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Planning Matrix - Exhibit Item Sources This American retreat, which extended across the breadth of North Carolina, is considered one of the masterful military achievements of all time and set the stage for the battle of Guilford Court House, which severely weakened British power in the South, led Cornwallis to abandon the lower South, and set the stage for Greene's recapture of South Carolina and Georgia.

Title/Story Segment	Item: Artifact/Map/Document/Photo
1. The American Revolution - The War's Beginning Restrictive new laws and mounting taxes, without their consent, only added to the American colonists desire for self rule and drove them into rebellion. Those that sought complete independence from the British Empire were in the minority as most Americans were satisfied living under the protective rule of Great Britain. To that issue Benjamin Franklin said "Those who give up essential liberty, to preserve a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” - Patrick Henry the first shot fired at Concord has ever since been described as 'the shot heard round the world'.	Print - Paul Revere's Boston Massacre Print   Re-strikes from the original copperplates - Haley & Steele, 91 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116.
2. War Moves to the South The war had become stalemated in North. The British were unable to halt the progress of the revolution, and were frustrated by their efforts to quell the resistance. British military officials decided on a move to the South as a last-ditch effort at victory, expecting that the greater presence of loyalists in the region would make it easier to conquer and hold their military targets. British forces captured Charleston, South Carolina on May 12, 1780 General George Washington gave Nathanael Greene command over all troops from Delaware to Georgia with extraordinarily full powers, "subject to the control of the Commander-in-Chief". From the very beginning of the war, Greene had been Washington's right arm and had displayed indefatigable industry and strength and breadth of intelligence. General Greene started for the south. He would have a "flying army," lightly equipped, mobile, and as familiar as possible with the country in which operations were to be prosecuted. The southern army, as Greene wrote to General Knox, "is shadow rather than substance, having only an imaginary existence." Greene saw that, by separating his army into two parts, he made it easier for both to subsist on the country, living on the very regions from which the British drew their supplies. Greene's decision was opposed to the classic rules of warfare: to divide an inferior force in the face of a superior enemy was to invite that enemy to destroy first one and then the other of the parts. As to the danger of either division being attacked and defeated, Greene relied upon the mobility of the Americans to escape from the more encumbered, slower British. So, with all those reasons to justify him, he carried out his plan, "the most audacious and ingenious piece of military strategy of the war." Greene sent "Lieutenant Colonel Carrington, his quartermaster, to explore and map the Dan River, and Edward Stevens, Major General of Virginia Militia, and General Kosciuszko to the Yadkin and the Catawba for the same purpose. They were also to collect or build flatboats to be carried on wheels or in wagons from one river to another". (Ward, The War of the Revolution) "I hoped in my way to be able to destroy or drive out of South Carolina the corps of the enemy commanded by General Morgan, which threatened our valuable district of ninety Six: And I likewise hoped, by rapid marches to get between General Greene and Virginia, and by that means force him to fight without receiving any reinforcement from that province; . . " Lord Cornwallis	Portraits - Generals & Patriots - National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001 NPS Museum Collections Gari Melchers portrait of Greene - Library - R.I. State House Full Size Costumed Manikins
3. Battle of Cowpens (1/17/1781) Against military custom and just two weeks into his command, Greene had split his army, sending General Daniel Morgan southwest of the Catawba River in western North Carolina to cut supply lines and hamper British operations in the back country, and, in doing so "take command in that quarter, to act offensively or defensively, to protect the country, spirit up the people, annoy the enemy, collect provisions and forage, form magazines, prevent plundering, etc." . General Greene understood that if he kept his force intact the British could throw a ring around him and prevent any action. Cornwallis countered, and dispatched Banastre Tarleton and his dragoons to destroy Morgan's army. Tarleton was only twenty-six, but he was an able commander, both feared and hated – hated especially for his victory at the Waxhaws. On January 17, 1781 at Cowpens, Daniel Morgan led his army of tough Continentals, militia, and cavalry to a brilliant victory over Banastre Tarleton's force of British regulars. In an action that lasted about an hour, what then followed was one of the great upsets and reverses of the war in which the Continentals and militia soundly defeated the British and loyalists. I was desirous to have a stroke at Tarlton . . . & I have Given him a devil of a whiping [sic].--Daniel Morgan to William Snickers, 26 January 1781 After the battle had ended, Tarleton’s forces were reportedly pursued upwards of twenty miles by Morgan’s cavalry and other mounted troops. By nightfall, Morgan’s forces had retreated to Island Ford on the Broad River. It was a complete victory for the Patriot force. British losses were staggering. The British lost 100 killed, among them 39 officers. Prisoners were taken to the number of 229 wounded and 600 unhurt. In all, nearly nine-tenths of the entire British force were killed or captured. An American prisoner later claimed that he had witnessed Lord Cornwallis receiving the news. He remembered that Cornwallis was leaning forward on a sword as he listened to the report of the defeat. "Angered by what he heard, he pressed so hard that the sword snapped in two, and he swore loudly that he would recapture Morgan's prisoners no matter what the cost."	Letter to Jefferson of 1/1/1781 mainehistory.org - contact Chris Albert, Photoservices Coordinator(1-207-774-1822, Ext.217). Newspaper - February 14, 1781 The Pennsylvania Gazette 1728-1800 Folio III - (1766 - 1783) "The American Revolution" "Intelligence from the Southward" -General MORGAN'S Letter to General GREENE. Camp, near Cain Creek, January 19, 1781 - North Carolina Office of Archives & History, Historical Publications Section, 4622 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-4622, Phone: (919) 733-7442 Create map starting at Cowpens of Retreat, Race, Crossing on up to Halifax C.H. Locate map above display panels. Show significant locations of fords, enemy contact, wagon burning, Council of War, etc.
