1781  Cornwallis continues to chase Greene all over the Carolinas  Greene divides the southern army into two and Tarleton follows the decoy army  Daniel Morgan defeats Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens  The British are crippled in South Carolina

Off to the Races  With the loss of critical parts of his army at Cowpens, Cornwallis has a choice:  Withdraw, regroup, and resupply  Chase Greene north toward Virginia  Cornwallis burns everything he doesn’t need so that his army can move fast  If Greene reaches Virginia, he will escape

The Battle of Guilford Court House  Cornwallis sacrifices several hundred men in a skirmish with Greene  He won, but lost ¼ of his army  Parliament, becoming agitated over the length and cost of the war, quipped “Another such victory will ruin the British Army.”  Cornwallis has no choice now: he must catch Greene, force a battle, and win FAST

The Race to Virginia  The two armies engage in a high-speed race across South Carolina, into North Carolina heading toward the Virginia border  The armies move at breakneck speed: covering 40 miles A DAY!  At most, Cornwallis is sixteen hours to a day behind Greene…sometimes he’s only minutes or hours  Several times, Cornwallis comes close to catching Greene…but misses him by a few hundred yards

The Fateful Decision  Greene escapes into Virginia and Cornwallis is forced to withdraw  Against the advice of British general Benedict Arnold, Cornwallis decides to retreat to Yorktown to await reinforcements from Henry Clinton in New York City