The Washington Light Infantry Monument at Cowpens National Battlefield

At first glance the Washington Light Infantry Monument at Cowpens National Battlefield, South Carolina, is not very impressive. But its modest design was typical of Revolutionary War monuments of its day, and it is significant as one of the few monuments of that era to commemorate a Revolutionary battlefield in the South. Before the Civil War, the nation marked few battlefields with monuments, most of them in the North, such as Bunker Hill; many Southern battlefields stayed farmland and were forgotten.

The Washington Light Infantry Monument. NPS Photo

It started with a flag

The Washington Light Infantry, a South Carolina militia company based in Charleston, was founded in 1807. From then until 1919, when it became part of the South Carolina National Guard, it served as a unit in every major American war.

The militia was named for George Washington, but in 1827 it became more closely tied to his cousin, the cavalry commander Colonel William Washington, when his widow gave the company the "Eutaw flag," a homemade banner he had carried throughout the Revolution's Southern Campaign.

In the 1850s the country was in turmoil, climaxing in the bloody fighting over slavery in Kansas, and that friction reached into the company itself. Its commanders wanted a shared project to unite the men. With the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens approaching, Captain Lewis Hatch proposed a monument to the battle — arguably Colonel Washington's most important.

Building it

After contacting the citizens of Spartanburg, the company set out in April 1856, traveling by train to Laurens and then marching more than 100 miles to Spartanburg. On April 21, after a few days of events in town, the men reached the battlefield. They worked out, as best they could, where Tarleton's dragoons had first clashed with Washington's cavalry, and built the monument on that spot in two days: an octagonal base of shell and sand from Sullivan's Island, an iron shaft, and a ball topped by a golden eagle. Inside the base they placed relics, including a bottle of water from Eutaw Springs (another of Colonel Washington's key battles), a brick from a house near that battlefield, an account of the Battle of Cowpens and a roster of the company members who built the monument.

A monument, two meanings

The monument was dedicated with speeches and a cannon salute from the Cowpens Light Artillery. Captain Hatch told the crowd he hoped it would renew the spirit of the Revolution and help prevent a future war. Many local people saw it differently — as a symbol of Southern independence and of throwing off tyranny. A month after South Carolina seceded, many residents rallied around the monument to show support for the Confederacy.

Neglect and restoration

The monument stood on private land. A group of Spartanburg women raised money through fundraisers and bake sales to buy a one-acre tract around it, acquiring the deed in July 1856, and local men put up an iron fence — completing the battlefield's first commemorative effort.

Over the years vandals damaged the monument, and the golden eagle was stolen. After Cowpens National Battlefield was created in 1972, the National Park Service took on its preservation, and in 1980 it was restored to its original state, minus the eagle. The Park Service preserves it as a record of the earliest efforts to commemorate this battlefield and the South's Revolutionary history.

Sources

• National Park Service, "Washington Light Infantry Monument" (Cowpens National Battlefield): https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/washington-light-infantry-monument.htm