4. From Cowpens to Guilford The Tactical Retreat Begins From his camp at Island Ford on the Broad River, Morgan continued his retreat east past Ramsour’s Mill and towards Sherrill’s Ford on the Catawba, arriving on the 23rd. On January 25, Cornwallis arrived at Ramsour's Mill. There he destroyed most of his baggage in an effort to transform his whole army into a light corps. He spent two days collecting flour, destroying superfluous baggage (included rum and much food), and "all my wagons, except those loaded with hospital stores, salt, ammunition, and four reserved empty in readiness for sick or wounded.” Cornwallis would likely have caught Morgan, if he had not halted. It is recorded of Greene, that, when he heard of the pause of the British army to destroy its baggage - an act which indicated the determination to traverse the whole country, if need be, in pursuit - he rose exultingly, with the prophetic exclamation, "Then he is ours!" The news that Cornwallis had burned his stores and was setting off in hot pursuit intrigued Greene, and he saw how to take advantage of the situation. He would begin a retreat, drawing the British farther into enemy territory and stretching their resources to the limit. He knew the routes, the fords, already had the boats lined up -- when the time was right, Greene might even be able to turn and fight Cornwallis on favorable ground. On January 29, Huger left with the main army from Camp on the Pee Dee to join Greene and Morgan, with Salisbury being the intend point of juncture. Yet as events developed, the union took place at Guilford Court House instead. We find Greene, for example, halting Morgan at the Catawba, and resting his jaded troops; availing himself of all the respite afforded by the rising of the river, yet without preparing, in this delay to offer battle when the enemy should cross. Starting off, when the passage is about to be effected, we find him keeping just far enough ahead to beguile the British in pursuit. Crossing the Yadkin as he had done the Catawba, he again halts, and cooly surveys his pursuer. Thus he rests quietly, until again warned by the falling of the waters; and pushing forward for the Dan, again to practice the same game; beguile his enemy yet deeper into the heart of the country, where, in the event of a battle, his resources must be cut off, and where a defeat, or disaster of any kind, would leave him hopeless of help, and at the mercy of the Americans. Cornwallis might well have hesitated to follow this lure. But he probably did not suspect Greene of a scheme so profound.	The Battle of Cowpens by Don Troiani painting Large Topo Map of Troop Movements - to be created by Southside Planning District Commission, Carol Corker Newspaper Stories - The Royal Gazette (New York) March 21,1781, British Officer Prisoner - The Connecticut Journal March 22, 1781 part 1 - The Connecticut Journal March 22, 1781 part 2 - The Connecticut Journal March 15, 1781 - The New Jersey Gazette March 14, 1781 - The New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury March 12, 1781 - The Pennsylvania Packet or General Advertiser March 10,1871 - The New Jersey Gazette March 7, 1781 part 2 - The Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser March 6, 1781 - The Pennsylviania Gazette or the General Advertiser March 3, 1781 part 1 - Pennsylvania Packet or the General Advertiser March 3, 1781 part2 - Providence Gazette February 17, 1781
5. The Council of War The Race to the Dan Begins Arriving on February 9th at Guilford, Greene summoned his field officers to a council of war of his chief officers and put forward the question of whether the army should give battle. It was voted that for the time being, the army should continue retreating to gather more forces, and defer engagement with Cornwallis. On the tenth Greene writes to Patrick Henry requesting troops, "If it is possible for you to call forth fifteen hundred Volunteers & march them immediately to my assistance, the British Army will be exposed to a very critical & dangerous situation." "In all probability you will find me on the North side of Dan River. I must repeat it, the present moment is big with the most important consequences, & requires the greatest & most spirited exertions." " . . and it being my interest to force him to fight, I made great expedition, and got between him and the upper fords; and being assured that the lower fords are seldom practicable in winter, and that he could not collect many flats at any of the ferries, I was in great hopes that he would not escape me without receiving a blow." Cornwallis Williams had had a dispatch from Greene: "It is very evident that the enemy intend to push us over the river. . . . I sent off the baggage and stores with orders to cross as fast as they got to the river. The North Carolina militia have all deserted us, except about 80 men. . . . You have the flower of the army, don't expose the men too much, lest our situation grow more critical." The date of the dispatch, February 13, and the place from which it was sent made him sure that Greene would, by this time, be farther on the