It was therefore with great confidence in the result that he intrusted this Southern campaign to the charge of Nathaniel Greene; and for the same reasons he sent him his best engineer, and his best corps of rifles and horse. General Greene, immediately upon taking command, removed all commissary supplies from the coast, to avoid liability of their seizure, and to maintain his food-supply. He ordered Quartermaster-General Carrington to collect all magazines upon the Roanoke, for ready access whenever he might need ammunition or commissary supplies. He wrote to Baron Steuben, to “hasten forward his recruits”; to the Governors of Virginia and North Carolina, to “fill up their quotas of regulars and call in all the militia that they could arm”; to Shelby, Campbell, and other participants in the Battle of King’s Mountain, fought on the eighth of October, 1780, “to come forward and assist in the overthrow of Cornwallis, and defeat his second attempt to invade North Carolina.” It is certain from his letters to Washington, that he expected to realize success. The battle of Cowpens immediately followed.
While awaiting response to his demands for troops, both militia and regulars, Greene promptly detached Morgan, with Colonels Washington and Howard, to learn the movements of Cornwallis and Tarleton, and fritter away their strength by worrying tactics. Morgan came so near Tarleton as to know that he could have a fight, if he wanted a fight. This he resolved to have. Few military events on record show superior tact, daring, and success. He placed his command in the sharp bend of Broad River, then swollen by rains, and so deep and swift that neither boat, horse nor man could cross it; where, as he afterwards reported, “his men had to fight, or drown.” All that he asked of his advanced militia was, that they would give two volleys and scamper from his front, and re-form in his rear. He secreted Washington’s dragoons out of view, for their opportunity. Tarleton dashed madly after the scattering militia, and before he could rally his impetuous charge of horse and foot, was taken in the rear, utterly routed, and barely saved himself after a sabre-cut from Colonel Washington; leaving on the field, or as prisoners, seven hundred and eighty of his command, two cannon, fifty-five wagons, one hundred horses, and eight hundred muskets. Cornwallis was but twenty-five miles distant; but the exchange of sharp words afterwards, between himself and Tarleton, did not lessen the value and prestige of this timely American victory. Congress and various States united in recognition of Morgan’s gallant conduct. Broken down by rheumatism, he was compelled to leave active service. From Quebec, in 1775, to Cowpens, in 1780, he had been “weighed” in many battle-scales, and never “found wanting.”
On the twenty-fifth of January, while in camp on Hicks’ Creek, a fork of the Great Republic, Greene received the message of Morgan that he “had many prisoners in charge, but was pressed by Cornwallis.” It was most tantalizing, at such an hour, not to be able to improve this victory. The Southern army, including Morgan’s force, numbered, all told, including four hundred militia, only twenty-one hundred and three men, of whom the artillerists were but forty-seven, and the cavalry only one hundred and twenty. Greene wrote to Sumter, on the fifteenth of January, two days before the Battle of Cowpens: “More than half our numbers are in a manner naked, so much that we cannot put them on the least duty. Indeed, there is a great number that have not a rag of clothing on them, except a little piece of blanket, in the Indian form, about their waists.” But Greene put this force in the best possible order; and on the twenty-eighth, accompanied by a single guide, one aide-de-camp, and a sergeant’s party of twenty troopers, he started to join Morgan. On the night of the thirtieth, after a ride of one hundred and twenty-five miles, he was with him.
The crisis was immediate. Greene wrote to Varnum, then in Congress; to Gist, Smallwood, Rutledge, Washington, and others, appealing for five thousand infantry and from six to eight hundred horse. It seemed as if this very victory would only precipitate disaster. Washington thus replied: “I wish I had it in my power to congratulate you on the brilliant and important victory of General Morgan without the alloy which the distresses of the department you command, and apprehensions of posterior events, intermix.... I lament that you find it so difficult to avoid a general action; for our misfortunes can only be completed by the dispersion of your little army, which will be the most probable consequence of such an event.” This letter reflects the wise policy of Washington throughout the war; ever to reserve in hand a sufficient force to control the time and place for battle; while incessantly weakening that of his adversary and compelling him, finally, to flight “against odds.”
As the mind reverts to the contentions for high command which characterized the early years of the war; and as one officer after another disappears from the battle record, it would seem as if the officer who sat by the side of Morgan on the banks of the Catawba, on the thirtieth of January, 1781, must have felt as if a new generation had taken the place of the old comrades of 1776, and that he was simply waiting to pass away also.
But the hazard of delay was omnipotent to force instant action. Colonel Lee was ordered to hasten and join Greene. The report of the landing of British forces at Wilmington, just in the rear of the small army he had left at Hicks’ Creek, was a new source of anxious concern. The time of service of the Virginia militia was about to expire, and according to precedent, they would be prompt in their departure. With quick sagacity, Greene placed General Stephens in command, anticipating the exact term of their expiring enlistment, and sent them home, via Hillsborough, in charge of the prisoners of Tarleton’s command. He thus relieved Morgan of this encumbrance, and saved the detail of efficient troops for that escort duty.
At this period, Cornwallis had abandoned Charleston as his base of supply, and was confident of a successful invasion of North Carolina. He certainly knew that Phillips, Arnold, and Simcoe could spare no troops from Virginia; and through the disaster which befell Tarleton, one of the best soldiers of that period, at Cowpens, he began to appreciate Clinton’s disappointing experiences about New York. He unburdened his thoughts to Clinton, in this melancholy vein: “Our hopes of success were principally founded upon positive assurances, given by apparently credible deputies and emissaries, that, upon the approach of a British army in North Carolina, a great body of the inhabitants were ready to join it, and coöperate with it in restoring his Majesty’s Government. All inducements in my power were made use of without material effects.”
On the tenth of February, Greene had a force of only two thousand and thirty-six men; of which, but fourteen hundred and six were regular troops. A light corps of seven hundred men was organized under Colonels Williams, Carrington, Howard, Washington, and Lee, to operate in separate detachments so far as practicable, and thus keep the army of Cornwallis constantly under exposure to attack, and compelled to make many exhaustive marches. Kosciusko planned light earthworks, to cover fords as the army crossed and recrossed the same; and Greene was thus employing wise strategic methods for future action, when of his own choice he might confront Cornwallis in battle.
Many vicissitudes of thrilling interest attended these desultory operations; and when sudden floods, and as sudden abatement of swollen streams, had been successfully utilized by the patriotic leaders, just at the right moment, it is not strange that the American people, as well as Washington, saw in these deliverances the hand of favoring Providence.
At this juncture, Greene realized also, as well as did Cornwallis, that he could not expect any substantial aid from Virginia. He could hardly keep his immediate force in hand, while wear, waste, hunger and sickness began to impair their fighting energy as well as physical capacity. He determined to seek the first reasonable opportunity to join battle with Cornwallis; and the Battle of Guilford Court-House, on the fifteenth of March, realized Washington’s full anticipations of such protracted inaction.