The battle of Anderson, revisited

This is the 163-year-old flag that the Arsenal cadets rallied around in the "Battle of Anderson." It is displayed at The Citadel Museum in Charleston, S.C. (Photo courtesy The Citadel Archives and Museum)

PIEDMONT, S.C.

 Where was the last battle of the Civil War? Depending on how you define a battle, it might have been in Anderson County. 

 There were three brief skirmishes in the county on May 1, 1865, as thousands of mounted Yankees converged on Anderson to pursue fugitive Confederate President Jefferson Davis. One was near Craytonville, where locals fired on the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Another was near what is now La France Mill, where Col. W.R. Jones' Pendleton Mounted Infantry challenged Yankees from Michigan, Kentucky, or Tennessee. 
 The third incident happened at Thomas Moore's farm halfway between Anderson and Greenville. Historical markers describe this as "one of the last engagements of the war" and "the last unit action of the War between the States east of the Mississippi," the units being a squad from the 10th Michigan Cavalry and the Arsenal Cadets, also known as Company B of the State Battalion. Mercifully, none of those skirmishes resulted in a loss of life.

Memorial in Waynesville, N.C.

 However, the gunshots in the Anderson countryside were not the last hostilities of the war. One of the Arsenal cadets who fought at Moore's Farm, McKenzie Parker, was killed by Stoneman's raiders May 3 in downtown Anderson, as was Texas Ranger A.C. Wall in a midnight skirmish May 9 in Madison, Ga. About May 23 in Greenville, one of Stoneman's Tennessee regiments came under fire from a loosely organized Home Guard. 
 Waynesville, N.C., also makes a claim to the last shot of the war on May 6, 1865, when Thomas' Legion (composed largely Cherokee Indians loyal to the Confederacy) killed James Arwood of the Union's 2nd N.C. Infantry. 
 There were even two Yankees killed by friendly fire May 10 in Irwinville, Ga., during the capture of Jefferson Davis, when two Union lines mistook each other for Confederate bodyguards.

The marker on the left is in downtown Williamston and implies that "one of the last engagements of the war" took place in nearby Mineral Spring Park. Actually, the skirmish happened 10 miles away at Thomas Moore's farm.

 Some of the details of the so-called battle of Anderson weren't easy to nail down when I wrote about it during the 150th anniversary of Stoneman's Raid in 2015. Since then, I've come across some old newspaper accounts and eyewitness reports from the Confederates.
 The Arsenal Academy was a school in Columbia that was essentially a prep school for The Citadel in Charleston. In 1865, when Charleston anticipated an attack from Gen. William T.  Sherman, The Citadel sent its flag to Columbia for safekeeping. Then Sherman decided to attack Columbia instead of Charleston, and the Arsenal cadets took the flag and began marching through the countryside to elude the Yankees.
 They eventually wound up in Greenville, where they helped guard a gun factory until they heard of the approach of Stoneman's cavalry. Knowing that Robert E. Lee had already surrendered, they weren't looking for a fight, so they began retreating toward Newberry. They stopped to rest at Thomas Moore's farm in northern Anderson County, near what is now the town of Piedmont. The farm was in the Williamston Township, even though it was 10 miles from the town of Williamston. Piedmont and Pelzer did not exist at the time, though one of the cadets, Ellison Adger Smyth, would put Pelzer on the map by building a cotton mill there.
 The 10th Michigan Cavalry was riding from Spartanburg toward Anderson, where they were to rendezvous with other regiments from Stoneman's Raid and pursue Davis "to the end of the earth." Their route brought them through the Golden Grove community south of Greenville.
 On their way to Anderson, the Michigan cavalry divided into squads to try to pick up the trail of Jefferson Davis—who was actually taking a more southerly path via Greenwood and Abbeville. Guided down a country lane by a freed slave, the Union cavalry stumbled upon the cadets at Moore's Farm.

