He was at Braddock's defeat. He had once knocked a British officer down for striking him. In an Indian fight he had been shot through the neck and thought himself dying, but, to escape being scalped, locked his arms tightly around his horse's neck, while the horse ran wildly through the woods.
DANIEL MORGAN
From a miniature painted by John Trumbull now in the Art Gallery of Yale University
At the head of a company of ninety-six Virginia backwoodsmen, Morgan had marched six hundred miles in twenty-one days, and joined Washington at Boston.
Burgoyne's compliment
Later, Washington sent him to join in the capture of Burgoyne, at Saratoga. His men did such splendid fighting that Burgoyne said to Morgan: "Sir, you command the finest regiment in the world!" Fighting in the woods of America, such a man was likely to be a match for any British officer.
When Morgan heard of Tarleton's approach he retreated to a good place for fighting, called the Cowpens. On the top of a long, rising slope he placed the Continental troops—men trained to fight. In the rear he hid Colonel Washington and his cavalrymen.
Morgan places his men