable force to 1800 men engaged; Washington did not encounter Tarleton at the end of the battle but three British cavalry officers; the South Carolina militia did not cross the field during their planned withdrawal; the North Carolina militia stayed in the fight on the American right after their planned withdrawal.
If these details have lost you, it focuses on a major facet of the book. It is for readers who have some appreciation of the Revolution in the South and the Battle of Cowpens. While thoroughly researched and minutely written, my one criticism is that at times the author gets bogged down in details that interrupt the flow of the larger story. Thus the book may seem inaccessible to a first timer looking to find out about the Battle of Cowpens.
Not that the author doesn't tell the battle story in full. He does. This book underscores General Daniel Morgan's tactical brilliance as well as General Greene's strategic insight in detailing Morgan to the interior initially. Morgan's battlefield plan and his sub commander's (particularly William Washington and John Howard's) performances are correctly studies in leadership and execution. Morgan planned a tactical masterpiece that made use of all his troops' strengths and used some of their weaknesses (in the case of the militia) to his advantage. American arms have seldom exceeded this level of performance at the tactical level.
(Delaware partisan warning here) The author also highlights the rock steady performance of Captain Kirkwood and his Delaware Line during the battle and the pursuit of Tarleton. Kirkwood was one of the best Continental battlefield leaders of the war, noticed by George Washington as well as a host of others. Prohibited from rising to General by the virtue of his coming from a small state (the number of state troops raised had much to do with the general offices available), Kirkwood and his Delawares (as the author describes them; today we say Delawareans, although I'm not sure if that was the case 225 years ago) were a mainstay in Morgan's line, absorbing the direct fire of the main British regiment and receiving the most unit casualties of any of Morgan's forces. I was very glad to see Babit give this small band of Blue Hens their due.
This is a very good book in terms of research and analysis. Much more has been learned about the Battle of Cowpens because of Babits painstaking study. He has added to our knowledge of one of the Revolution's pivotal battles.

I read this book when it came out in 1998 and just finished re-reading it in preparation for a tour of this battlefield and others next week. It is rightfully considered the best study on the battle and overall one of the best battle studies of the American Revolutionary war. If people expect this book will follow the story of the movie Patriot, then they are sadly mistaken (even though I thoroughly enjoyed the movie despite its historical inaccuracies). This battle is rightfully considered one of the best tactically fought battles of the war by the Whigs (Patriots, Rebels, Americans - pick your terminology) against the British thanks to the brilliance of the frontiersman commander, Daniel Morgan, who picked the ground so well, put the variety of his forces in the right places, knew the overly aggressive tendencies of his adversary, constantly made adjustments up to the moment of the battle as additional support arrived, and was on the front lines encouraging his men. The author dispels many myths and injects fresh and detailed research. I don't read many books a second time after 20 years, but this reading was as enjoyable as the first one.

Babits certainly put in the time to do the research for this book. As anyone knows who has done research involving combat actions, memories, even very shortly after a battle can become blurred. Babits I think does a good job sifting through some of the bogus recollections that comes from this "fog" of battle. The battle reconstruction, unit movements, and analysis of casulties is the best I have read regarding this action. Anyone reading this book should do so carefully. Footnotes should be consulted and time should be spent with the variety of charts and maps. The book is a little slow, but then most books of this nature are read by people looking for knowledge and not a good time.

Let me say this up front: I am not an experienced reader of battles. In fact, until rather recently, when I encountered the phrase "flanking operation," my brain disengaged from a text. Biographies of George Washington and Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee overcame that resistance and interested me in the Southern part of the Revolutionary War, led me to this book. And I think it is brilliant. In fact, when I finished it, I went back a week later and re-read it.

I note that one reviewer complains the writer gives too much exposition to the role of elements of an army and of weaponry in his introduction. That exposition was precisely what made it possible for me to understand this battle so clearly and appreciate its plan and execution. I've visited lots of museums, among them the ones at Cowpens and King's Mountains, but I've usually left more impressed with the aesthetic beauty of the long rifles than with the roles the weapons played in battle in the hands of militiamen. I had no idea how many shots a militiaman could get off in two minutes' time. And that is what matters about those guns, really---that and the accuracy of the weapon and skill of the user. This book ought to please even a seasoned reader of military operations, but it is a jewel for those less familiar with such operations.

The writer's organization of his materials, the clarity of his description of the way different elements of an army (e.g., riflemen, musket-using Continentals, artillery, and cavalry) operate in general and how Morgan used them in this battle, and the brisk prose make this a highly readable account of one of the most important (and neglected) battles of the Revolutionary War. I could visualize and appreciate every step of the battle from Morgan's preparation and choice of site to the final route of the British line and of Banastre Tarleton. And Morgan's ability to muster and control the militia impressed me. Washington had little use for militia groups because they were so self-willed and unreliable. He even thought of abandoning them and using the European method of fighting. Morgan made them the centerpiece of his plan, and they lived up to his expectations. A tribute to him as a leader, I think.