way. He reassured his men and led them on to find that the fires were burning where Greene had camped two days before. Friendly hands had kept them alight for the benefit of the light troops. At midnight they were again afoot. In the morning came another dispatch from Greene, sent the same day as the last: "4 o'clock. Follow our route. I have not slept four hours since you left me, so great has been my solicitude to prepare for the worst." They halted for an hour's rest and a hasty meal, started again, slogged through the mud, the enemy at their heels, and were still doggedly pushing on at noon when a courier met them, found Williams, gave him a note dated the night before: "Irwin's ferry, 12 past 5 o'clock. All our troops are over and the stage is clear. . . . I am ready to receive you and give you a hearty welcome." " Williams gave out the news. The word ran back through the column, and cheer after cheer followed it. They shouted so loud that O'Hara's van heard them and knew that the game was up. The reaction among the men was instantaneous. Their hearts were lifted, their strength renewed. For three hours more they hurried forward. They were now within fourteen miles of the river. Williams again detached Lee's cavalry to delay the enemy, while he took the rest of his command on to Irwin's Ferry. They got there before sunset, found the boats, and were ferried across. They had marched forty of the hardest miles that ever man traveled in about sixteen hours. At dark, Lee's horsemen started after the others. Between eight and nine o'clock they got to the ferry, just as the boats returned from transporting Williams's troops. The men took to the boats; the horses swam. By midnight they were all across. They had hardly landed when the British van arrived at the river." Cornwallis got the news in the course of the evening. The river was too high to cross without boats, and every boat was on the farther shore. Greene had won the race.	Painting: Council Members Proceedings Letter
6. The Crossing Irwin's & Boyd's Ferries In a letter to Lord Germaine, of March nineteenth, Cornwallis says, "I was informed that the American commander could not collect many flats at any of the ferries on the River Dan." Colonel Carrington, however, had been specially charged with this duty by General Greene, with the aid of Captain Smith, of the Maryland line; had anticipated almost any contingency which should require the passage of the river; and so provided boats at Boyd's and Irwin's ferries, which were neighboring ferries, that on the fourteenth of February the whole division safely crossed the river, secured their boats, and were beyond reach of the enemy. "But our intelligence upon this occasion was exceedingly defective; which, with heavy rains, bad roads, and the passage of many deep creeks, and bridges destroyed by the enemy's light troops, rendered all our exertions vain; for, upon our arrival at Boyd's ferry on the 12th (sic), we learned, that his rear guard had got over the night before, his baggage and main body having passed the preceding day at that and the neighbouring ford, where more flats had been collected than had been represented to me as possible." Cornwallis Tarleton thus reports this affair: "The light army (Williams) which was the last in crossing, was so closely pursued, that scarcely had its rear landed when the British advance appeared on the opposite bank; and in the last twenty-four hours it is said to have marched forty miles. The hardships suffered by the British troops for want of their tents and usual baggage, in this long and rapid pursuit through a wild and unsettled country, were uncommonly great; yet such was their ardor in the service that they submitted to them, without a blow, to the American army, before it crossed the Roanoke." Tarleton adds, "That the American army escaped without suffering any material injury, seems more owing to a train of fortunate incidents, judiciously improved by their commander, than to any want of enterprise or activity in the army that pursued. Yet the operations of Lord Cornwallis, during the pursuit, would probably have been more efficacious, had not the unfortunate affair at the Cowpens deprived him of almost the whole of his light troops."	Mural - River craft, Horses swimming, Horses fleeing, Flooded river, Troops
7. After the Crossing - Greene's Army Reposes in Halifax "The people of Halifax County received us with the affection of brothers, mingled with admiration of the brave devotion to country just exhibited." - Light Horse Harry Lee - Eight hundred men from Halifax and surrounding counties joined the 1,428 members of the American Army. His troops were soon fed and given moral support by the towns people, and militia volunteers came forward to join his army. During their stay in there, about 1500 to 1800 local militia came out to defend the town, but most of these dissipated as the threat from Cornwallis diminished. Greene had previously ordered his baggage to Halifax, Va., and given "the necessary orders issued to the quarter-master's department, to make good the passage of Staunton river with the