Route of the 10th Michigan Cavalry. They were in Lincolnton April 12, Newton April 17, Asheville April 26, Spartanburg April 30, Anderson May 1-2, and Athens May 5.

Gen. Stoneman had left the raid two weeks earlier, and military discipline had broken down under Gen. Simeon Brown. Many of the Union soldiers saw no purpose in pursuing Davis, now that most Confederates had surrendered. By the end of the war, the Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee regiments in Stoneman's raid had a terrible reputation, which was borne out by the way the Yankees pillaged and terrorized Asheville April 26, Anderson May 1-2, and Athens May 5.

 Two renegades from Michigan lost their lives through their mischief in Anderson County. The dates they died indicate that they had abandoned the pursuit of Davis. By May 3, their regiments had left South Carolina and were in Georgia. 

• Alanson Wesley Chapman of Hillsdale, Michigan, accidentally shot himself May 5 near Pendleton while looting the Boscobel plantation of Rev. John Bailey Adger. The preacher's memoirs include vivid details. "Chapman had stolen a fine young mare, and in mounting her, his short carbine swung around. The hammer hit the pommel of his saddle as the muzzle jabbed him under the chin, and he fell dead in the yard." His fellow Yankees began going through the pockets of their dead comrades to take his loot." When Adger saw watches Chapman had stolen from his home, he declared, "The hand of God is on you men." They returned the watches to him, and Rev. Adger gave the soldier a proper burial. "I could do no less for any man who died at my door," the preacher said.
• David "Harry" Morrison was killed May 9 between Greenville and Easley in retaliation for the May 1 murder of civilian Matthew Ellison. Morrison, 18, was buried on Turner Hill near what is now the intersection of U.S. 23 and S.C. 153. Family members later reclaimed the bodies of Morrison and Chapman. 

 It's no wonder that the 10th Michigan Cavalry missed their opportunity for fame in the pursuit of Jefferson Davis. In fact, the 10th Michigan Cavalry was still over 100 miles behind Davis when he was captured by the 4th Michigan Cavalry, who had come through Alabama.

Capt. John Peyre Thomas

 On the day of the "battle of Anderson," the Michigan outfit may have been looking for places to plunder, and Moore's farmhouse would have been a likely target. In that case, it might have been every man for himself, which would explain why the squad abandoned their wounded comrade, James Callahan, on the field of battle, rather than fighting to rescue one of their own.
 The superintendent of the Arsenal, Capt. John Peyre Thomas, wrote a history of South Carolina Military Academy in 1893, where he described the events that led to the Anderson skirmish. After the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee April 9 in Virginia and Gen. Joseph Johnstone April 26 in North Carolina, he said his cadets were "the only organized body in arms in the state, and perhaps in the South, this side of the Mississippi River."
 Capt. Thomas doesn't mention it, but historian Thomas Bland Keys wrote in his paper "The Federal Pillage of Anderson: Brown's Raid," that a local militia led by Lt. W.P. Price fought alongside the cadets. 
 With so many armed men roaming the countryside, and with Southern blood boiling in defeat, it didn't take much to spark a shootout. From Thomas' book: 

 

 In another passage, Capt. Thomas described the flag as "blue Lyons silk" decorated on one side with the coat of arms of the state of South Carolina and on the reverse with the names of S.C. Revolutionary War battles—Fort Moultrie, Cowpens, King's Mountain, Eutaw Springs. The banner was a gift from the Washington Light Infantry (named for a cousin of George Washington), an organization that is still active in Charleston.
 When I first heard about the cadets rallying around the flag, I thought it might be "Big Red," the famous 5x7-foot banner that was captured by a Union soldier after the war and kept for decades in an Iowa museum. Since 2018, "Big Red" has been displayed at the Holliday Alumni Center at The Citadel, and the state governors have been negotiating a permanent loan that would keep the flag in Charleston.
 At Moore's Farm, the Yankees realized they were outnumbered. They soon retreated and took another route to Anderson. According to Louise Ayer Vandiver's history of Anderson County, the cadets' stand prevented the Yankees from burning the nearby trestle on the Greenville & Columbia Railroad. 
 The wounded Yankee later returned to marry Thomas Moore's daughter. 

