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The American Revolution
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took 600 men to the western part of the state. Greene, with the remain-
ing 1,600 or so, threatened the east.
To stop Morgan, Cornwallis dispatched a 1,150-man force under the
command of Colonel Banastre Tarleton. Among Patriots, Tarleton had
a reputation for ruthlessness. “Bloody Ban,” it was said, had massacred
militiamen after they’d surrendered at a May 1780 battle. But Tarleton
proved no match for Daniel Morgan, whose force had been bolstered by the
arrival of hundreds of militia. On January 17, 1781, Morgan’s men crushed
American cavalry, wearing green, battle with the British cavalry commanded by Colo-
nel Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens in January 1780. The victory at Cow-
pens encouraged Patriots in the South to keep fighting while weakening the British
army. Daniel Morgan’s small army captured more than 700 British soldiers and killed
110, with only 12 Americans killed and 60 wounded.