Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} A Devil of a Whipping The Battle of Cowpens by Lawrence E. Babits A Devil of a Whipping. Here, Lawrence Babits provides a brand-new interpretation of this pivotal South Carolina battle. Whereas previous accounts relied on often inaccurate histories and a small sampling of participant narratives, Babits uses veterans' sworn pension statements, long-forgotten published accounts, and a thorough knowledge of weaponry, tactics, and the art of moving men across the landscape. He identifies where individuals were on the battlefield, when they were there, and what they saw--creating an absorbing common soldier's version of the conflict. His minute-by-minute account of the fighting explains what happened and why and, in the process, refutes much of the mythology that has clouded our picture of the battle. Babits put the events at Cowpens into a sequence that makes sense given the landscape, the drill manual, the time frame, and participants' accounts. He presents an accurate accounting of the numbers involved and the battle's length. Using veterans' statements and an analysis of wounds, he shows how actions by North Carolina militia and American cavalry affected the battle at critical times. And, by fitting together clues from a number of incomplete and disparate narratives, he answers questions the participants themselves could not, such as why South Carolina militiamen ran toward dragoons they feared and what caused the "mistaken order" on the Continental right flank. About the Author. Lawrence E. Babits is professor of maritime history and nautical archaeology at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. For more information about Lawrence E. Babits, visit the Author Page. Reviews. "An important work that draws upon untapped evidence and employs new methods for interpreting traditional sources. . . . Babits gives us the definitive history of this significant battle."-- Journal of Military History. "A superb example of the 'new military history'. . . . Babits comes closer than any previous historian to reconstructing the eighteenth-century soldier's experience of combat and has given us as close to a definitive account of the battle of Cowpens as we are ever likely to have."-- Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. "[A] superb new study. . . . Babits's account moves with the sharpness and decisiveness of the action he describes. . . . No other Revolutionary battle has been subjected to this level of meticulous, intensive, multifaceted analysis. This book will stand as the model for any such future effort. One of Babits’s purposes was the hope that the Cowpens veterans would not be forgotten. The masterful work that he has produced goes far towards achieving that purpose."-- Journal of Southern History. "One of the best analyses that we have of an individual Revolutionary War engagement."-- Journal of American History. "An engaging narrative. . . . An important contribution to Revolutionary War military history, sure to be of interest to Revolutionary War students and historians of the South."-- Southern Historian. "No previous author has applied the power of social history to this battle; Babits’s work should serve as the model for future historians trying to relate the chronology of events to the position of units and individual soldiers on the terrain of the battlefield. His methodology gives the common soldier a voice in unraveling the complex details of the fight from the smoke and bad information obscuring key facts. . . . With the tools of social history, Lawrence Babits has demonstrated what military historians have long argued: war is above all else a human endeavor worthy of study to complete the record of mankind’s struggle to survive and to achieve."-- William & Mary Quarterly. A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens. The battle of Cowpens was a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary War in the South and stands as perhaps the finest American tactical demonstration of the entire war. On 17 January 1781, Daniel Morgan's force of Continental troops and militia routed British regulars and Loyalists under the command of Banastre Tarleton. The victory at Cowpens helped put the British arm The battle of Cowpens was a crucial turning point in the Revolutionary War in the South and stands as perhaps the finest American tactical demonstration of the entire war. On 17 January 1781, Daniel Morgan's force of Continental troops and militia routed British regulars and Loyalists under the command of Banastre Tarleton. The victory at Cowpens helped put the British army on the road to the Yorktown surrender and, ultimately, cleared the way for American independence. Here, Lawrence Babits provides a brand-new interpretation of this pivotal South Carolina battle. Whereas previous accounts relied on often inaccurate histories and a small sampling of participant narratives, Babits uses veterans' sworn pension statements, long-forgotten published accounts, and a thorough knowledge of weaponry, tactics, and the art of moving men across the landscape. He identifies where individuals were on the battlefield, when they were there, and what they saw--creating an absorbing common soldier's version of the conflict. His minute-by-minute account of the fighting explains what happened and why and, in the process, refutes much of the mythology that has clouded our picture of the battle. Babits put the events at Cowpens into a sequence that makes sense given the landscape, the drill manual, the time frame, and participants' accounts. He presents an accurate accounting of the numbers involved and the battle's length. Using veterans' statements and an analysis of wounds, he shows how actions by North Carolina militia and American cavalry affected the battle at critical times. And, by fitting together clues from a number of incomplete and disparate narratives, he answers questions the participants themselves could not, such as why South Carolina militiamen ran toward dragoons they feared and what caused the mistaken order on the Continental right flank. An exceptionally well-researched and richly detailed treatment of one of the most important battles of the American Revolution.