Cavalry vs. Calvary: Not a hill to die on

Etched in stone: Note the spelling correction on the seventh line of this marker

 Forty years ago, a British country singer named Paul Kennerly wrote a concept album dealing with the Civil War from a Southern perspective. "White Mansions" is far from politically correct, but it has become a cult classic. The characters were portrayed by  Waylon Jennings, his wife Jessi Colter, and John Dillon and Steve Cash from the Ozark Mountain Daredevils.
 One of my favorite songs on the album was about two warhorses, "The Union Mare and the Confederate Grey" (click to listen). Kennerly betrays his roots by using "grey" instead of "gray," which is how we usually spell it down South.
 But the greater faux pas in the song is in the way Waylon Jennings sang it. In an otherwise outstanding performance, he pronounced cavalry as calvary:

Two horses were trotting. They pranced and they ran.
Each one was commanded by a calvary man.
Two horses stood grazing where their dead riders lay.
A Union mare and a Confederate grey.

They nuzzled each other, as they teased and had fun.
They bathed in the warm rays of the old Southern sun.
No more senseless orders for them to obey.
So they acted like lovers, this mare and this grey.

Now these are such sad times that we're all living in.
For killing your brother is the mightiest sin.
How happy we'd be if we acted the way
of the Union mare and the Confederate grey.

Two horses were trotting. They pranced and they ran.
Each one was commanded by a calvary man.
Two horses stood grazing where their dead riders lay.
A Union mare and a Confederate grey.

 At least when Joan Baez recorded "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," she got "cavalry" correct when she changed "till Stoneman's cavalry came" into "till so much cavalry came."
 It's a common mistake. The Civil War memorial in Tampa, Fla., used Calvary instead of Cavalry, and it cost the veterans' committee $1,635 to fix the cast metal plaque.
 Cavalry was originally misspelled on the stone that marks the site of the May 1, 1865, skirmish in northern Anderson County, S.C. Jimmy Orr, who worked with the Sons of Confederate Veterans to install the monument in 1998, says he is unsure if the error was his or the engravers. "We Baptists are obsessed with Calvary, for obvious reasons," he said.
 Toward the end of Stoneman's Raid, during the pursuit of Jefferson Davis, it is said that some of Stoneman's cavalry camped at Calvary Episcopal Church in Fletcher, N.C. This account of Gen. Stoneman sparing the church is a myth, as the general was no longer with the raid by the time they passed through Henderson County. We don't know much about the general's faith, but we do know he had a unique perspective on the desecration of Southern churches.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Yankees published this 4-column extra May 6, 1865, while they occupied Athens.

 
 If you are reading The Stoneman Gazette on your phone or tablet (like many in our audience), we invite you to try us the way newspapers were meant to be read—with more than one column.
 Open our page on an old-fashioned computer screen (or switch your iPhone to "View web version") and you'll discover a right-side column that features a search engine, a timeline that guides you day-by-day and town-by town along the path of the raid, and birthdays and biographical links for hundreds of folks who have graced our pages. This is also where we give proper credit to all the fine historians whose work we've plundered.
 Our broadsheet edition also features section tabs where you can explore topics we've covered, such as Faith, Music, Sports, Tech, and Travel. Looking for a table of contents? Start here.
 In other words ... there's more to The Stoneman Gazette than meets the iPhone.  

 

(If you're not pun-shy, you're also invited to visit my other blog. —Tom Layton)

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THREEDOM OF THE PRESS: The Athens newspaper (above) was one of three issues published by Union troops during Stoneman's Raid. Others were in Salisbury, N.C., and Spartanburg, S.C.

Salisbury's markers may not be replaced

The markers on the left and right have disappeared

SALISBURY, N.C.

