In 1779, Daniel Morgan quit the Continental Army, wracked by sciatica and passed over for promotion. A year later, with the British victorious at Charleston and Camden, he was called back to rescue the Southern campaign. This episode is a character study of how Morgan, shaped by defeat at Quebec and time as a prisoner of war, used his understanding of human nature to invent an original American tactic.

We explain Nathaniel Greene’s risky decision to split his army, the chase by Banastre Tarleton’s British Legion, and Morgan’s choice to stand at Hannah’s Cowpens with a flooded river at his back. Then we walk through the three-line defense, the misunderstood order that nearly became a disaster, the double envelopment, and how the loss sent Cornwallis toward Yorktown.

• How a year as a prisoner of war gave Morgan a hard view of human behavior in combat
• Why Greene divided his already weak army in the face of a stronger enemy
• Who Tarleton’s dragoons were and why his reputation was so dark after Waxhaws
• Morgan’s order for the militia to fire two volleys and then retreat
• How John Eager Howard’s men turned a mistaken withdrawal into a decisive volley