Mike Vanderboegh Speech At RTC Rally
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Back home safe from Greensboro -- exhausted. Here's the talk I gave...
My name is Mike Vanderboegh. I'm from Alabama and I’m a Three Percenter.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, we take our name proudly
from the three percent of the American Colonists who took the field
against the forces of the King during our Revolution. They were
supported actively by perhaps another ten percent of the population
with perhaps another twenty percent who agreed with the
revolutionaries’ goals but didn’t do a whole lot to make them happen.
On the other side, there was another third who sided with the King and
yet another third who were willing to blow with the wind and take what
came.
But the Three Percent? Well, the Three Percent were fighters. It is appropriate that we are met here today on one of the
most important battlefields of that war -- a battlefield where two of
North Carolina’s signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried
-- and a battlefield where the Three Percent fought and died and
ultimately lost the battle but won the war.
The battle at Guilford Court House would not have been possible without four men --
two Americans and two British -- two of whom weren’t even here.
Forgive me if I take a detour into history here, but if history hardly
ever exactly repeats itself, it often stutters in similar patterns, and
there are lessons in this story that are relevant today, and perhaps,
in the near future.
First let me set the stage. Long frustrated by Washington’s refusal to be destroyed in a decisive battle in the
north, British commander Sir Henry Clinton sailed south and after a
brief siege captured Charleston South Carolna on May 12 1780. More
than five thousand Three Percenters were captured and the revolutionary
cause lost tons of precious supplies. Clinton then sailed back north
to his mistress, leaving his number two, Lord Cornwallis, to complete
the conquest of the Carolinas.
With him were two men whose actions would decisively shape the battle here at Guilford Court House
-- Patrick Ferguson and Banastre Tarleton. On August 15, Cornwallis
met revolutionary forces under the vain and incompetent General Horatio
Gates at Camden South Carolina and whipped them with the help of a
cavalry charge around the American flank and rear by Banastre Tarleton.
Tarleton, the son of a Liverpool ship owner, merchant and slave
trader, had squandered his inheritance and fled England in 1775 for
America, seeking to make a name for himself and restore his fortune.
Tarleton’s nicknames among the Three Percent were “The Butcher” or “Bloody Ban.”
He had earned the reputation after his Green Dragoons had slaughtered
hundreds of surrendering Virginia Continentals at the Waxhaw Massacre
in late May 1780. In his attempts to suppress guerrilla bands in South
Carolina such as Francis Marion’s, Tarleton alienated the citizenry
and made the guerrilla’s work easier by numerous acts of cruelty to the
civilian population.
By his many cruelties and massacres Banastre Tarleton set the stage for the campaign -- he alienated even
Loyalists and angered the Three Percenters and gave them a thirst for
justifiable vengeance.
The second of Cornwallis’ officers to shape the Guilford Court House battle was Major Patrick Ferguson. As
brilliant as Tarleton was cruel, the Scottish officer was an early
advocate of light infantry tactics and the designer of the Ferguson
rifle, a remarkable breech-loading flintlock. Ferguson was chosen by
Cornwallis to recruit Loyalist militia in the Carolinas and Georgia and
intimidate any colonists who favored American independence.
Initially, Ferguson had great success, but if he was brilliant, even though he
had been the Colonies for three years, he still did not understand the
American character. On September 10, 1780, Ferguson issued a challenge
to Patriot leaders to lay down their arms or he would “lay waste to
their country with fire and sword.” He later issued a second call for
Loyalists to join him lest they be “pissed upon by a set of mongrels.”
Needless to say, this did not go over well with the Patriots. Even for the
“Over the Mountain Men” who lived in what would later be east Tennessee
and who had been reluctant to get involved in previous battles to the
east such an insulting threat could not be ignored. Tarleton had
proven to them what the British meant by laying “waste with fire and
sword.” And calling such proud and independent men a pissing set of
mongrels was an absolute guarantee of a fight. Go into any country bar
in the South today and use similar words and see what happens.
By the afternoon of October 7, the Three Percenters caught Ferguson and
his little army at Kings Mountain, surrounded them and destroyed
Ferguson’s force, yelling “Give ’em Tarleton’s quarter” meaning, no
quarter at all. Ferguson and 244 of his Loyalists were killed and the
rest, more than 800 men, were all wounded or captured. The Patriots
lost 29 killed and 58 wounded. The destruction of Ferguson’s command
and the looming threat of Three Percenter militia in the mountains
caused Cornwallis to fall back temporarily to South Carolina. Many
Loyalists who had been thinking about joining the previously victorious
British promptly changed their minds. Kings Mountain, by the numbers
an insignificant battle in the larger war, was a pivotal moment, thanks
to the brutal, ill-considered and arrogant actions of Banastre
Tarleton and Patrick Ferguson.
