Cowpens National Battlefield | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
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Location | Cherokee County, South Carolina, United States |
Nearest city | Gaffney, South Carolina |
Coordinates | 35°08′12″N 81°49′05″W / 35.13667°N 81.81806°WCoordinates: 35°08′12″N 81°49′05″W / 35.13667°N 81.81806°W |
Area | 842 acres (341 ha) |
Established | March 4, 1929 |
Visitors | 208,936 (in 2005) |
Governing body | National Park Service |
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Cowpens National Battlefield
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Nearest city | Chesnee, South Carolina |
Built | 1781 |
NRHP Reference # | 66000072 |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
Cowpens National Battlefield or Cowpens National Battlefield Park is a unit of the National Park Service just east of Chesnee, South Carolina, and near the state line with North Carolina. It preserves a major battlefield of the American Revolutionary War.
Brigadier General Daniel Morgan won the Battle of Cowpens, a decisive Revolutionary War victory over British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton on January 17, 1781. It is considered one of the most memorable victories of Morgan and one of the most memorable defeats of Tarleton.
Established as Cowpens National Battlefield Site March 4, 1929; transferred from the War Department August 10, 1933; redesignated April 11, 1972. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Area: 841.56 acres (3.41 km2), Federal: 790.9 acres (3.2 km2), Nonfederal: 50.66 acres (205,010 m2).
The visitor center features a museum with exhibits about the American Revolution and the battle, including a fiber-optic map that illustrates the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution and the battle, a walking tour of the battlefield itself, and the reconstructed log cabin of one Robert Scruggs, who had farmed the land before the establishment of the park.