 Salisbury was the military climax of Stoneman's Raid. On April 12, 1865—three days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Va.—about 4,000 Union troops captured the town, destroyed its notorious prison, and burned a large storehouse of Confederate war supplies.

 North of the town at Fort York in Davidson County, a band of Confederates successfully defended the Yadkin River railroad trestle in one of the last Confederate victories of the Civil War. 
 Now, two historical markers that commemorate those events have disappeared. A third marker in downtown Salisbury still stands. 
 We've written before about how Stoneman's Raid markers have disappeared. Some speculate they were taken down by offended Southern loyalists—but that wouldn't explain the Fort York marker, since it was a Confederate victory. They could also be victims of scrap-metal salvagers or souvenir hunters.
 The cast aluminum markers cost $1,790. Ansley Wegner with the state historical markers association is quoted in the Salisbury Post as saying the state may not replace them, since there are 19 markers for Stoneman's Raid among the 1,612 markers statewide, which she suggested might be considered duplication.
 In fact, there are more state markers for Stoneman's Raid than for any other event in our history. Since the raid spanned 24 counties in western North Carolina, I could argue that 19 markers is not enough. 
 Including Civil War Trails markers and other local monuments, I am aware of 42 displays in North Carolina that commemorate Stoneman's Raid (or maybe 43, if you count this homemade marker in Rural Hall.

Boone honors its fallen 'Home Yankees'

New stones mark the graves of John Maricle, Henry Evans, and William Bradley in the Boone Cemetery. The haversack and canteen on Evans' grave were placed by the George Stoneman Camp #6 of the Sons of Union Veterans as part of memorial service used a century ago by the Grand Army of the Republic.

 

BOONE, N.C.

 Three blue-eyed Yankees who died in Boone during the final days of the Civil War were honored Sunday, April 8, when new military gravestones were unveiled in the cemetery where they were buried 153 years ago.
 Historian Eric Plaag said the memorial ceremony was "an occasion to do right by these three men, by whom history and local sentiment have often not done right."
 Two of the Union soldiers were from North Carolina and the third was from Kentucky. They died of sickness while serving with the 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry, a Union regiment which occupied Boone in April 1865 in the days after Stoneman's Raid.
 Many Southerners felt betrayed by such "Home Yankees" and never forgave them for the hardships their families suffered during and after the war. The three were buried in a segregated section of the Boone cemetery, and over the years their original gravestones have been vandalized and stolen.
 These veterans deserved better. They were loyal to their country, had no stake in slavery or secession, and were not involved in the raid of Boone on March 28, 1865, when Stoneman's troops killed three local men, injured six others, and captured 68.
 The three Union soldiers are buried less than 50 yards from Jacob Mast Councill, whose father Benjamin Councill owned the land that became the town cemetery. Dr. Plaag explained the significance: "In late March 1865, Mr. Councill hauled up this hill the coffin containing the body of his son, Jacob Mast Councill, who had been murdered in cold blood by Union occupiers. Two weeks later, Mr. Councill consented to his land being used for the burial of three other men, this time from the same army that had killed his son. May we all be accorded such respect."

Attorney & general: Little sister's big day

Kate Stoneman became the first female lawyer in New York

 Twenty years after the Civil War, George Stoneman was the governor of California. Meanwhile, back in New York where the general was raised, his little sister Kate was making her own mark in the Statehouse.

 That’s why the Albany Law School celebrates March 27 as Kate Stoneman Day. Catharine “Kate” Stoneman was a longtime teacher who, in 1885, became the first woman to pass the bar exam in New York. Then she was banned by a three-judge panel who ruled that there “no precedent … and no necessity” for women to practice law—not unless the state legislature voted otherwise.

 Kate Stoneman immediately proved her legal skills by personally marshalling a bill through the legislature and convincing the governor to sign it, making it legal for women to practice law. On May 22, 1886, at age 45 she became the first woman admitted to the New York bar, and 12 years later she became the first female to officially graduate from the Albany Law School.
 Gen. Stoneman’s relationships with his sisters reveal a softer side of the hard-driving Yankee, whose troops terrorized parts of the Carolinas and Virginia during the closing days of the Civil War.