Ferguson never left Kings Mountain, but Banastre Tarleton had yet to be taught his lesson. That
would come at the battle of Cowpens and would be driven home by the
third of our four key players who shaped the Guilford Court House
battle, Daniel Morgan.
Dan Morgan was one of the most gifted tacticians and combat field commanders of the American Revolution.
Born in New Jersey, Morgan left home at the age of 16 after a fistfight
with his father, eventually settling in Virginia. A big man, poorly
educated but practical and charismatic, he was a natural leader. Early
in his life he worked clearing land, in a sawmill and as a teamster.
During the French and Indian War, he was given four hundred and ninety
nine lashes for punching an arrogant British officers -- a punishment
that would have killed a lesser man. Dan Morgan paid the British back
for every lash.
In June 1775, Virginia decided to send two companies of riflemen to add the Continental cause. Morgan was chosen
to lead one of them and he mustered 96 men in ten days and assembled
them on the green in Winchester on the 14th of July. Morgan then
marched them 600 miles to Boston Massachusetts in only twenty one days,
arriving on the 6th of August 1775. Captured at the ill-fated attack
on Quebec on the eve of the new year, 1776, Morgan was finally
exchanged in January 1777. Whatever the trade was, the British got the
worst of the deal.
Promoted to colonel and placed in charge of the 11th Virginia Continentals, he trained his men in light infantry
tactics. Later he was given command of the Provisional Rifle Corps, a
light infantry unit of 500 picked riflemen.
At the battle of Freeman’s Farm, New York, during the Saratoga campaign, Morgan’s
riflemen killed every officer in British General Simon Fraser’s advance
party in the first exchange of fire, and forced a British retreat.
Later the British came on again and Morgan’s men broke up formation
after formation and charge after charge with accurate rifle fire from
the woods on the far side of the field.
Shortly afterward, at the battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777, Morgan was once again
assigned to deal with Fraser’s forces. Fraser, the best field officer
in British General Burgoyne’s command, was rallying his men when Morgan
ordered him shot by rifleman Timothy Murphy. Murphy shot Fraser from a
perch up in a swaying tree at a range of about 300 yards -- an
incredible shot in that day. With Fraser mortally wounded, the British
attack petered out.
This set the stage for the culmination of the Saratoga battle and the surrender of Burgoyne’s entire force. The
British defeat at Saratoga brought the French into the war on the
Patriot’s side. Tim Murphy, at Dan Morgan’s order, had fired the
single most important rifle shot in the Revolutionary War.
Morgan soldiered on in the Continental cause, but was repeatedly passed over
for promotion by the Continental Congress. Finally disgusted by the
politics, in poor health, his legs and back in pain from the abuse he
suffered during the Quebec fiasco, he was allowed to resign on June 30,
1779 and returned home to Winchester. After the disaster at Camden,
when Horatio Gates left the battlefield ahead of his defeated army,
Morgan decided to rejoin the army and see if he could help salvage the
Patriot cause in the Carolinas.
When Gates was replaced by the new Department commander, Nathanael Greene, Morgan was ordered to take
his light infantry force of about 700 men to the back country of South
Carolina where he was to forage and harass the enemy while avoiding
direct battle.
Cornwallis sensed an opportunity to defeat the rebel army in detail, so he dispatched Banastre Tarleton and his
“British Legion” to track Morgan down and crush him.
Eager to avoid another Waxhaw or Camden, Morgan did something that was rare for a
troop commander to do -- he sought the advice of men in his command
who had fought Tarleton before, seeking from their experience and
knowledge of the enemy the best way to defeat him.
Morgan found a way, and he spent the night before the battle circulating among his
troops who were huddled around campfires trying to keep warm,
explaining the plan and what was expected of them.
Making his stand at Cowpens, South Carolina on January 17th, 1781, Morgan’s plan
took advantage of Tarleton’s tendency for quick action and his low
opinion of American militia, as well as the long-range killing power of
his own riflemen. Positioned in three separate lines of battle, with
his marksmen to the front, his militia in the second line and his
regulars to the rear, each was shielded by foliage and dips and folds
in the ground. Morgan took care that each line was within supporting
distance of the other.
The marksmen were to fire until seriously threatened, then retire off to the flanks or through the militia in the
second line. The militia were issued similar instructions. The sight
of the militia “fleeing” would encourage Tarleton to order a charge,
which would then smack up against the regulars with the marksmen and
militia pouring fire into the British flanks from the wooded areas to
either side.
The British took the bait and the tactic resulted in a classic double envelopment. In less than an hour, the British force
of 1,076 men suffered 110 killed and 830 captured with more than 200
of those wounded. Tarleton barely escape with his life. His
reputation he left on the battlefield.
When Tarleton reached Cornwallis and reported the disaster, Cornwallis placed his sword tip
on the ground and leaned on it more heavily with each bit of bad news
until the blade snapped.
