morated, as you already know, by the
statue on the monument at Saratoga. In the little city of
Spartanburg, in South Carolina, stands another figure of Daniel
Morgan, the "old wagoner of the Alleghanies," the hero of Cowpens.

{123}

CHAPTER IX
THE FINAL VICTORY

About the middle of March, 1781, Lord Cornwallis defeated Greene in a
stubborn battle at Guilford, North Carolina. Although victorious, the
British general was in desperate straits. He had lost a fourth of his
whole army, and was over two hundred miles from his base of supplies.
He could not afford to risk another battle.

There was now really only one thing for Cornwallis to do, and that
was to make a bee line for Wilmington, the nearest point on the
coast, and look for help from the fleet.

General Greene must have guessed that the British general would march
northwards, to unite forces with Arnold, who was already in Virginia.
At all events, the sagacious American general made a bold move. He
followed Cornwallis for about fifty miles from Guilford, and then,
facing about, marched with all speed to Camden, a hundred and sixty
miles away.

His lordship was not a little vexed. He was simply ignored by his
wily foe, and left to do as he pleased. So he made his way into
Virginia, and on May 20 arrived at Petersburg.

{124} Benedict Arnold, who was now fighting under the British flag,
had been sent to Virginia to burn and to pillage. Washington
dispatched Lafayette to check the traitor's dastardly work. When Lord
Cornwallis reached Virginia, Arnold had been recalled, and the young
Frenchman was at Richmond.

Cornwallis thought he might now regain his reputation by some grand
stroke. The first thing to do was to crush the young Lafayette.

"The boy cannot escape me," he said.

But Lafayette was so skillful at retreating and avoiding a decisive
action that his lordship could get no chance to deal him a blow.

"I am not strong enough even to be beaten," wrote the French general
to the commander in chief.

Away to the west rode our friend Colonel Tarleton, still smarting
from the sound thrashing he had received from old Dan Morgan at
Cowpens. He was trying to break up the State Assembly, and capture
Thomas Jefferson, governor of Virginia.

It was a narrow escape for the man who wrote the Declaration of
Independence. The story is told that Jefferson had only five minutes
in which to take flight into the woods, before Tarleton's hard riders
surr