Emma's War: Teaching the Yankees a lesson

This illustration by Steve Jenkins portrays Emma Rankin grabbing the reins of a Union cavalryman as she protects the Carson House, where she was employed as a teacher. Mary Carson stands defiantly on the porch, and I presume that's her husband Col. Logan Carson on the left, though he stayed in the shadows during most of the four days and three nights that Stoneman's troops looted the plantation. If you've never heard of Miss Emma, you really ought to read her story. If not for her tenacity and courage, the Carson House might not have survived Stoneman's Raid. The 225-year-old house near Marion, N.C., now stands as a museum to antebellum life in the Blue Ridge foothills. Want to visit the Carson House? Tours are Wednesday through Sunday.

Revisiting the death of Jacob Mast Councill

 History has given us conflicting accounts of the death of Jacob Mast Councill, the Boone civilian who was one of the first casualties of Stoneman's Raid. My co-worker Terry Harmon and local historian Eric Plaag have sorted through the details in a Facebook thread you can read here or below. 
 Councill was one of three local men killed when the Union troops invaded Boone on March 28, 1865. Some think he was part of the local Home Guard and died defending the town. Others say he was farming when the Yankees rode up and executed him as he pleaded for his life.
 The names Mast and Councill are prominent in Watauga County. Boone was originally known as Councill's Store, named for Jacob's uncle, Jordan Councill Jr. 
 Jacob's home was located in downtown Boone on the same block where the Mast Store now stands. Jacob and his infant daughter (who died previously) were the first two people buried on a hilltop that is now the Boone town cemetery. Within a month, three Union soldiers were laid to rest nearby. 
 The Stoneman Gazette is indebted to Terry for sharing his historical and genealogical research with us. He is the author of Watauga County Revisited in the Images of America series, as well as other collections of local history. Terry works with Samaritan's Purse and supports hundreds of our employees working around the world.

Memorial Day: 'Your Dear Son is Dead'

Union private Oliver Stebbins

 The Civil War was nearly over when John and Charlotte Stebbins of Three Rivers, Michigan, sent their oldest son Oliver to join the Union Army.
 He enlisted Feb. 17, 1865, in the 11th Michigan Cavalry, which was one of the eight brigades assigned to Stoneman's Raid. They rode out of Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 21, 1865—Oliver's 18th birthday.
 For the next four weeks, Stoneman's troops were beyond the reach of mail or telegraph, so we can assume that Stebbins' family heard nothing from him. They must have rejoiced to hear of the fall of Richmond April 2 and the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee April 9—certain signs that the war was ending and that their son would soon be coming home.
 Then came the following heartbreaking letters, the first two from a fellow Michigan soldier named John Schroder. [The crude spelling and wording is preserved from the original letters. I have inserted a few explanatory notes in brackets.]

Chattanooga, Tenn. April the 23 1865

Mrs. Stebbins,

I will let you know about your Oliver he is sick in the Hospital here. he was brought here with the Measles he has got over the Measles and has got Nuemonia in his side and the Bronchetis in the other side it is a hard case I have been here sick with the Measles and am just getting over them I am doing all that I can for your Dear Son he is very thirsty and wants watter every little while I watched him all last night and if he was in his right mind I assure you he will get well my bed is right beside his if he wants any thing he cals on me but I dont know whether he is in his right mind or not I see that he has something to eat every meal for I giv it to him myself I belong to the same regiment that he does. I will write you again in two or three days No more at present

