The Race to the Dan: The Retreat that saved the Revolution

The beginning of an asphalt trail through the Cowpens National Battlefield in South Carolina. The Battle of Cowpens was the beginning of the Race to the Dan.

Image courtesy of the National Park Service, Cowpens National Battlefield

Recipient: North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources

Amount: $142,340.00

In January 1781, American infantry under the command of Brigadier General Daniel Morgan won a tactical victory over a more experienced British force at the Battle of Cowpens. However, realizing his troops were tired and undersupplied following the battle, Morgan quickly moved his men northeast to reunite with his superior, Major General Nathanael Greene, and the rest of the Continental Army in North Carolina. Morgan knew he would be chased by the British, and he gambled that if he could reconnect with Greene, their combined force could counter the British threat, and possibly deliver a decisive blow against the British Army in the Southern Colonies.

As Morgan fled through the North Carolina backcountry, his men conducted a series of raids to slow the pursuing British force led by General Lord Cornwallis and buy time for the Americans to join up with Greene. In March of 1781, Morgan and Greene finally reunited near Guilford Courthouse, and on March 15, battled the British in a battle fought similarly to Cowpens. After narrowly losing the engagement, Morgan and Greene led the Continentals on another northward retreat, this time to the Dan River at North Carolina’s northern border where they would connect with Virginia militia.

Today, the American’s six-week retreat from Cowpens to the Dan River is known as the “Race to the Dan,” a seminal moment in the Revolution’s final phase that helped set the stage for American independence. After the race, in which British troops came under heavy resistance deep in unfamiliar territory and away from their supply centers, Lord Cornwallis’ men were exhausted, leading to their disastrous defeat at Yorktown a few months later.

A 2023 Preservation Planning Grant from American Battlefield Protection Program to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will fund a resource study of important historical properties that witnessed the events of the Race to the Dan in 1781. The study will support the development of a National Heritage Corridor in North Carolina that will protect and interpret some of the key locations of the American operation, while also serving as a companion corridor to the existing Southern Campaign.

Preservation Planning Grants are the American Battlefield Protection Program's broadest and most inclusive grant program, promoting the stewardship of battlefields and sites of armed conflict on American soil. In addition, ABPP administers three other grant opportunities: the Battlefield Land Acquisition Grant, Battlefield Restoration Grant, and Battlefield Interpretation Grant programs. This financial assistance generates community-driven stewardship of historic resources at the state, tribal and local levels.

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