Cowpens was a personal victory for General Daniel Morgan who felt he had been slighted by congress. Greene gave him a full command and sent him off to find Tarleton. He found him at Cowpens, not too far from King's Mountain. Morgan utilized his riflemen, light infantry, and cavalry and Continental regulars in an unconventional manner. He thoroughly whipped Tarleton, who up until that time had been invincible. Morgan's men killed 100 British, captured 800, and seized Tarleton's entire supply train.
The combination of King's Mountain and Cowpens completely disrupted Cornwallis' plan and led him into the series of mistakes which ended at Yorktown.[46 ]
Even when he suffered defeat or a stalemate, as he did at Guilford Courthouse (Greensboro, North Carolina) in March 1781, Greene made Cornwallis pay such a heavy price that the British general could not afford the cost of victory. Wandering aimlessly after Greene across North Carolina and unable to live off the barren countryside, Cornwallis retreated eastward to Wilmington. There in the spring of 1781, with only 1400 of his original 3,000 troops left, he decided to move north and join Benedict Arnold's troops who had invaded Virginia on December 30, 1781.
The Invasion of Virginia, 1781
Three times before the British had appeared in the Chesapeake. In 1777 Admiral Howe sent a fleet into the upper Bay to assist the grand attack which was to take New York and Philadelphia simultaneously. He had withdrawn without contact after Burgoyne's defeat at Saratoga ruined the scheme.
Admiral George Collier swept into Hampton Roads in May 1779, burned the shipyard at Gosport, captured 130 ships, occupied Portsmouth, and raided the countryside, doing $2,000,000 damage. Before he could be challenged by General Thomas Nelson, Jr., and the Virginia militia he was gone. One consequence of the raid was the loss of all future loyalist support for the British. At Collier's arrival, the numerous Norfolk-Portsmouth loyalists came out from under cover, only to be abandoned when the British left after a few days. They never ventured forth again.
In October 1780 General Alexander Leslie descended upon Hampton Roads with a substantial British force, fully intending to take Virginia out of the war in coordination with Cornwallis' march through the Carolinas. King's Mountain ended that plan. Needing reenforcements, Cornwallis called Leslie southward. Again the British left the state.
Although Virginia breathed a sigh of relief, she was in a most difficult position at the end of 1780. Her military resources were stretched to the limit. Governor Jefferson had tried simultaneously to meet calls for troops from Washington to the north and Greene to the south, while never overlooking Clark to the west. Although roundly criticized for stripping Virginia to aid other states, Jefferson well understood the crucial nature of Greene's campaign. The only reserves he had left were militiamen.
Of the estimated 55,000 to 60,000 Virginians who fought at some time during the Revolution, as many as 35,000 were militia. Many were short-term soldiers, fighting only three to six months at a time. Often they were unprepared and untrained, not used to disciplined fighting, good marksmen, but unskilled in the use of the bayonet. Often, and unnecessarily disparaged, the militia was the backbone of the patriot armies, appearing when needed, disbanding as soon as danger passed. In Virginia they had been called out in 1777, in 1779, for a false rumor in June 1780, and to meet Leslie in October 1780. In each case the enemy disappeared. These British cat-and-mouse appearances may have lulled the Virginians and Jefferson into a false sense of security, for the state was unprepared for the real invasion Washington had warned was coming.