and by Cornwallis at Camden. Morgan's battle, fought
almost in the wilderness, is called Cowpens, after the
place where the inhabitants of that part of the country
collected and salted their roving cattle.
Soon after his victory General Morgan was laid up with rheumatism and forced to leave the army.[1] Few men engaged in the Revolutionary War had done better service to their country. There is a legend which tells that the house he built for himself near Winchester, in the Valley of Virginia, was constructed of stones quarried by Hessian prisoners, who carried them for miles on their shoulders. The story is picturesque and not impossible, but I know of no German authority for it.
Cornwallis was disappointed but not daunted by the rout of his ablest subordinate, and of nearly a third of his soldiers. On the day after the battle of Cowpens he was joined by Leslie's division. In a few days he was marching across North Carolina, and Greene was retreating before him. The latter was driven out of the state and across the Dan River. Cornwallis called on the Tories to rise, and these at first showed an inclination to do so, but a party of them was attacked and dispersed by a superior force under Henry Lee and Pickens, and the others became discouraged and went home again.
At last General Greene, having received reinforcements, advanced again to Guildford Court House, in North Carolina, and prepared to give battle. His army consisted of sixteen hundred and fifty-one Con-
- ↑ Lee, however, blames Morgan for leaving the army at this time.—“Memoirs,” pp. 237, 583.