Coming in the wake of the American debacle at Camden, and added together with the victory against
Ferguson’s Loyalists at Kings Mountain, Cowpens was a surprising
victory against a force containing British regulars and under a
commander who had never before lost an engagement. The spell of
“Bloody Ban” Tarleton was broken and Cowpens marked a psychological
turning point of the war, encouraging the revolutionaries and
demoralizing the British and Tories.
Cowpens set in motion a series of events that led here, to Guilford Court House, and to General
Nathanael Greene, our fourth man to shape the battlefield, and
ultimately, the war.
Nathanael Greene was born the son of a Quaker farmer and iron forger at Potowomut, Rhode Island in 1742.
Though his father’s sect discouraged “literary accomplishments,” Greene
educated himself in mathematics and the law and likewise promoted
public schools in his home district.
“Learning is not virtue,” Greene once said, “but the means to bring us to an acquaintance with
it. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge
without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Let these be your motives
to action through life, the relief of the distressed, the detection of
frauds, the defeat of oppression, and the diffusion of happiness.”
In August 1774 Greene organized a Rhode Island militia company, which
refused to elect him an officer because he walked with a limp. Greene
went along anyway as a private. At this time he began to acquire many
expensive volumes on military tactics and began to teach himself the art
of war. Because of this, he was expelled from the Quakers.
On May 8, 1775 he was promoted from private to Brigadier General of the
Rhode Island Army of Observation during the siege of Boston. Six weeks
later, he was appointed a brigadier of the Continental Army. He must
have been one hell of a private to deserve the jump to general. While
at Boston, he observed the Battle of Bunker Hill and its aftermath but
was not engaged.
In a letter Greene wrote to his wife Catharine about this time, he said “it had been happy for me if I could have
lived a private life in peace and plenty, enjoying all the happiness
that results from a well-tempered society founded on mutual esteem.
But the injury done my country, and the chains of slavery forging for
all posterity, calls me forth to defend our common rights, and repel
the bold invaders of the sons of freedom.” Yes, indeed, Nathanael
Greene was a Three Percenter.
Washington thought highly of Greene, and used him in a number of important posts. By 1780, the
Continental Congress had made some pretty awful choices to lead the
forces of revolution in the south. They had chosen Robert Howe and he
had lost Savannah. They then chose Benjamin Lincoln and he had lost
Charleston. Then came Gates and he got whipped at Camden, effectively
ending the American Southern Army as a fighting force, leaving the way
clear for Cornwallis.
So when Gates’ successor was to be chosen, the Congress decided to leave it up to George Washington and he
selected Nathanael Greene. When Greene accepted the post, he wrote, “I
am determined to defend my rights and maintain my freedom or sell my
life in the attempt.” He also said, “I hope this is the dark part of
the night which is generally just before day.”
Greene went south to pick up the pieces, splitting his forces in order to force
Cornwallis to split his. Shortly afterward, and contrary to Greene’s
orders not to engage, Morgan gave him the great victory at Cowpens.
Morgan fell back toward Greene, bringing his 800 prisoners from
Tarleton’s force. Greene fell back toward the Dan River as well, using
a special light infantry force under Colonel Otho Williams to screen
his retreat. It was a close run thing, but finally all of Greene’s
army was across the Dan and ready to give battle to Cornwallis.
Recrossing the Dan, Greene moved up to meet Cornwallis here, at Guilford Court
House on the 15th of March, 1781, on ground that Greene had chosen as
favorable to battle he wanted to fight.
Dan Morgan, finally crippled by illness was not here. He had been sent home to convalesce.
But his men were here, standing on this battlefield which the “Old
Waggoner” had done so much to shape.
Like Morgan at Cowpens, Greene arranged his force in three battle lines. Unlike Morgan, Greene
was not able to hold his militia to the plan, for they panicked and
ran, in part because Greene had placed his lines too far apart, out of
supporting distance. But the Continentals fought stoutly, as did the
Dragoons under Light Horse Harry Lee. In the end, Cornwallis had a
horse shot from under him and he ordered his guns turned upon his own
men who were mixed up with the Americans and giving way.
Greene withdrew his army in more or less good order, intending to fight
Cornwallis again on other ground of his choosing. After Bunker Hill,
Greene had commented, “I wish we could sell them another hill at the
same price we did Bunker Hill.” Here at Guilford Court House, he did.
Greene may have left the field to the British and thus this was a
tactical victory for Cornwallis, but it was a strategic defeat of the
greatest magnitude. The battle had lasted just 90 minutes, but
Cornwallis lost over a quarter of his men killed and wounded. A
prominent war critic in British House of Commons exclaimed, “Another
such victory would ruin the British Army!”
Cornwallis withdrew, and then decided to strike out for the Virginia coast, where he met
George Washington and the French army and navy in the siege of
Yorktown, from September 28th to October 19, 1781. And you all know
how that turned out.