John Schroder Co J 11th Michigan Inf Chattanooga, Tennessee

Reasons for the war? How quickly we forget

 This is not the first time a new president has needed a history lesson on the Civil War.
 It also happened in May 1865, when the war was as fresh as cavalry dust and the Yankees were still chasing the fugitive Confederate president Jefferson Davis across Georgia.
 Here's a link to our original story in The Stoneman Gazette, where Union Gen. William Palmer wrote a passionate and eloquent letter intended for President Andrew Johnson. Palmer was alarmed to hear that the administration might delay the full emancipation of slaves, now that Lincoln was dead. Gen. Palmer wanted the new president to know what he was hearing from Southerners and why emancipation was non-negotiable.
 Our original story also includes links to the "Declaration of Causes," where several seceding states explained why they left the Union.
 If we're honest, we all have questions about the real reasons for secession and the Civil War (which are not necessarily the same), not to mention the complicated motives of individual generals and soldiers on both sides.
 However, the declarations of those who voted to secede are undeniable. For example, read what the delegates from Mississippi wrote:

 The Confederate Constitution of March 11, 1861, explicitly protected slave ownership (though it did prohibit the international slave trade.)
 Article IV, Section 3, says: "In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected be Congress and by the Territorial government; and the inhabitants of the several Confederate States and Territories shall have the right to take to such Territory any slaves lawfully held by them in any of the States or Territories of the Confederate States."

Joan Baez: 'Till Stoneman's Cavalry came'

This marker was erected Jan. 19, 1988 by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
They probably didn't mean to celebrate a Yankee birthday, but the ceremony
was held just one day after the 150th birthday of Major Abram B. Garner.
I know Garner's birthday because it's the same as mine. —Tom Layton, editor 

 The Stoneman Gazette congratulates Joan Baez on her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Her biggest hit, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, references Stoneman's Raid:

Virgil Caine is the name, and I served on the Danville train,
till Stoneman’s cavalry came, and tore up the tracks again.

 Songwriters Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm (who were inducted into the Hall of Fame with The Band in 1994) conjured up Caine to narrate historical events at the end of the Civil War.
 In the winter of '65, the Confederacy was just barely alive, and the purpose of Stoneman's Raid was to finish it off. After Stoneman's cavalry destroyed the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad, the rebels' final lifeline was the Piedmont Railroad between Danville and Greensboro.
 After Richmond fell, both of those towns served as temporary capitals of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis presided April 3-10 in Danville, until he heard that Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered April 9 at Appomattox. Then he fled to North Carolina, where he hoped that Gen. Joseph Johnston's army would be able to continue the fight.

 Davis was aboard one of the last trains that made it to Greensboro before the Reedy Fork trestle was destroyed April 11 in a daring raid ordered by Stoneman and led by Maj. Abram Garner. At the time, the Yankees were unaware of Lee's surrender or Davis's flight.

 Davis stayed April 11-16 in Greensboro and then eluded Stoneman's cavalry on his way south through Charlotte, past the smoldering bridge at Nation Ford, and across South Carolina. He held final meetings in Abbeville and Washington (Ga.) before catching up with his family and being captured by Michigan troops May 10 in south Georgia. 

This bridge crosses Reedy Fork at the same place as the original timber trestle destroyed by Stoneman's cavalry. (Photo by Royce Haley).

Remember when N.C. voted to save the Union?

 Four days before the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, North Carolina held a statewide referendum to decide whether to secede from the Union. 
 You might have thought that was a foregone conclusion. Seven southern states had already exited.
 Yet at the end of February 1861, voters across North Carolina rejected secession and chose to remain in the Union. The vote was close, and it wasn't binding for long, but it remains a refreshing history lesson for our generation as we deal with another polarizing presidency and an increasingly fractious society.

North Carolina Standard, March 20, 1861

 This referendum was news to me when I began researching Stoneman's Raid and learned about it from the books of North Carolina historian Michael C. Hardy. I looked it up in old newspapers and found this county-by-county table in the North Carolina Standard published March 20, 1861 in Raleigh. The referendum was held February 28 (156 years ago today), but back then it took a couple of weeks to compile all the votes.
 North Carolina voters faced two questions:

1. Should the state hold a constitutional convention to consider secession?
2. If the convention is approved, who would you vote for as your delegate?

