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Published: April 10th 2020
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GENERAL MORGAN'S HEADSTONE
I brought an American Flag when I paid my respects at his grave, but did not need it. He already has plenty. DANIEL MORGAN Daniel battled his way, kicking and biting, into the cosmos on July 6, 1736. His folks were James Morgan (1702-1782) and Eleanor Lloyd (1706-1748) perhaps living at the time of his birth in North Hampton, NJ. All four of his grandparents were Welsh immigrants living in Pennsylvania. James and Dan were both hardheads, and both were likely wrong most of the time. At the age of 16 Dan got into a row with his dad and left home for good. He went over to Pennsylvania but soon wore out his welcome with the grandparents too. When they tried to send him back home Dan headed for Shenandoah Valley instead. He landed in Winchester, Virginia and made it his home for the rest of his life. He started out clearing land, then working in a sawmill, and finally as a teamster. Within a couple of years he had his own oxen and wagon and began to show signs of prosperity. During the French and Indian War he signed on, with his cousin Daniel Boone, to haul freight with Braddock’s Army to drive the French out of Fort Duquesne. Braddock got whipped by Indians along the way and during the retreat Dan assaulted a Redcoat officer. The officer had him flogged and Dan received 500 lashes. It was a normally fatal sentence, but Dan was abnormally tough. He later boasted that the Redcoats missed their count and only gave him 499 lashes. He counted every single one of them, and each lash increased his dislike of Redcoat officers and the way they treated provincials. In due course Dan married a girl named Abigail Curry and they built a home in Berryville where they raised two daughters together, Nancy and Betsy. Abigail taught Dan to read and write, sort of. As the years rolled by Dan gained prosperity and respect in the community. Among other things he was highly regarded as a barroom brawler.
When the Revolutionary War fetched loose in 1775 that notoriety allowed Dan to be named by unanimous decree commander of a militia regiment that came to be known as Morgan’s Riflemen. They were all crack marksmen and could pick off a Redcoat officer from 300 yards. They carried rifled muskets that were more time consuming to reload, but could fire accurately four times farther than smooth bore muskets could fire. The Redcoat officers thought they were safely out of range of that provincial rabble who dared fire at them. Soon as the regiment was mustered in they scurried off to Boston to join the Continental Army. From there they joined Benedict Arnold on his march through Maine to assault British forces in Quebec. It was an arduous journey for them and forty percent of Arnold’s army perished along the way. Those who survived were nearly starved, exhausted and too poorly equipped to assault a fortified city like Quebec. The attack failed, and Arnold and Morgan were both wounded. Morgan was shot off a wall inside the city and he fell onto a cannon below. The fall broke his ribs dislocated his hips and back and he was captured. Arnold was shot outside the city and managed to scamper off to safety. Morgan was held prisoner until he got exchanged in1777 just in the nick of time to join his pal, Benedict Arnold, in the battles on Lake Champlain, and at Freeman’s Farm, Bemis Heights, and Saratoga in which they defeated the Redcoat, General John Burgoyne. Credit for that victory was given to General Horatio Gates as commander of the colonial forces, but was Arnold and Morgan who made it succeed. Arnold was under arrest at the time for insubordination to “Old Granny” Gates but he gnawed through his restraints and led the successful attack. After Saratoga Morgan resigned from the Continental Army in poor health related to his injuries in Quebec. He was subsequently offered another command, but refused to serve again with Gates. By then the war had shifted to the southern colonies in hopes that the Redcoat army could be better supported from British Florida than it could be from British Canada. Georgia and South Carolina were full of Tory Loyalists. Gates got himself soundly thrashed and cashiered from command by Congress at the Battle of Camden by loyalist militia. Daniel Morgan was finally promoted to brigadier general when Gates was replaced in command by Nathaniel Greene. General Sir Charles Lord Cornwallis was in command of the Redcoats. His leading henchman was Colonel Banastre Tarleton of the dragoons. Greene and Morgan defeated the loyalist militia at King’s Mountain in South Carolina, and then suckered Tarleton into a foolish attack at The Cowpens in which he narrowly escaped but lost pretty much his entire command. General Morgan planned and executed that magnificent sucker punch and then led Cornwallis on a merry chase as far north as the Dan River in North Carolina. The Colonials escaped into Virginia, and Cornwallis declined to chase them further because he had no loyalist support there. He retreated to Hillsboro, North Carolina to rest up a bit and then took his beleaguered and boogered Redcoats to Yorktown for resupply by the British merchant fleet in Chesapeake Bay. By then the colonials had formed an alliance with France. The French navy commanded by Admiral de Grasse drove the British merchant fleet out of Chesapeake Bay and Cornwallis was cut off from supply. The combined forces of colonials commanded by George Washington, and Frenchmen commanded by Comte Rochambeau surrounded Cornwallis and put him under artillery siege forcing his surrender. America had gained its independence.
Daniel Morgan returned to Berryville after the war and began to expand his holdings. He eventually controlled 250, 000 acres, built a big old plantation home that he named Saratoga. He built a grist mill that is still standing to this day, as is his plantation house. Some historians contend that without his victory at Cowpens we would not have had the victory at Yorktown either. That does not even take into account his contribution to the victory at Saratoga. Daniel Morgan was the finest battlefield commander the Revolutionary War produced. In 1794 he was recalled to service by George Washington to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania. It was another tax rebellion, and nobody likes taxes, but this time it was an American tax and it stood. In 1799 Daniel Morgan was elected to Congress for two years. In 1802 he went up the flume.
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