For his part, Greene turned south, maneuvering, failing to bring the British into another decisive battle,
and losing a few small ones himself, but in the end the British were
driven from the interior of the Carolinas and cooped up in Charleston
where they sat out the rest of the war.
As Greene himself said, “We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.”
He also said these lines: “We are soldiers who devote ourselves to arms
not for the invasion of other countries, but for the defense of our own,
not for the gratification of our private interests but for public
security.”
And this: “Permit me then to recommend from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country’s
cause, a Declaration of Independence, and call upon the world and the
Great God who governs it to witness the necessity, propriety and
rectitude thereof.”
I have taken the time to remind you all of the men who fought and bled and died here -- to remind you of the
original Three Percenters. What can we learn from their stories? How
can we take what they learned and put it to use today? Dan Morgan was
uneducated, even coarse, a drinker and a gambler. Nathanael Greene was
educated, studious, quiet and humble. Each was a genius -- Morgan the
natural tactician and troop leader who saw the essential thing and
battled toward it -- and Greene, the tactical failure but strategic
thinker who as much as any other single man other Washington himself
was responsible for the final victory. Neither had been a professional
soldier, yet men followed both willingly because they knew that these
leaders loved them, took care of them and would not spend their lives
to no purpose. Each understood the weaknesses of their enemies and was
able to exploit them. Neither man wanted war, yet when war came they
plunged in, offering their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor
on the altar of their country’s liberty.
from the three percent of the American Colonists who took the field
against the forces of the King during our Revolution. They were
supported actively by perhaps another ten percent of the population
with perhaps another twenty percent who agreed with the
revolutionaries’ goals but didn’t do a whole lot to make them happen.
On the other side, there was another third who sided with the King and
yet another third who were willing to blow with the wind and take what
came.
But the Three Percent? Well, the Three Percent were fighters. It is appropriate that we are met here today on one of the
most important battlefields of that war -- a battlefield where two of
North Carolina’s signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried
-- and a battlefield where the Three Percent fought and died and
ultimately lost the battle but won the war.
The battle at Guilford Court House would not have been possible without four men --
two Americans and two British -- two of whom weren’t even here.
Forgive me if I take a detour into history here, but if history hardly
ever exactly repeats itself, it often stutters in similar patterns, and
there are lessons in this story that are relevant today, and perhaps,
in the near future.
First let me set the stage. Long frustrated by Washington’s refusal to be destroyed in a decisive battle in the
north, British commander Sir Henry Clinton sailed south and after a
brief siege captured Charleston South Carolna on May 12 1780. More
than five thousand Three Percenters were captured and the revolutionary
cause lost tons of precious supplies. Clinton then sailed back north
to his mistress, leaving his number two, Lord Cornwallis, to complete
the conquest of the Carolinas.
With him were two men whose actions would decisively shape the battle here at Guilford Court House
-- Patrick Ferguson and Banastre Tarleton. On August 15, Cornwallis
met revolutionary forces under the vain and incompetent General Horatio
Gates at Camden South Carolina and whipped them with the help of a
cavalry charge around the American flank and rear by Banastre Tarleton.
Tarleton, the son of a Liverpool ship owner, merchant and slave
trader, had squandered his inheritance and fled England in 1775 for
America, seeking to make a name for himself and restore his fortune.
Tarleton’s nicknames among the Three Percent were “The Butcher” or “Bloody Ban.”
He had earned the reputation after his Green Dragoons had slaughtered
hundreds of surrendering Virginia Continentals at the Waxhaw Massacre
in late May 1780. In his attempts to suppress guerrilla bands in South
Carolina such as Francis Marion’s, Tarleton alienated the citizenry
and made the guerrilla’s work easier by numerous acts of cruelty to the
civilian population.
By his many cruelties and massacres Banastre Tarleton set the stage for the campaign -- he alienated even
Loyalists and angered the Three Percenters and gave them a thirst for
justifiable vengeance.
The second of Cornwallis’ officers to shape the Guilford Court House battle was Major Patrick Ferguson. As
brilliant as Tarleton was cruel, the Scottish officer was an early
advocate of light infantry tactics and the designer of the Ferguson
rifle, a remarkable breech-loading flintlock. Ferguson was chosen by
Cornwallis to recruit Loyalist militia in the Carolinas and Georgia and
intimidate any colonists who favored American independence.
Initially, Ferguson had great success, but if he was brilliant, even though he
had been the Colonies for three years, he still did not understand the
American character. On September 10, 1780, Ferguson issued a challenge
to Patriot leaders to lay down their arms or he would “lay waste to
their country with fire and sword.” He later issued a second call for
Loyalists to join him lest they be “pissed upon by a set of mongrels.”