-- Military History of the West. A superb example of the 'new military history'. . . . Babits comes closer than any previous historian to reconstructing the eighteenth-century soldier's experience of combat and has given us as close to a definitive account of the battle of Cowpens as we are ever likely to have.-- Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. One of Babits's purposes was the hope that the Cowpens veterans would not be forgotten. The masterful work that he has produced goes far towards achieving that purpose.-- Journal of Southern History. On January 17, 1781, in a pasture near present-day Spartanburg, South Carolina, Daniel Morgan's army of Continental troops and militia routed an elite British force under the command of the notorious Banastre Tarleton. Using documentary evidence to reconstruct the fighting at Cowpens, now a national battlefield, Lawrence Babits provides a riveting, minute-by-minute account of the clash that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War in the South and helped lead to the final defeat of the British at Yorktown. . more. Get A Copy. Friend Reviews. Reader Q&A. Be the first to ask a question about A Devil of a Whipping. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. I highly recommend this book as an updated history of the Battle of Cowpens. Although the author spends some time placing the Battle of Cowpens into the larger context of the American Revolution in the South from the British captures of Savannah & Charleston to Yorktown, I recommend that you read "The Road to Guilford Courthouse" to get a better sense of how the Battles of Cowpens and Kings Mountain fit into the bigger picture. This book is different than previous histories of Cowpens because the I highly recommend this book as an updated history of the Battle of Cowpens. Although the author spends some time placing the Battle of Cowpens into the larger context of the American Revolution in the South from the British captures of Savannah & Charleston to Yorktown, I recommend that you read "The Road to Guilford Courthouse" to get a better sense of how the Battles of Cowpens and Kings Mountain fit into the bigger picture. This book is different than previous histories of Cowpens because the author tries to resolve questions like how many soldiers did General Morgan have, how many casualties did the Americans suffer, where were various units located, how did the chronology of the battle unfold, how long did the actual fighting last and why did Tarleton's forces collapse? To do this the author estimates numbers of troops, casualties and who fought at Cowpens from pension records and extrapolates numbers knowing that only a fraction of the soldiers who fought submitted a pension claim. He also uses instruction manuals from the period that specified various marching paces to estimate how far British & American troops could move during key points in the battle. Finally an understanding of the weather, marching conditions and lack of adequate food supplies, in addition to the effects of American rifle and musket fire and cavalry charges is necessary in order to understand why the British collapsed. So what do we learn from all this? Dan Morgan was a tactical genius. He positioned his troops on the field to utilize marshy areas to protect his flanks and hinder cavalry operations. He positioned some of his lines at the bottom of a swale so that his troops could shoot up at British troops who stood out on the top of the hill against the sky while the British, who tended to shoot too high anyway, would have an even harder time shooting accurately downhill. Morgan arranged his Continental Regular troops so that the militia in front of them could retreat through the gaps in the Continental line to reform behind the Continentals without blocking their line of fire or disrupting their formations. Then the Continentals could close up their ranks after the militia passed through the gaps. The British thought they won the battle when they saw the militia retreat, only to be surprised by the Continental's volleys pouring into their disordered ranks. Tarleton weakened his cavalry by splitting them up and trying to charge around both flanks. North Carolina militia bought a critical few minutes delaying the British charge around the American right flank. A mix up in orders created confusion on the right flank of the American line but the American infantry retreated in good order, reformed and counterattacked. In the meantime, William Washington's American cavalry kept together and outnumbered the opposing British cavalry 2:1 at every point of attack. Washington's cavalry was able to stop the British charge around the American's left flank, regroup and then ride around behind the American lines to charge and stop the British charge around the American's right flank. All this was done in just a few minutes. In fact the entire fighting probably only lasted at most 45 minutes. Why did the British collapse? They were sleep deprived from the stop & go marching to the battlefield. They were wet & cold (the battle was fought in January). They didn't get enough food to keep up their body temperatures. The American rifle and musket fire staggered them. Finally 71st Highlanders were surrounded and surrendered. Why did Morgan underestimate his numbers of troops & casualties? He didn't count the militia that fought with the Continentals, even though the militia played a key role in the battle. He did this in part as a propaganda tool to emphasize the importance of having a regular Continental Army in addition to the militia. Many southern political leaders didn't want to bear the expense of maintaining the Continental Army and wanted just to rely on militia. But Morgan's genius lay in his ability to get the most out of both the militia and the Continental Army. If your idea of what the American Revolution in the South was like is based on "The Patriot", you'll learn a lot from this