ade a thrust at the colonel with his sword.
The latter parried the blow, and wounded his enemy in the hand.

[Illustration: Hand to Hand Fight between Colonel Washington and
Colonel Tarleton]

As the story is told, this wound was twice the subject for witty
remarks by two young women, the daughters of a North Carolina
patriot. Tarleton remarked to one of these sisters that he understood
Colonel Washington was an unlettered fellow, hardly able to write his
name.

"Ah, Colonel," said the lady, "you ought to know better, for you can
testify that he knows how to make his mark."

At another time, Tarleton said with a sneer to the other sister, "I
should be happy to see Colonel Washington."

"If you had looked behind you at the battle of Cowpens, Colonel
Tarleton," she replied, "you would have enjoyed that pleasure."

In the battle of Cowpens, the British lost two hundred and thirty,
killed and wounded. The Americans had twelve killed and sixty-one
wounded.

{121} Morgan did not rest for one moment after his victory. He knew
that Lord Cornwallis, stung by the defeat of Tarleton, would do his
best to crush him before he could rejoin Greene's army. By forced
marches, he got to the fords of the Catawba first, and when his
lordship reached the river, he learned that the patriots had crossed
with all their prisoners and booty two days before, and were well on
their way to join General Greene.

Soon after the battle of Cowpens, repeated attacks of his old enemy,
sciatica, so disabled Morgan that he was forced to retire from the
service and go back to his home, in Virginia.

During the summer of 1780, when the British invaded the Old Dominion,
he again took the field. With Wayne and Lafayette, he took part in a
series of movements which led to the capture of Cornwallis. The
exposure of camp life again brought on a severe illness.

"I lay out the night after coming into camp," Morgan wrote General
Greene, "and caught cold."

{122} Crippled and suffering great pain, he went home with the belief
that he had dealt his last blow for the cause he loved so well. He
afterward received from Washington, Greene, Jefferson, Lafayette, and
other leaders, letters that stir our blood after so many years.

From a simple teamster, Morgan had become a major general. After
taking part in fifty battles, he lived to serve his country in peace
as well as in war, and was returned to Congress the second time. His
valor at the North is comme