Needless to say, this did not go over well with the Patriots. Even for the
“Over the Mountain Men” who lived in what would later be east Tennessee
and who had been reluctant to get involved in previous battles to the
east such an insulting threat could not be ignored. Tarleton had
proven to them what the British meant by laying “waste with fire and
sword.” And calling such proud and independent men a pissing set of
mongrels was an absolute guarantee of a fight. Go into any country bar
in the South today and use similar words and see what happens.
By the afternoon of October 7, the Three Percenters caught Ferguson and
his little army at Kings Mountain, surrounded them and destroyed
Ferguson’s force, yelling “Give ’em Tarleton’s quarter” meaning, no
quarter at all. Ferguson and 244 of his Loyalists were killed and the
rest, more than 800 men, were all wounded or captured. The Patriots
lost 29 killed and 58 wounded. The destruction of Ferguson’s command
and the looming threat of Three Percenter militia in the mountains
caused Cornwallis to fall back temporarily to South Carolina. Many
Loyalists who had been thinking about joining the previously victorious
British promptly changed their minds. Kings Mountain, by the numbers
an insignificant battle in the larger war, was a pivotal moment, thanks
to the brutal, ill-considered and arrogant actions of Banastre
Tarleton and Patrick Ferguson.
Ferguson never left Kings Mountain, but Banastre Tarleton had yet to be taught his lesson. That
would come at the battle of Cowpens and would be driven home by the
third of our four key players who shaped the Guilford Court House
battle, Daniel Morgan.
Dan Morgan was one of the most gifted tacticians and combat field commanders of the American Revolution.
Born in New Jersey, Morgan left home at the age of 16 after a fistfight
with his father, eventually settling in Virginia. A big man, poorly
educated but practical and charismatic, he was a natural leader. Early
in his life he worked clearing land, in a sawmill and as a teamster.
During the French and Indian War, he was given four hundred and ninety
nine lashes for punching an arrogant British officers -- a punishment
that would have killed a lesser man. Dan Morgan paid the British back
for every lash.
In June 1775, Virginia decided to send two companies of riflemen to add the Continental cause. Morgan was chosen
to lead one of them and he mustered 96 men in ten days and assembled
them on the green in Winchester on the 14th of July. Morgan then
marched them 600 miles to Boston Massachusetts in only twenty one days,
arriving on the 6th of August 1775. Captured at the ill-fated attack
on Quebec on the eve of the new year, 1776, Morgan was finally
exchanged in January 1777. Whatever the trade was, the British got the
worst of the deal.
Promoted to colonel and placed in charge of the 11th Virginia Continentals, he trained his men in light infantry
tactics. Later he was given command of the Provisional Rifle Corps, a
light infantry unit of 500 picked riflemen.
At the battle of Freeman’s Farm, New York, during the Saratoga campaign, Morgan’s
riflemen killed every officer in British General Simon Fraser’s advance
party in the first exchange of fire, and forced a British retreat.
Later the British came on again and Morgan’s men broke up formation
after formation and charge after charge with accurate rifle fire from
the woods on the far side of the field.
Shortly afterward, at the battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777, Morgan was once again
assigned to deal with Fraser’s forces. Fraser, the best field officer
in British General Burgoyne’s command, was rallying his men when Morgan
ordered him shot by rifleman Timothy Murphy. Murphy shot Fraser from a
perch up in a swaying tree at a range of about 300 yards -- an
incredible shot in that day. With Fraser mortally wounded, the British
attack petered out.
This set the stage for the culmination of the Saratoga battle and the surrender of Burgoyne’s entire force. The
British defeat at Saratoga brought the French into the war on the
Patriot’s side. Tim Murphy, at Dan Morgan’s order, had fired the
single most important rifle shot in the Revolutionary War.
Morgan soldiered on in the Continental cause, but was repeatedly passed over
for promotion by the Continental Congress. Finally disgusted by the
politics, in poor health, his legs and back in pain from the abuse he
suffered during the Quebec fiasco, he was allowed to resign on June 30,
1779 and returned home to Winchester. After the disaster at Camden,
when Horatio Gates left the battlefield ahead of his defeated army,
Morgan decided to rejoin the army and see if he could help salvage the
Patriot cause in the Carolinas.
When Gates was replaced by the new Department commander, Nathanael Greene, Morgan was ordered to take
his light infantry force of about 700 men to the back country of South
Carolina where he was to forage and harass the enemy while avoiding
direct battle.
Cornwallis sensed an opportunity to defeat the rebel army in detail, so he dispatched Banastre Tarleton and his
“British Legion” to track Morgan down and crush him.
Eager to avoid another Waxhaw or Camden, Morgan did something that was rare for a
troop commander to do -- he sought the advice of men in his command
who had fought Tarleton before, seeking from their experience and
knowledge of the enemy the best way to defeat him.
Morgan found a way, and he spent the night before the battle circulating among his
troops who were huddled around campfires trying to keep warm,
explaining the plan and what was expected of them.
