A classic account of this crucial campaign of the American Revolution, part of the Great Battles of History series edited by Hanson W. Baldwin in the 1960s, at the time the military editor of The New York Times. The series consisted of more than a dozen volumes on battles ranging from the American Revolution to World War II.In The Cowpens-Guilford Courthouse Campaign, Burke Davis provides an engaging account of the key battles in the American South, demonstrating that it was here that the strength of the Continental army's resistance to superior British forces laid the foundations for the final American victory. A remarkable chronicle. Davis's characterizations of the various commanders are sharp; his descriptions of the terrain concise. The graphic explanations of arms and logistics will delight the technically mindedOn January 17, 1781, near Cowpens, a drover's camp on the old Cherokee trading trail in Carolina territory, Continental troops and horsemen under the direction of Daniel Morgan inflicted a stunning defeat on a crack British detachment led by the ruthless Banastre Tarleton, commander of Lord Cornwallis's cavalry. Although Tarleton fled the battlefield to avoid capture, the American victory effectively destroyed the light corps of the British army in the South. Stung by the loss, Cornwallis ordered a deliberate and dogged chase of the American rebels, a campaign that meandered through the wilderness and small communities of the Carolinas.After months of retreating, the Continental army under the command of Nathanael Greene, a Rhode Island Quaker, chose to confront the British army near Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. Although they fought with tenacity, the Americans were forced to retreat, but Cornwallis's army had suffered casualties too heavy to pursue the Continentals and instead fell back to the port city of Wilmington. Discouraged by the guerrilla tactics, Cornwallis moved north, to his final defeat at Yorktown. Title: The Cowpens-Guilford Courthouse Campaign Author Name: Davis, Burke Location Published: J B Lippincott Company: 1962 Binding: hardcover Book Condition: Very Good Pages: 208 Categories: Campaigns & Battles, North Carolina Military History Seller ID: 1778