whole army, should such a movement become necessary." "You will make me a return of the horses impressed and the person from whom they were received with their valuation. They must be immediately branded and considered as public property." [Nath. Greene Papers, Feb. 16, 1781, addressed to Lt. Col [William] Washington] "I am this moment informed that a number of the first covering horses [i.e., the best stallions] have been impressed for the Dragon service such as will be valued at 800 or 1000 hard dollars. This is not contrary to my intention as well as the public interest, that you are desired to give particular orders to your officers not to have those high[ly] prized covering horses taken. Indeed the Stallions should not be taken at any rate; for they will not answer for immediate services..." [Nath. Greene Papers, Feb. 17, 1781] Greene was clearly upset by the prospect of so many of the county inhabitants having their prized stallions taken from them, and also by the thought that they would have to be paid dearly for them when the war ended. He repeated his instructions that proper records be made, including the owner's name and the horse's value: "The officers must have particular directions to give proper Certificates. Otherwise the people will think they are plunder'd."	Slide Show
8. Last Months of the War "My force being ill suited to enter by that quarter so powerful a province as Virginia, and North Carolina being in the utmost confusion, after giving the troops a halt of a day, I proceeded by easy matches to Hillsborough, where I erected the King's standard, and invited, by proclamation, all loyal subjects to repair to it, and to stand forth and take an active part in assisting me to restore order and constitutional government." Cornwallis By the twenty-third the whole British army was demonstrating towards Guilford, and Lee and Pickens hovered near the outposts of Cornwallis. At this time the loyalists were organizing a corps under Colonel Pyle upon the marshes of the Haw, and Tarleton was sent to assist and protect them. More than four hundred had collected a little north of the old Hillsborough and Salisbury road, two miles from the Allamance River. Lee and Pickens fell in with this party, having been advised of their movements by two men whom they picked up while hunting for Tarleton. Tarleton says, "the loyalists were proceeding to Tarleton's encampment, unapprehensive of danger, when they were met in a lane, by Lee with his legion. Unfortunately, mistaking the American cavalry for Tarleton's dragoons they allowed themselves to be surrounded; no quarter was granted; between two and three hundred were inhumanly butchered. Humanity shudders at the recital, but cold and unfeeling policy aroused it, as the most effective means of intimidating the friends of royal government." After only a week's encampment, Greene had sufficient promises and reports of help on the way to recross the river. Greene and the main army re-crossed the Dan River into North Carolina on the 22nd. Greene then pursued Cornwallis and gave battle on March 15, 1781, at Guilford Court House in North Carolina, on ground he had himself chosen. After the Guilford Courthouse battle, British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis was forced to withdraw to the coast for supplies and reinforcements. Cornwallis realized American General Nathanael Greene's partisan war of attrition was taking a toll in British lives. He determined the best way to destroy Greene's army and subdue the south was to destroy the breadbasket state - Virginia - which provided short term militia reinforcements and met patriot supply needs with salt, flour, ammunition and tobacco for foreign credit.	British Silver Plate from Wiley's Tavern
9. Surrender of Cornwallis In the late summer of 1781 when George Washington and Rochambeau heard of Lord Cornwallis' encampment in Yorktown they raced southward from New York to link up with the French fleet under Admiral Comte de Grasse in Chesapeake Bay. Washington arrived just in time to bottle-up the British, who were anticipating reinforcements that never came from either General Henry Clinton or the British fleet. Lord Cornwallis' finally surrendered on October 19, 1781 and this ended the disastrous British southern campaign.
10. The Significance of the Crossing "The remarkable chase and escape which we have just recorded, was one of the most impressive of the incidents of the war. It had riveted the attention of both friends and foes, from the moment of its beginning, on the southern side of the Catawba, to the time when it ended by throwing the swollen waters of the Dan between the opposing armies." General Francis Vinton Greene estimates the importance and results of Greene's southern campaign in the following words: "The retreat to the Dan and the battle of Guilford were to the South what the retreat across New Jersey and the battles of Trenton and Princeton were to the North. They turned the tide; and each attracted equal attention in Europe. Greene lost the battle, but he won the campaign, and the first step towards Yorktown was taken."