Making his stand at Cowpens, South Carolina on January 17th, 1781, Morgan’s plan
took advantage of Tarleton’s tendency for quick action and his low
opinion of American militia, as well as the long-range killing power of
his own riflemen. Positioned in three separate lines of battle, with
his marksmen to the front, his militia in the second line and his
regulars to the rear, each was shielded by foliage and dips and folds
in the ground. Morgan took care that each line was within supporting
distance of the other.
The marksmen were to fire until seriously threatened, then retire off to the flanks or through the militia in the
second line. The militia were issued similar instructions. The sight
of the militia “fleeing” would encourage Tarleton to order a charge,
which would then smack up against the regulars with the marksmen and
militia pouring fire into the British flanks from the wooded areas to
either side.
The British took the bait and the tactic resulted in a classic double envelopment. In less than an hour, the British force
of 1,076 men suffered 110 killed and 830 captured with more than 200
of those wounded. Tarleton barely escape with his life. His
reputation he left on the battlefield.
When Tarleton reached Cornwallis and reported the disaster, Cornwallis placed his sword tip
on the ground and leaned on it more heavily with each bit of bad news
until the blade snapped.
Coming in the wake of the American debacle at Camden, and added together with the victory against
Ferguson’s Loyalists at Kings Mountain, Cowpens was a surprising
victory against a force containing British regulars and under a
commander who had never before lost an engagement. The spell of
“Bloody Ban” Tarleton was broken and Cowpens marked a psychological
turning point of the war, encouraging the revolutionaries and
demoralizing the British and Tories.
Cowpens set in motion a series of events that led here, to Guilford Court House, and to General
Nathanael Greene, our fourth man to shape the battlefield, and
ultimately, the war.
Nathanael Greene was born the son of a Quaker farmer and iron forger at Potowomut, Rhode Island in 1742.
Though his father’s sect discouraged “literary accomplishments,” Greene
educated himself in mathematics and the law and likewise promoted
public schools in his home district.
“Learning is not virtue,” Greene once said, “but the means to bring us to an acquaintance with
it. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge
without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Let these be your motives
to action through life, the relief of the distressed, the detection of
frauds, the defeat of oppression, and the diffusion of happiness.”
In August 1774 Greene organized a Rhode Island militia company, which
refused to elect him an officer because he walked with a limp. Greene
went along anyway as a private. At this time he began to acquire many
expensive volumes on military tactics and began to teach himself the art
of war. Because of this, he was expelled from the Quakers.
On May 8, 1775 he was promoted from private to Brigadier General of the
Rhode Island Army of Observation during the siege of Boston. Six weeks
later, he was appointed a brigadier of the Continental Army. He must
have been one hell of a private to deserve the jump to general. While
at Boston, he observed the Battle of Bunker Hill and its aftermath but
was not engaged.
In a letter Greene wrote to his wife Catharine about this time, he said “it had been happy for me if I could have
lived a private life in peace and plenty, enjoying all the happiness
that results from a well-tempered society founded on mutual esteem.
But the injury done my country, and the chains of slavery forging for
all posterity, calls me forth to defend our common rights, and repel
the bold invaders of the sons of freedom.” Yes, indeed, Nathanael
Greene was a Three Percenter.
Washington thought highly of Greene, and used him in a number of important posts. By 1780, the
Continental Congress had made some pretty awful choices to lead the
forces of revolution in the south. They had chosen Robert Howe and he
had lost Savannah. They then chose Benjamin Lincoln and he had lost
Charleston. Then came Gates and he got whipped at Camden, effectively
ending the American Southern Army as a fighting force, leaving the way
clear for Cornwallis.
So when Gates’ successor was to be chosen, the Congress decided to leave it up to George Washington and he
selected Nathanael Greene. When Greene accepted the post, he wrote, “I
am determined to defend my rights and maintain my freedom or sell my
life in the attempt.” He also said, “I hope this is the dark part of
the night which is generally just before day.”
Greene went south to pick up the pieces, splitting his forces in order to force
Cornwallis to split his. Shortly afterward, and contrary to Greene’s
orders not to engage, Morgan gave him the great victory at Cowpens.
Morgan fell back toward Greene, bringing his 800 prisoners from
Tarleton’s force. Greene fell back toward the Dan River as well, using
a special light infantry force under Colonel Otho Williams to screen
his retreat. It was a close run thing, but finally all of Greene’s
army was across the Dan and ready to give battle to Cornwallis.
Recrossing the Dan, Greene moved up to meet Cornwallis here, at Guilford Court
House on the 15th of March, 1781, on ground that Greene had chosen as
favorable to battle he wanted to fight.
Dan Morgan, finally crippled by illness was not here. He had been sent home to convalesce.
But his men were here, standing on this battlefield which the “Old
Waggoner” had done so much to shape.