So interested was I by this book that I ordered "Battle of Cowpens: Primary & Contemporary Accounts," edited by Andrew Waters. There I discovered the remarkably elegant report of the battle that General Morgan wrote to Gen'l Greene. Not only could Morgan lead an army: he could also write with great clarity.

So I recommend this book to neophyte and seasoned history reader in general. I'm grateful I discovered it.

Initially I was a little unsure of just who the target audience of this book was. The first few chapters are filled with such pedantic information as "James Tate's Company was one of two raised by draft in Augusta County during October of 1780. Some men received their weapons when they arrived in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Captain James Gilmore's Rockbridge County Company was known as the 'Rockbridge Rifles'..." and so on about each little troop of Militia that participated in the battle. While displaying great amounts of research this type of information simply will not stick in your head.

However from page 48 forward the author gets down to brass tacks about the pre-battle maneuvering at the Operational Level, and then into a very detailed blow by blow of the tactical decisions and moves on the field of battle.

If there is a more exhaustive account of the day of battle I can't imagine it would enlighten you much more than this book.

Cons: Slow lead in with quite frankly "useless" exposition about the composition of the armies.
Pros: Fantastic, almost minute by minute account of the battle itself.

After you read this book, you will wonder who was the protagonist; Banister Tarlton or Daniel Morgan. Both individuals and the times they lived-in provide a story almost unbelievable except that its true. Their devotion to their cause cannot be understated and the detail provided in this book enlightens the reader to those times when a fast horse and sure shot won the day. Its sad that in today's world few people would risk all for any cause, much less such a lost cause as independence for a small colony controlled by the largest military power in the world. Read this book and you will step into the shoes of the participants that heard the shot fired around the world.

Excellent book! The narrative is easy to read and understand, but doesn't skimp on hardcore information - a serious student of the battle will appreciate this book as will a newbie to the conflict. The only issue I had were the maps. The topographical nature of the maps was a bit confusing - yes I can read one, but the topography at the battlefield isnt what you'd expect from the books description ( ravine, hills, etc.) they aren't that big when you see them in person. So a recent visit to the battlefield corrected this problem once I got acclimated. I am obsessive about the details of a battle and the confirmation of the ground to the maps was a challenge for me to understand, but I got it. However, this book is a must if you want to know about the battle and it is absolute required material if you go to the battlefield. The information / research regarding pension records, etc. was a bit tedious, but added interesting insight to the veterans of this engagement. The Cowpens National Battlefield is a beautiful, well maintained site and has essentially not changed at all since the battle. If you get the chance to go there - and bring this book with you - you will gain much deeper appreciation and understanding of this decisive battle thanks to this narrative.

The author does an excellent job of delivering a very thorough account of the battle of Cowpens. This well-researched work is very illuminating in depicting the challenges each army faced, combined with the tactical and strategic plans of both Tarleton and Morgan. The author is to be complimented on a work of significant detail. Countervailing the credit for detail, I must note that the story is not told in the most riveting fashion. As the author is a university professor, I believe the writing evidences an excessive concern for peer review of his research. This focus on academic concerns detracts from the weaving of the story. I recommend this book, compliment the author on a research job well-done, and advise readers that even with the book's academic tone, the story comes through and it deserves to be read.

Lawrence Babits' tale of the Battle of Cowpens gives an extraordinarily detailed account of individual officers and soldiers by name, unit and wounds received. Perhaps my expectations were different, but I found this book a somewhat baffling recitation of minutia related to the Americans who participated in this battle. There are many maps which help clarify unit positions and movements. The best part of the book is the detailed explanation of company and regimatal units and why each unit responded the way it did.

It became exceedingly clear from the narrative that William Washington's (second cousin to George) cavalry turned the tide in favor of Daniel Morgan and the American rebels. Read this book if you are interested in the minute detail related to this battle. But if you are looking for a broader perspective of how Cowpens dovetails with the rest of the Revolutionary War in the Carolinas there are many, far better books to satisfy your goal.

Pension applications....who would have believed they could be plumbed to reconstruct the most important battle leading up to Yorktown? Morgan's battleplan is on par with Lee's at Chancellorsville of the following century as a daring and creative deployment of a hodgepodge of resources. It was brilliant, and this telling of the story is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the final and most decisive phase of the American Revolution. I cannot recommend it hughly enough!