Chapter 13

I woke up that morning with a dull ache in my back.

It wasn’t from the time I had followed the mine sweep team right into a nasty anti-tank mine thinking how nice it was to have guys out in front risking their lives to keep me nice and safe.

It wasn’t even from the time the helicopter had gone down half in the water and half out of the leaving us in a muddle of choosing a life preserver or a flak jacket as we scrambled out of the chopper. I remembered it was one of those big mother-fuckers that I sensed were so powerful that nothing could ever happen to it with me inside. It didn’t work that day but they were usually as dependable as the I.R.S. sending you a certified letter if you didn’t pay your taxes.

No, I was thinking it was that rotting pile of hay that we had collapsed into as we “disengaged” from the redcoats on the way back to New Jersey. When I say disengaged, I mean that we were running our ass off to keep from getting bayoneted by one of the German-speaking Hessians with their God-awful tight discipline and a one track mind on following orders no matter what.

The simple truth of the matter was that they had more in common with us American Patriots than with the King-ruled redcoats that looked down their noses at them even though they were much more effective than the regular British enlisted troops. A lot was made over the fact that they were mercenaries but they actually were mostly conscripted farm boys scooped up by various war-loving ruling class self-declared “Majors” and “Colonels” with extensive military training.

My unit was running thin on replacements for marksmen with Kentucky rifles, so I sent a couple of my Indian scouts back up north to recruit some adventure seeking warriors to join us in our mission to snipe the British officers leading their troops into battle in the ridiculous European style of land combat that usually resulted in high casualties and low rates of success.

It was getting harder and harder to keep our powder dry what with the constant rain and fog and it meant that our limited artillery was almost non-existent because of repeated misfires and the muddy trails that slowed us down.

Fortunately, the British were having even a worse time than us and they were a bit confused as to the fact that they were retreating from the American rabble or moving to a better defensive position nearer to New York City.

I suspected that deep in their gut, most of the higher ranking officers understood without a doubt that their very survival depended on staying as close to the British Navy as possible in the hopes that the treacherous French did not rally to the Patriots side quick enough to actually make a difference. I knew from the history books that the British high command still firmly believed that they had everything under control and they would soon solve this lack of loyalty problem with the American Patriots by crushing Washington like a bug beneath their boots.

Of course, the logistics were definitely in the British favor at that point with them having overwhelming superior forces, well-armed and with vast stores of ammunition and powder as well as plentiful cannon to insure victory on an open field of battle. As an outside observer, it was easy for me to spot their basic error which was to underestimate the Rebel tactics of hit and run and to constantly pick at their forces from hiding as they either advanced or retreated whichever the case might be.

I had decided to stay away from the entire General Arnold, Major Andre related West Point debacle because it was so essentially unnecessary and a sad ending to a brave officer’s reputation. Of course, Major Andre was executed as a spy for good reason despite the many pleas from the British Army highest ranking officers that he was only following orders and was only out of uniform in order to pass through the lines. I suspected that a lot of the motivation for Andre’s execution was based on the terrible attitude of the British in the murder of Nathan Hale for simply stating his belief for the Patriot cause and they killed him because he annoyed them with his logic and his sense of absolute right. His simple words of “I only regret I have but one life to give for my country” have been an inspiration down through the years of the American nation and his sacrifice serves as a symbol of devotion to duty.

Fortunately, the West Point betrayal was settled in favor of the American Patriots for those truly interested in the establishment of a new nation dedicated to the principle that all men are created equal and not beholden to any King or other royal personage.

This point in the American Revolutionary War was said to marked by the battle fought at Saratoga being the so-called “turning point” of the war in favor now of the Rebel cause. In my studies of the war from the perspective of the future, I had come to the conclusion that while the battle at Saratoga was an important factor in the ultimate defeat for the British, it was actually the subtle strategy of the French advisors to Washington that shaped the conclusion of the war in his favor. It was apparent to me, to General Arnold, now in the other camp, and to many others in the “inner circle” of Washington sphere of influence that he was obsessed with the taking back of New York Harbor and driving the British from the American shores from the same place that they had taken by force using his mistakes to drive him on the run and just barely managing to survive with little hope of winning. The French war planners long seeped in the psyche of the Whitehall strategy deduced that the combination of the concentrated Patriot Continental Army under the command of General Washington in close collaboration with the French fleet would force the British high command to sue for surrender in order to save the lives of their fighting men. It was a long-range trap that depended on shifting the battlefield away from the shores of New York City harbor down the southern colonies and the dangers of losing contact with their logistical support lines and British ships far too distant to be of any use in combatting the French fleet.

This was the eventual trap at Yorktown and the British regular Army fell into the plan still convinced that they would win the war with just a little bit of luck because the American opponents were vastly inferior to their well-disciplined and fully supplied troops with the power of numerical superiority. They held the Washington-led Continental Army in visible contempt and failed to recognize the danger of their ever-increasing predicament.

One of my desires on this journey back into time was to visit and see up close and personal the Battle of Cowpens that shaped the eventual American victory and highlighted the failure of the British high command to address the changed situation now that France was in on the side of the American colonists and that this was now an “International” war and not just an internal squabble between the King and his American subjects.

We swept down the eastern coastline keeping close to the water because there were privateers and other sailing vessels that kept us informed on the day to day situation all the way from Boston down to the South Carolina and Georgia shores. The battle of Cowpens was fought in the colony of South Carolina and it was the British assumption that they would make short work of the rebel forces in the southern colonies with a minimum of effort on their part. Unfortunately for them this was a grave miscalculation and they would pay the price with lost lives, lost cannon and the inevitable retreat into Yorktown where they finally surrendered with no conditions to save face and pretend it was a negotiation and not a defeat.

This following description of the Battle of Cowpens was penned about a year prior to this writing and I include it for the readers because it does give the feel and the atmosphere of the time and explains why the French inspired southern strategy was far more effective than the conventional “wear them down” approach of Washington in New York City Harbor.

THE BATTLE OF COWPENS

(CHEROKEE COUNTY, S.C., 1781)

The War of the American Revolution started on the fields and rolling hills outside the city of Boston, Massachusetts and ended several long years later with the surrender of General Cornwallis on the battlefields in Yorktown, Virginia.

Most historians tend to consider the battle of Saratoga in New York State to be the turning point of the Revolutionary War but a few look at the much smaller Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina to be more predictive of the final outcome.

The British Army was spread out thinly across the 13 original colonies of the United States of America trying their best to quell the rebellion that had started because of the paternalistic attitudes in London toward the settlers in the New World. They tended to do better when close to a source of supplies near the coast or in confined conflict in an open battlefield supported by Artillery and Calvary to assist their foot infantry in close formation.