Like Morgan at Cowpens, Greene arranged his force in three battle lines. Unlike Morgan, Greene
was not able to hold his militia to the plan, for they panicked and
ran, in part because Greene had placed his lines too far apart, out of
supporting distance. But the Continentals fought stoutly, as did the
Dragoons under Light Horse Harry Lee. In the end, Cornwallis had a
horse shot from under him and he ordered his guns turned upon his own
men who were mixed up with the Americans and giving way.
Greene withdrew his army in more or less good order, intending to fight
Cornwallis again on other ground of his choosing. After Bunker Hill,
Greene had commented, “I wish we could sell them another hill at the
same price we did Bunker Hill.” Here at Guilford Court House, he did.
Greene may have left the field to the British and thus this was a
tactical victory for Cornwallis, but it was a strategic defeat of the
greatest magnitude. The battle had lasted just 90 minutes, but
Cornwallis lost over a quarter of his men killed and wounded. A
prominent war critic in British House of Commons exclaimed, “Another
such victory would ruin the British Army!”
Cornwallis withdrew, and then decided to strike out for the Virginia coast, where he met
George Washington and the French army and navy in the siege of
Yorktown, from September 28th to October 19, 1781. And you all know
how that turned out.
For his part, Greene turned south, maneuvering, failing to bring the British into another decisive battle,
and losing a few small ones himself, but in the end the British were
driven from the interior of the Carolinas and cooped up in Charleston
where they sat out the rest of the war.
As Greene himself said, “We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.”
He also said these lines: “We are soldiers who devote ourselves to arms
not for the invasion of other countries, but for the defense of our own,
not for the gratification of our private interests but for public
security.”
And this: “Permit me then to recommend from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times to bleed in my country’s
cause, a Declaration of Independence, and call upon the world and the
Great God who governs it to witness the necessity, propriety and
rectitude thereof.”
I have taken the time to remind you all of the men who fought and bled and died here -- to remind you of the
original Three Percenters. What can we learn from their stories? How
can we take what they learned and put it to use today? Dan Morgan was
uneducated, even coarse, a drinker and a gambler. Nathanael Greene was
educated, studious, quiet and humble. Each was a genius -- Morgan the
natural tactician and troop leader who saw the essential thing and
battled toward it -- and Greene, the tactical failure but strategic
thinker who as much as any other single man other Washington himself
was responsible for the final victory. Neither had been a professional
soldier, yet men followed both willingly because they knew that these
leaders loved them, took care of them and would not spend their lives
to no purpose. Each understood the weaknesses of their enemies and was
able to exploit them. Neither man wanted war, yet when war came they
plunged in, offering their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor
on the altar of their country’s liberty.
Remember too Dan Morgan's tactical innovation of three lines, each with its own
strengths and weaknesses, but placed within supporting distance of
each other so as to make a formation greater than the sum of its parts.
And their enemies, Tarleton and Ferguson, let us not forget what their
stories teach us. Unlike Morgan and Greene who were uncommon
representatives of the common man, Tarleton and Ferguson were
representatives of the elite of the British Empire. To use the terms of
Codevilla's recent essay in the American Spectator, Tarleton and
Ferguson were members of the ruling class and Morgan and Greene were
members of the "country class." What is the essence of their stories,
these men of the British ruling class? That arrogance and pride,
cruelty and rash aggression, are their own rewards. That evil contains
the seeds of its own destruction if we few -- we Three Percenters --
are courageous enough to oppose it. And finally that ruling classes
were the same then as they are now.
So here we are, today, two hundred and thirty years later, on the same ground, consecrated with
their blood and their sacrifice, fighting the latest battle in the
eternal struggle -- between liberty and tyranny -- between good and
evil. We are here, hoping as the original Three Percenters did, that
fighting will not be necessary to secure our liberty and property to
our posterity, but fearing that it will be.
The candidates here today and those spread all across this nation, the offspring of the Tea
Party movement, they represent the next to last hope for rolling back
this tide of collectivism and tyrannical appetite with which we are
confronted. They are Morgan's second line of resistance.
They are the next to last line of defense. We, the modern Three Percenters,
ARE the LAST line of defense. This is as the Founders intended it.
each other so as to make a formation greater than the sum of its parts.
And their enemies, Tarleton and Ferguson, let us not forget what their
stories teach us. Unlike Morgan and Greene who were uncommon
representatives of the common man, Tarleton and Ferguson were
representatives of the elite of the British Empire. To use the terms of
Codevilla's recent essay in the American Spectator, Tarleton and
Ferguson were members of the ruling class and Morgan and Greene were
members of the "country class." What is the essence of their stories,
these men of the British ruling class? That arrogance and pride,
cruelty and rash aggression, are their own rewards. That evil contains
the seeds of its own destruction if we few -- we Three Percenters --
are courageous enough to oppose it. And finally that ruling classes
were the same then as they are now.
