Here are a few pictures from Cowpens National Battlefield. For those who don't know The Battle of Cowpens was the decisive Patriot victory in the Carolinas during the American Revolution. General Daniel Morgan commanding a small force of Continentals (Regular Army) and a force of Militia from Georgia and the Carolinas soundly defeated a force of British Regulars commanded by Lt. Col. Ban Tarleton made up of Fusiliers, Grenadiers (heavy infantry), Scottish Highlanders and Tarleton's personal unit of Dragoons. The battle was short, lasting less than 1 hour. When the smoke had cleared Patriot forces had killed or wounded nearly 300 British Soldiers and captured nearly 800 prisoners including Loyalist militia. The battle stopped General Lord Cornwallis' advances into the southern colonies and precipitated the movement of Cornwallis toward safety in Yorktown.
After leaving Cowpens we meandered towards Gaffney, SC and got back on the I-85N. After a few miles we began to see signs for Kings Mountain National Military Park. Kings Mountain was also an important Patriot victory. Col. Shelby of Georgia lead a large group of Patriot Militia against the British forces commanded by Major Patrick Ferguson. Maj. Ferguson, who had developed one of the early effective breach-loading rifles, led his men to Kings Mountain to fight the Patriot Militia forces. Ferguson and his men were soon surrounded by over 1,000 angry patriot militiamen from all over the south. Goergia Militia, Carolina Riflemen and the Scot-Irish Over-Mountain men. All with an axe to grind. Near the end of the battle, Major Furguson was shot from his horse and died a short time later. His grave site and that which he fell are marked on the battle field. We had arrived only a short time before closing so after the movie in the visitor center theater the Park Ranger told us if we were to run up the left battlefield trail we could see the major plaques and the grave site. Of course we did. We ran up the trail, Joey was ducking in and out of trees and off the trail, We were running up the battlefield in the same spots American Militiamen had over 240 years ago. We stopped at the grave of Major Ferguson and paid our respects. While he was on the British side, the Major did have General George Washington in his sights earlier in the war at the Battle of Brandywine Creek. He chose to not kill the future first President. He could have easily done so. Major Ferguson was armed with the breech loading Ferguson Rifle. He could have placed several rounds into General Washington before coming into danger.
From there we continued our charge toward the top. We stopped at the site where Ferguson was unmounted from his saddle by militia rifle fire. As we crested the top of the ridge we saw a large stone obelisk, commemorating the lives lost on both sides and the resounding American victory.
We stopped in Gaston, NC and ate at the Waffle House. The food was great and I watched my 8 year old son eat 2 giant chocolate chip waffles. The whole restaurant was amazed by his feat of gastronomic excess. One thing we will remember from this trip is that those folks we spoke with from both North and South Carolina were some of the friendliest we have met on the the way. The rest of the drive was uneventful and we couldn't take many pictures because it was rather dark. We rolled into Alexandria around 0130 this morning and promptly set up our room and went to bed. All told we spent the better part of 16 hours traveling from Atlanta to Alexandria. If you are going to come into the DC metro area 0130 is the time to do it. There was very little traffic and navigation was super easy.
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