book. The battle scenes in "The Patriot" is a fictionalized combination of the Battles of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse. This book tells it like it really was. And if your knowledge of the Battle of Cowpens comes from reading previous histories you'll learn that a lot of what you read was wrong. A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens. The real-life battle and heroes that inspired The Patriot On January 17, 1781, in a pasture near present-day Spartanburg, South Carolina, Daniel Morgan's army of Continental troops and militia routed an elite British force under the command of the notorious Banastre Tarleton. Using documentary and archaeological evidence to reconstruct the fighting at Cowpens, now a national battlefield, Lawrence Babits provides a riveting, minute-by-minute account of the clash that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War in the South and helped lead to the final defeat of the British at Yorktown. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. One of the best analyses that we have of an individual Revolutionary War engagement. ("Journal of American History") An exceptionally well-researched and richly detailed treatment of one of the most important battles of the American Revolution. ("Military History of the West") One of Babits's purposes was the hope that the Cowpens veterans would not be forgotten. The masterful work that he has produced goes far towards achieving that purpose. ("Journal of Southern History") With the tools of social history, Lawrence Babits has demonstrated what military historians have long argued: war is above all else a human endeavor worthy of study to complete the record of mankind's struggle to survive and to achieve. ("William & Mary Quarterly") Babits comes closer than any previous historian to reconstructing the eighteenth-century soldier's experience of combat and has given us as close to a definitive account of the battle of Cowpens as we are ever likely to have. ("Virginia Magazine of History and Biography") About the Author : Lawrence E. Babits is professor of maritime history and nautical archaeology at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens Hardcover – 15 November 1998. Start reading A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens on your Kindle in under a minute . Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App . Product details. Publisher : The University of North Carolina Press; 1st edition (15 November 1998) Language : English Hardcover : 256 pages ISBN-10 : 0807824348 ISBN-13 : 978-0807824344 Dimensions : 16.51 x 2.54 x 25.4 cm. Customer Reviews: Product description. Review. One of the best analyses that we have of an individual Revolutionary War engagement.-- Journal of American History. Babit's book, which includes use of personal memoirs and available pension records, is a model of historical interpretation.-- On Point. An engaging narrative. . . . An important contribution to Revolutionary War military history, sure to be of interest to Revolutionary War students and historians of the South.-- Southern Historian. An exceptionally well-researched and richly detailed treatment of one of the most important battles of the American Revolution.-- Military History of the West. A superb example of the 'new military history'. . . . Babits comes closer than any previous historian to reconstructing the eighteenth-century soldier's experience of combat and has given us as close to a definitive account of the battle of Cowpens as we are ever likely to have.-- Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. [A] superb new study. . . . Babits's account moves with the sharpness and decisiveness of the action he describes. . . . No other Revolutionary battle has been subjected to this level of meticulous, intensive, multifaceted analysis. This book will stand as the model for any such future effort. One of Babits's purposes was the hope that the Cowpens veterans would not be forgotten. The masterful work that he has produced goes far towards achieving that purpose.-- Journal of Southern History. An important work that draws upon untapped evidence and employs new methods for interpreting traditional sources. . . . Babits gives us the definitive history of this significant battle.-- Journal of Military History. Simply one of the best--perhaps the very best--studies we have of a Revolutionary War battle. . . . Babits has mastered the literature of the battle as no other scholar has, and he has made far greater use of contemporary maps and pension statements than any other student of the contest. . . . This study is one of the best examples I have seen of the 'new military history,' which--like 'the new social history' of which it is a part--focuses on the use of the microscope rather than the telescope.--Don Higginbotham, author of War and Society in Early America. The battle of Cowpens was so decisive an American tactical victory--the most complete of the Revolution--that its contrast with numerous American defeats still causes us to marvel. Babits offers the best explanation of the outcome that we have, based on both a thorough knowledge of the tactics and weapons of the period and modern insight into the psychology of combat, particularly the probable impact of combat fatigue upon the British.--Russell F. Weigley, Temple Universitythat grow in coastal habitats from northern Mass. to central Florida. No previous author has applied the power of social history to this battle; Babits's work should serve as the model for future historians trying to relate the chronology of events to the position of units and individual soldiers on the terrain of the battlefield. His methodology gives the common soldier a voice in unraveling the complex details of the fight from the smoke and bad information obscuring key facts. . . . With the tools of social history, Lawrence Babits has demonstrated what military historians have long argued: war is above all else a human endeavor worthy of study to complete the record of mankind's struggle to survive and to achieve.-- William & Mary Quarterly.