procurement of provisions for the troops, excited his lordship's apprehensions for the safety of Ninety-Six and Augusta, British posts, which he considered as menaced by the movements of Morgan, and gave rise to a train of movements which terminated in the celebrated battle of the Cowpens.

Cornwallis, immediately on learning the movements of Greene, despatched Colonel Tarlton with a strong detachment, amounting, in horse and foot, to near a thousand, for the protection of Ninety-Six, with orders to bring General Morgan, if possible, to battle. Greatly superior in numbers, he advanced on Morgan with a menacing aspect, and compelled him, at first, to fall back rapidly. But this was not long continued. Glorying in action, and relying with great confidence in the spirit and firmness of his regular troops, Morgan halted at the Cowpens, and prepared to give his adversary battle. The opportunity was eagerly seized by Tarlton. An engagement was the immediate consequence, and a complete victory was obtained by the Americans.* Upwards of five hundred of the British laid down their arms and were made prisoners, and a very con

* Vide Biography of General Morgan.

siderable number were killed. Eight hundred stand of arms, two field-pieces, and thirty-five baggage wagons, fell to the victors, who had only twelve killed and sixty wounded.

The victory of the Cowpens, although achieved under the immediate command of Morgan, was the first stroke of General Greene's policy in the south, and augured favourably of his future career. It led to one of the most arduous, ably conducted, and memorable operations, that occurred in the course of the revolutionary war-the retreat of Greene, and the pursuit of Cornwallis, during the inclemencies of winter, a distance of two hundred and thirty miles.

Galled in his pride, and crippled in his schemes by the overthrow of Tarlton, Lord Cornwallis resolved, by a series of prompt and vigorous measures, to avenge the injury and retrieve the loss which the royal arms had sustained at the Cowpens. His meditated operations for this purpose were, to advance rapidly on Morgan, retake his prisoners, and destroy his force; to maintain an intermediate position, and prevent his union with General Greene or in case of the junction of the two

armies, to cut off their retreat towards Virginia, and force them to action.

But General Greene, no less vigilant and provident than himself, informed, by express, of the defeat of Tarlton, instantly perceived the object of his lordship, and ordering his troops to proceed under General Huger to Salisbury, where he meditated a junction with Morgan's detachment, he himself, escorted by a few dragoons, set out for the head-quarters of that officer, and joined him shortly after.

Cornwallis having committed to the flames his heavy baggage, and reduced his army to the condition of light troops, dashed towards Morgan. And here commenced the retreat of General Greene, in the course of which he displayed such resources, and gained in the end such lasting renown. Sensible of the immense prize for which he was contending, he tasked his genius to the uttermost. On the issue of the struggle was staked, not merely the lives of a few brave men, not alone the existence of the whole army, but the fate of the south and the integrity of the Union. But his genius was equal to the crisis. By the most masterly movements, Greene effected a junction of the two divisions of his little army.

To his great mortification, Lord Cornwallis now perceived that in two of his objects, the destruction of Morgan's detachment, and the prevention of its union with the main division, he was completely frustrated by the activity. of Greene. But to cut off the retreat of the Americans into Virginia, after their union, and to compel them to action, was still perhaps practicable, and to the achievement of this he now directed his undivided energies.

The genius of Greene, however, did not desert him on this trying occasion. Self-collected, and adapting his conduct to the nature of the crisis, his firmness grew with the increase of danger; and the measure of his greatness was the extent of the difficulties he was called to encounter. Notwithstanding the vigilance and activity of his enemy, he brought his men in safety into Virginia; and to crown the whole, no loss was sustained by him, either in men, munitions, artillery, or any thing that enters into the equipment of an army.

Frustrated thus in all his purposes, Lord Cornwallis, although the pursuing party, must be acknowledged to have been fairly vanquished. Victory is the successful issue of a struggle for superiority. Military leaders con

tend for different objects; to vanquish their enemies in open conflict; to attack and overthrow them by stratagem and surprise; to exhaust their resources by delay of action; or to elude them in retreat, until, strengthened by reinforcements, they may be able to turn and meet them in the field. Of this last description was the victory of Greene in this memorable

retreat.

In Virginia, General Greene received some reinforcements, and had the promise of more; on which he returned again into North Carolina, where, on their arrival, he hoped to be able to act on the offensive. He encamped in the vicinity of Lord Cornwallis's army. By a variety of the best concerted manœuvres, he so judiciously supported the arrangement of his troops, by the secrecy and promptitude of his motions, that during three weeks, while the enemy remained near him, he prevented them from taking any advantage of their superiority; and even cut off all opportunity of their receiving succours from the royalists.

About the beginning of March he effected a junction with a continental regiment and two considerable bodies of Virginia and Carolina militia. He then determined on attacking the