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Title: A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens by Lawrence E. Babits ISBN: 0-8078-4926-X Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr Pub. Date: February, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: "Bloody" Tarleton Has His Lunch Handed to Him!
Comment: Babits' book is a long overdue and comprehensive description on what was probably one of the three most important battles in the Revolutionary War (Saratoga NY and Kings Mountain being the other two).
Books on battles and campaigns can sometimes be tedious and dry. Not so with this one! The author's writing style is technical without being tedious and easy to follow without being simplistic.
I particulary enjoyed how Babits vividly described the battle and how the American tactics and use of terrain led to a decisive victory. Especially helpful were the many detailed and helpful maps in the text. Including many maps made the book easier to follow and broadened my understanding of the battle.
Since I live within 1.5 hours of the battlefield, I have been able to visit the battlefield several times. Babits book has really enhanced my visits.
All in all, a highly recommended read!
Rating: 4
Summary: Forty Minute Battle That Led to Yorktown Dissected
Comment: Lawrence Babits has packed a thorough study of the Battle of Cowpens into a slim book.
The forty-minute battle was crucial to our success in the war. It was a devastating defeat for the British, specifically "Bloody Tarleton," whose British Legion had been the scourge of the Carolinas. The defeat was so total because of the Masterful plan and seamless execution by General Morgan and his subordinates. Too few Americans know about Cowpens and its place in steering Cornwallis ultimately to Yorktown.
The author had a mission: to dissect the Battle of Cowpens through pension records of participants and memoirs in order to construct an accurate placement of troops during the battle, the size of American forces present, the total of British casualties and the duration of the affair.
He has done his work well and convincingly. In the process, Babits clarifies and rectifies some commonly held notions of Cowpens. The militia line made an orderly retreat through the Main line through previously established gaps in that line and not around the flank; Morgan's troop totals and casualties in his report were only for Continental troops -- the militia doubled Morgan's probable force to 1800 men engaged; Washington did not encounter Tarleton at the end of the battle but three British cavalry officers; the South Carolina militia did not cross the field during their planned withdrawal; the North Carolina militia stayed in the fight on the American right after their planned withdrawal.
If these details have lost you, it focuses on a major facet of the book. It is for readers who have some appreciation of the Revolution in the South and the Battle of Cowpens. While thoroughly researched and minutely written, my one criticism is that at times the author gets bogged down in details that interrupt the flow of the larger story. Thus the book may seem inaccessible to a first timer looking to find out about the Battle of Cowpens.
Not that the author doesn't tell the battle story in full. He does. This book underscores General Daniel Morgan's tactical brilliance as well as General Greene's strategic insight in detailing Morgan to the interior initially. Morgan's battlefield plan and his sub commander's (particularly William Washington and John Howard's) performances are correctly studies in leadership and execution. Morgan planned a tactical masterpiece that made use of all his troops' strengths and used some of their weaknesses (in the case of the militia) to his advantage. American arms have seldom exceeded this level of performance at the tactical level.
(Delaware partisan warning here) The author also highlights the rock steady performance of Captain Kirkwood and his Delaware Line during the battle and the pursuit of Tarleton. Kirkwood was one of the best Continental battlefield leaders of the war, noticed by George Washington as well as a host of others. Prohibited from rising to General by the virtue of his coming from a small state (the number of state troops raised had much to do with the general offices available), Kirkwood and his Delawares (as the author describes them; today we say Delawareans, although I'm not sure if that was the case 225 years ago) were a mainstay in Morgan's line, absorbing the direct fire of the main British regiment and receiving the most unit casualties of any of Morgan's forces. I was very glad to see Babit give this small band of Blue Hens their due.
This is a very good book in terms of research and analysis. Much more has been learned about the Battle of Cowpens because of Babits painstaking study. He has added to our knowledge of one of the Revolution's pivotal battles.
Rating: 3
Summary: A discordant voice
Comment: There is much that is praiseworthy in this book, but it also has its share of problems.
Despite a voluminous amount of detail, the author never presents us with an accessible order of battle with regimental strengths for either side. One of the major arguments of the book is that Morgan underreported the number of soldiers fighting on his side. Babits apparently bases this opinion largely on nineteenth century pension records, which are notoriously unreliable and therefore must be used very carefully.
In his conclusion, Babits says that Morgan understated the strength of the militia in order to inflate the contribution of the Continentals to the victory. Morgans motivation, Babits claims, is to demonstrate the importance of Continentals to victory in the war. (I do not have the text here in front of me, but his point is along those lines.) However, Babits in no way supports this argument with documentary or any other evidence. The Americans may indeed have had more soldiers at Cowpens than has traditionally been reported, but Babits does not provide good evidence for this nor does he make adequate arguments for Morgans motivation to prevaricate regarding the contribution of the militia.
-David Wilson
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Title: The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas by John Buchanan ISBN: 0471327166 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 01 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Partisans and Redcoats: The Southern Conflict That Turned the Tide of the American Revolution by Walter B. Edgar ISBN: 0380977605 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 23 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Saratoga : Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War by Richard M. Ketchum ISBN: 0805061231 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Decisive Day : The Battle for Bunker Hill by Richard M. Ketchum ISBN: 0805060995 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Winter Soldiers : The Battles for Trenton and Princeton by Richard M. Ketchum ISBN: 0805060987 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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