r-in-chief; and Henry Lee, familiarly known as "Light-horse
Harry," father of the great general, Robert Edward Lee. The little army
numbered only 2000 men, but a considerable part of them were disciplined
veterans fully a match for the British infantry.

In order to raise troops in Virginia to increase this little force,
Steuben was sent down to that state. In order to interfere with such
recruiting, and to make diversions in aid of Cornwallis, detachments
from the British army were also sent by sea from New York to Virginia.
The first of these detachments, under General Leslie, had been obliged
to keep on to South Carolina, to make good the loss inflicted upon
Cornwallis at King's Mountain. To replace Leslie in Virginia, the
traitor Arnold was sent down from New York. The presence of these
subsidiary forces in Virginia was soon to influence in a decisive way
the course of events.

[Sidenote: Battle of the Cowpens, Jan. 17, 1781.]

Greene, on reaching South Carolina, acted with boldness and originality.
He divided his little army into two bodies, one of which cooeperated
with Marion's partisans in the northeastern part of the state, and
threatened Cornwallis's communications with the coast. The other body he
sent under Morgan to the southwestward, to threaten the inland posts and
their garrisons. Thus worried on both flanks, Cornwallis presently
divided his own force, sending Tarleton with 1100 men, to dispose of
Morgan. Tarleton came up with Morgan on the 17th of January, 1781, at a
grazing-ground known as the Cowpens, not far from King's Mountain. The
battle which ensued was well fought, and on Morgan's part it was a
wonderful piece of tactics. With only 900 men in open field he
surrounded and nearly annihilated a superior force. The British lost 230
in killed and wounded, 600 prisoners, and all their guns. Tarleton
escaped with 270 men. The Americans lost 12 killed and 61 wounded.

[Sidenote: Battle of Guilford, March 15, 1781.]

The two battles, King's Mountain and the Cowpens, deprived Cornwallis of
nearly all his light-armed troops, and he was just entering upon a game
where swiftness was especially required. It was his object to intercept
Morgan and defeat him before he could effect a junction with the other
part of the American army. It was Greene's object to march the two parts
of his army in converging directions northward across North Carolina and
unite them in spite of Cornwallis. By moving in th