LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WILLIAM AUGUSTINE WASHINGTON.
[Victory of the Cowpens.]
GULIELMO WASHINGTON LEGIONIS EQUIT. (equitum) PRÆFECTO COMITIA AMERICAN. (Americana.) (The American Congress to William Washington, commander of a regiment of cavalry.) Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, at the head of his men, is pursuing the enemy's cavalry. A winged Victory hovers above him, holding in her right hand a crown of laurel, and in her left a palm branch. duv. (Duvivier).
Within a crown of laurel: QUOD PARVA MILITUM MANU STRENUE PROSECUTUS HOSTES VIRTUTIS INGENITÆ PRÆCLARUM SPECIMEN DEDIT IN PUGNA AD COWPENS XVII. JAN. (Januarii) MDCCLXXXI.(Because in vigorously pursuing the enemy with a handful of soldiers he gave a noble example of innate courage at the battle of the Cowpens, January 17, 1781).[41],[42]
William Augustine Washington, a distant relation of General Washington's, was born in Stafford County, Virginia, February 28, 1752. He was educated for the church, but entered the army as captain of infantry, and fought in the battles of Long Island, Trenton, and Princeton. In 1778 he was lieutenant-colonel of dragoons, and served in the South under Generals Lincoln, Greene, and Morgan. He distinguished himself at the victory of the Cowpens, for which he received from Congress a silver medal; was made a prisoner at Eutaw Springs, and remained in captivity in Charleston, South Carolina, till the close of the war, when he settled in that city. He served for some time in the South Carolina Legislature; was appointed on General Washington's staff with the rank of brigadier-general, in 1797, and died in Charleston, March 6, 1810.
January 17, 1781.
Joh. Egar Howard legionis peditum præfecto Comitia Americana. ℞. Quod in nutantem hostium aciem, etc.