Daniel Morgan's Masterpiece Poem by David Welch

Daniel Morgan's Masterpiece



Back in seventeen-eighty-one
the revolution hit hard times,
Britain had taken Charlestown
and at Camden had crushed the lines

of General Horatio Gates,
leaving none in the south to resist,
except the Swamp Fox Marion
who alone was able to persist.

South Carolina had fallen,
and Cornwallis was marching north,
the patriots had to stop him,
but could not yet match up with his force.

So they called up Daniel Morgan,
a brawler who had earned his fame
with his actions at Saratoga,
as a soldier he knew the game.

He was sent to march out westwards,
to harass and gain new supplies,
Cornwallis worried about this,
let Banastre Tarleton fly.

Tarleton was a cavalry man,
his infamy now widely known,
he'd butchered his foes at Waxhaws,
when upwards their hands had been thrown.

The patriots called him Butcher, ,
‘Bloody Bann' was his sobriquet,
yet many feared the young colonel,
from his legion they would run away.

But General Morgan knew all this,
he was pragmatic in his approach,
knew what his men could and couldn't do,
where they thrived, where they were laid low.

Knowing Tarleton was close by,
he found a spot called ‘Hannah's Cowpens, '
nearby the flooded Broad River,
here all tradition he'd upend.

Knowing militia tended to flee,
and not face a hand-to-hand fight,
he put their backs to the river,
they couldn't run to escape their plight.

Now they would fight, or they would die,
but he felt this wasn't enough,
so he split his force into three lines,
plotting an elaborate bluff.

In the first he put sharp-shooters,
told them to shoot ‘Epaulet Men, '
then set up local militias
to form a line just behind them.

Finally came the Continentals,
tried soldiers of many a year,
these he knew didn't break and run,
they were the few the British feared.

To top it off he arranged them
all on the slopes of a small hill,
then waited there for Tarleton
who expected an easy kill.

Tarleton had seen it all before,
at Charlestown and Camden field,
these rebels could talk a good game,
but in a fight they'd run or they'd yield.

So when he spotted Morgan's force
he did not bother to survey,
bold and young, he rushed in headlong
expecting the militia to break.

The sharp-shooters opened on him first,
Cutting down fifteen of his dragoons,
Tartleton ordered a grand charged,
with his infantry now on the move.

The sharp-shooters fired and fell back,
were absorbed in the second line,
who had been ordered to fire twice,
then get out of there double-time.

They targeted British officers,
took them down with accurate shots,
then retreated back as ordered
giving much more then they got.

But Tarleton saw them running,
and assumed that his men had won,
then ran into the Continentals,
three-hundred-fifty men with guns.

The militia moved behind them,
tnd out came a thunderous roar,
Swathes of British fell to the ground,
their ‘victory' now nevermore.

Then that same militia regrouped,
swung right to hit Britain's left flank,
then came colonial cavalry
from the right into Tarleton's ranks.

Fire poured from three directions,
the British now in an enfilade,
caught in a double envelopment,
like the Romans trapped at Cumae.

To add to it the British
hadn't slept in forty-eight hours,
the will to fight went out of them,
to keep on wasnot in their power.

Without getting word from above
most threw up their arms and they quit,
six-hundred thirty were captured,
one hundred ten dead before this.

Tarlteton himself road back to
his remaining cavalry troops,
tried to get them to charge again,
but this order they just refused.

Knowing what would be done to him
if by the rebels he was captured,
Tarleton fled with three hundred men,
all of his force that had endured.

Cornwallis's army remained,
but had lost the cream of the crop,
he marched from South Carolina,
his efforts to pacify dropped.

Instead he headed up northwards,
to chase General Nathaniel Greene down,
leading to a chain of events
that would bring about doom at Yorktown.

For the hard-pressed Americans
it was a huge moral victory,
bringing back hope of success
thanks to Daniel Morgan's masterpiece.

Sunday, May 26, 2019
Topic(s) of this poem: america,american history,battle,conflict,heroic,history,narrative,patriotic,revolution ,success
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