17 January 1781, about 7 am
Cowpens: the militia fall back
Tarleton sends his dragoons at the riflemen, who shoot 15 of them, and then orders his infantry forward without waiting for the rest of his column. The riflemen keep firing as they fall back to Pickens’s line. The militia fire two volleys, aimed at the officers, and then file off around the American left to the rear, as Morgan ordered.
The British take this for a rout and press on uphill against Howard’s line. Tarleton sends dragoons after the militia, and Washington’s cavalry drives them back. The 71st is ordered round the American right. Howard orders the Virginia militia on that flank to turn and face it, but in the noise the order is misunderstood, and the Virginians begin to withdraw.
It is about 7:45. The British, tired and out of order after nearly an hour of fighting, see the Americans falling back and charge in a disordered mass.
Sources
- Lawrence E. Babits, A Devil of a Whipping (1998).
- John Buchanan, The Road to Guilford Courthouse (1997).
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