South Carolina - Cowpens

A fitting follow-up to Kings Mountain is visiting Cowpens National Battlefield.

The Patriot victory at Cowpens occurred 3 months after their victory at Kings Mountain, but the battles were quite different. The battle at Kings Mountain was loosely-coordinated American Patriot militias fighting American Loyalist militias with a British commander. The battle at Cowpens was Patriot Continental soldiers and militias executing a preplanned strategy against a significant British army. The terrain varied, too: Kings Mountain was a wooded hill and Cowpens was rolling pasture land hemmed in by woods.

The National Park video was informative and a separate program with a fiber optic map displayed the battle lines. Interestingly the program said that the actual battle lasted only a little longer than the length of the program – less than an hour.

Markers embedded in the walkway to the visitor center commemorate the significant southern battles.

We read the display boards along the 1-mile Battlefield Trail.

This area, known as the Cow Pens (as it had been used to graze livestock), was chosen by the Continental Major trying to head off the British. Although the Patriots were outnumbered, their strategic positioning led them to surround and completely defeat the British.

We also saw the 19^th Century Robert Scruggs pioneer home. It has a bit more square footage than our trailer, but they had 11 children!

We had an informative chat with Ranger Will. The rangers are often a wealth of information.

And we liked the azalea garden next to our parking spot!

Camped at: Walmart, Gaffney SC (The Kings Mountain State Park campground was closed for renovations.)

Distance from Kings Mountain National Military Park 30mi 35min (32mi 43min via Walmart)