“Another Such Victory:” The War of American Independence in North Carolina from Ramsour’s Mill to Yorktown

Stanley D. M. Carpenter, Ph.D.
Captain, US Navy (Ret.)
Professor Emeritus
US Naval War College
Newport, Rhode Island

With the widening rebellion in South Carolina and the war with France and Spain draining away Crown forces for imperial and Home Islands defense, Lieutenant-General Charles, 2nd Earl Cornwallis, Crown commander in the southern colonies, embarked on a desperate gamble – an invasion of North Carolina. Leaving a scratch force under Major-General Lord Francis Rawdon to hold South Carolina and Georgia against the swarming Patriot partisan bands, the earl launched the North Carolina invasion in January 1781 in pursuit of Continental Army forces under Major General Nathanael Greene and Brigadier General Daniel Morgan, the recent victor over Lieutenant-Colonel Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens, South Carolina. The invasion initiated the war’s final chapter leading to the eventual surrender at Yorktown, Virginia ten months later. Burning all the baggage except for a few wagons to haul salt, ammunition, and the wounded at Ramsour’s Mill to speed the advance, Cornwallis’ force struck off in a chase of Greene across the Piedmont in the “Race to the Dan River” in Virginia. Outrun by Greene’s Continental forces, Cornwallis retired to Hillsborough to recover and rest his exhausted soldiers. Recognizing his desperate plight with few supplies, no reinforcements, and little Loyalist support, he needed a battlefield victory against Greene, who was willing to finally engage at Guilford Courthouse (now Greensboro) in mid-March. Although a tactical victory for Cornwallis, Greene won the strategic struggle by further reducing Crown forces. Desperate for re-supply, Cornwallis retreated to Wilmington where in late April, he made the fateful decision to march into Virginia.

Professor Stan Carpenter, Emeritus Professor of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College, will discuss the events and personalities of the crucial four months from January through April 1781 in North Carolina that ultimately determined the outcome in Virginia. He will also address the war in The Old North State from a strategic and tactical perspective. Following the lecture presentation, Professor Carpenter will hold a book signing of his two recent War of American Independence histories as well as several historical fiction works.

He appears as the special guest of the Lincoln County Historical Association on Saturday, November 11 at 2 p.m. in the Reception Hall of the Lincoln Cultural Center. A book signing follows. Tickets are available online here or by mail by calling 828-777-8707.