The Race to the Dan, 1781: The Retreat That Helped Win the Revolution

A "Race to the Dan" wayside panel. Cowpens National Battlefield, NPS.

The race

In January 1781, American infantry under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan won a tactical victory over a more experienced British force at the Battle of Cowpens. But his troops were tired and short of supplies, so Morgan quickly marched northeast to rejoin his superior, Major General Nathanael Greene, and the rest of the Continental Army in North Carolina. He knew the British would follow, and gambled that together he and Greene could counter them — perhaps even strike a decisive blow against the British Army in the Southern colonies.

As Morgan crossed the North Carolina backcountry, his men raided to slow the pursuing force under General Lord Cornwallis and buy time. In March 1781, Morgan and Greene reunited near Guilford Courthouse, and on March 15 fought the British in a battle much like Cowpens. After narrowly losing, they led the Continentals north again, to the Dan River on North Carolina's northern border, where they would join Virginia militia.

This six-week retreat from Cowpens to the Dan is known as the "Race to the Dan," a turning point in the Revolution's final phase. Fighting deep in unfamiliar country, far from their supplies and under heavy resistance, Cornwallis's men were exhausted — setting the stage for their disastrous defeat at Yorktown a few months later.

Preserving the route

A 2023 Preservation Planning Grant of $142,340 from the National Park Service's American Battlefield Protection Program to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources funds a study of historic properties that witnessed the Race to the Dan. It will support a National Heritage Corridor in North Carolina to protect and interpret key places of the American operation, as a companion to the existing Southern Campaign corridor.

Preservation Planning Grants are the program's broadest grants, supporting the stewardship of battlefields and sites of armed conflict on American soil. The American Battlefield Protection Program also offers land acquisition, restoration and interpretation grants.

Sources

Based on "The Race to the Dan: The Retreat that saved the Revolution," American Battlefield Protection Program, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The picture's caption on the source page describes a trail at Cowpens; its description shows the wayside panel, which this page follows.