 In effect, a vote against the convention was a vote for the Union.
 North Carolina rejected the convention by a margin of just 661 votes, 47,333 against and 46,672 for. That made the second question moot, but if the delegates had convened, they would have been 83-37 in favor of the Union.
 Many of the counties that would be raided by Stoneman in 1865 were overwhelmingly loyal to the Union: Watauga voted against a convention 536-72, Caldwell 651-186, Wilkes 1,890-51, Yadkin 1,490-34, Forsyth 1,409-286, and Guilford 2,771-113.
 Among counties ready to secede were Rowan 1,150-882, Catawba 918-158, Lincoln 708-86, Mecklenburg 1,448-252, McDowell 638-217, and Buncombe 1,219-389. Most of the support for secession was in eastern North Carolina, where slavery was more widespread.

 While North Carolina was still counting votes, Lincoln gave his inaugural address on March 4 and made one last eloquent plea to save the Union:

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

 So if North Carolinians were loyal to the Union, how did we wind up in the Confederacy?

Cowpens: Following the footsteps of liberty

Stoneman's 1st Brigade probably visited the Scruggs homeplace on the Cowpens Battlefield

COWPENS, S.C.

 Americans are notoriously bad at history, but here's one question you can't get wrong: Cowpens figured in (a) the Revolutionary War, (b) the Civil War, (c) World War II, or (d) the Iraq war?
 The answer is ... all of the above.
 Tuesday, January 17, marks the 236th anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens, a brief but fierce fight in 1781 that went a long way toward ensuring American independence. Cowpens became the namesake for two Navy warships: an aircraft carrier nicknamed "the Mighty Moo" that was the first U.S. ship to enter Tokyo Bay in 1945, and a 1991 cruiser that fired Tomahawk missiles at an Iraqi nuclear facility in 1993. (That attack came on the 212th anniversary of the original Battle of Cowpens, which I will assume is only a coincidence.)
 As for the Civil War connection, we turn to Stoneman's 1st Brigade, which crossed the Cowpens battlefield April 29, 1865, in hot pursuit of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. 
 In his official report, Gen. William J. Palmer of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry wrote, "I had reached the vicinity of Cowpens battlefield, S.C., on April 29, when I received the order to endeavor to intercept Jefferson Davis, his Cabinet, and the Confederate specie." The orders came from Gen. George Stoneman, by now back in Knoxville, who believed that Davis absconded with up to $6 million in gold and silver specie when he abandoned his capital in Richmond April 2.

Red lines on this 1906 map show how Gen.

Palmer's 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry headed

from Rutherfordton toward Kings Mountain

before doubling back and crossing the Broad

 River at Island Ford. "Nashville" on this map

is actually Asheville. "Cowpens" marks the

location of the town rather than the

battlefield, which is 10 miles north of the

town and just south of the North Carolina

line. I added the blue arrow to show an

April 29-30 expedition by the 12th Ohio

in pursuit of Jefferson Davis.

 Gen. Palmer actually began the manhunt the day before, starting at Hickory Nut Gap southeast of Asheville (labeled Nashville on this map). He marched through Rutherfordton, N.C., headed toward another Revolutionary War battlefield at Kings Mountain. Then he had to backtrack 20 miles to find a way across the Broad River.

 His cavalry made the crossing at Island Ford (near the current U.S. 221 bridge north of Chesnee, S.C.) and headed toward Spartanburg on a road that took them across the Cowpens battlefield.
 As the Yankees scouted for information about Davis, it seems likely that they inquired at the cabin of Robert Scruggs, whose farm encompassed part of the old battlefield. (Sixteen years earlier, in 1849, historian Benson John Lossing had interviewed Scruggs to document details of the Battle of Cowpens for his Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution. Lossing later wrote the Pictorial History of the Civil War, including a clever bridge-burning episode from Stoneman's Raid that he called "one of the most gallant little exploits of the war.")