This is the initial deployment location for the British. At the start of the battle Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton ordered a detachment of cavalry forward to scatter the American skirmishers. While the Green-uniformed British Legion, Americans loyal to the king, awaited the order to advance. Tarleton gave the order to fix bayonets and sweep the militia off the field.
Nearby, as the battle ends, retreating British officers of the 17th Light Dragoons clashed with pursuing American horsemen led by Lt. Col. William Washington. He quickly outpaced his troops, broke his weapon at the hilt when he got into a sword fight with a British officer. According to legend, Washington's young servant rode up just in time, saving his life by shooting the attacking British officer.
It is this account that probably inspired the artist William Ranney in 1845 to paint this vigorous battle scene. Washington and Tarleton raise their swords in the center while Washington's servant boy levels his pistol at a dragoon officer.
Tarleton had a reputation as being ruthless and fearless in battle. An offspring of British gentry, he purchased his commission in the British Army, and at 21 became an officer of dragoons. He volunteered to fight in America, serving with distinction in the north. In his mid-20s Tarleton became commander of the British Legion, a mobile force of cavalry and infantry. American propagandists vilified him. Decades after the war American writers called him “Bloody Tarleton."
Cowpens National Battlefield
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Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service