Battle of Cowpens

The battle of Cowpens, which took place in South Carolina during the southern campaign of the revolutionary war, was fought by the British army led by Colonel Banastre and the Continental army forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan. The battle took place on January 17, 1781 and it was a crucial turning point for the patriots in their reconquest of South Carolina. At this point in time, the Continental army had split up into more fronts in South Carolina in order to force the British contingent to also separate and fight the rebels on smaller fronts, which is favorable to their style of fighting. Both sides of the battle began with around one thousand soldiers, but as a result of the rebel's tactic to reposition themselves by skirmishing but leaving their first two lines of troops, the British ran into an unexpected volley of concentrated rifle fire and then a cavalry charge and the return of the militia. The American rifles proved to have far more success in this battle, given that 800 British troops were killed or wounded, while the Americans had less than 100.