So here we are, today, two hundred and thirty years later, on the same ground, consecrated with
their blood and their sacrifice, fighting the latest battle in the
eternal struggle -- between liberty and tyranny -- between good and
evil. We are here, hoping as the original Three Percenters did, that
fighting will not be necessary to secure our liberty and property to
our posterity, but fearing that it will be.
The candidates here today and those spread all across this nation, the offspring of the Tea
Party movement, they represent the next to last hope for rolling back
this tide of collectivism and tyrannical appetite with which we are
confronted. They are Morgan's second line of resistance.
They are the next to last line of defense. We, the modern Three Percenters,
ARE the LAST line of defense. This is as the Founders intended it.
Yet if we are to succeed, we must understand our own and each others'
place in the battle line, and we must not be divided with too much
space between us so that we cannot successfully support each other and
turn back the attack of the enemies of the Constitution.
Much is being made in the state-run media this election cycle about candidates
like Sharon Angle who have talked about the potential failure of
electoral politics perhaps leading to "Second Amendment remedies."
This plain statement of fact is ridiculed as "crazy." Our mutual
enemies attack this common sense statement of fact as "extreme" and
"crazy." The Founders who fought and bled and died here -- those Three
Percenters -- would not have thought so. They knew themselves better
than their ruling class knew them. Americans have always been an
eminently practical people, and if the old political forms no longer
suffice to protect their liberty, their property and their lives, then
they will make their own arrangements.
space between us so that we cannot successfully support each other and
turn back the attack of the enemies of the Constitution.
Much is being made in the state-run media this election cycle about candidates
like Sharon Angle who have talked about the potential failure of
electoral politics perhaps leading to "Second Amendment remedies."
This plain statement of fact is ridiculed as "crazy." Our mutual
enemies attack this common sense statement of fact as "extreme" and
"crazy." The Founders who fought and bled and died here -- those Three
Percenters -- would not have thought so. They knew themselves better
than their ruling class knew them. Americans have always been an
eminently practical people, and if the old political forms no longer
suffice to protect their liberty, their property and their lives, then
they will make their own arrangements.
Indeed, our enemies make so much of this "Second Amendment remedy" precisely
BECAUSE it is what they fear most. They do what they do in order to
shape the battlefield to THEIR advantage. They know, or believe, that
they can manipulate the political system. But they also KNOW that they
cannot manipulate US, the Three Percent. This is why Bill Clinton
denounced us by name back in April.
shape the battlefield to THEIR advantage. They know, or believe, that
they can manipulate the political system. But they also KNOW that they
cannot manipulate US, the Three Percent. This is why Bill Clinton
denounced us by name back in April.
WE ARE WHAT THEY FEAR.
YOU are what they fear.
They do not fear the stupid party, the GOP, they know that they can handle
them. But they fear that they cannot handle us. And they are right to
fear.
fear.
Today’s Three Percent are the folks the Founders counted on to save the Republic when everyone else abandoned it.
And we will.
There will be no more free Wacos and no more free Katrinas.
THERE WILL BE NO FREE STOLEN ELECTIONS EITHER.
For we are the Three Percent.
We stand today on our forefather’s battleground, with their same resolve.
We will not agree to our own enslavement, no matter how soft and meeching the pleas and no matter what well-intentioned premises it is offered
to us.
We will not disarm.
They cannot convince us.
They cannot intimidate us.
They can try to kill us, if they think they can.
But they should remember, we’ll shoot back .
We are not going away.
We are not backing up another inch.
And there are THREE MILLION OF US.
THREE MILLION.
And we will.
There will be no more free Wacos and no more free Katrinas.
THERE WILL BE NO FREE STOLEN ELECTIONS EITHER.
For we are the Three Percent.
We stand today on our forefather’s battleground, with their same resolve.
We will not agree to our own enslavement, no matter how soft and meeching the pleas and no matter what well-intentioned premises it is offered
to us.
We will not disarm.
They cannot convince us.
They cannot intimidate us.
They can try to kill us, if they think they can.
But they should remember, we’ll shoot back .
We are not going away.
We are not backing up another inch.
And there are THREE MILLION OF US.
THREE MILLION.
And increasingly this is a fact that the enemies of the Founders’ Republic
are coming to understand. For from Guilford Court House today to
Afghanistan and Iraq, even to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, is
written the promise, the threat, the credo -- WE ARE EVERYWHERE.
And they know this.
They know this.
And yet, and yet, this is no small thing, to restore a republic after it
has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for many years and I
cannot recall reading of such a thing. It may be that our task is
impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be
done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The
Founders' Republic, the one that they fought and died for here, on this
very ground, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.
LOST.
But I tell you this: If that is so, we will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make
with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward
will be forced to take note, even if they despise us in the writing of
it.
And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in
forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty
until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will
live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.
But just now, today, looking out across this battlefield park, reading and
hearing of the mighty upsurge of the voices of like minds all over the
50 states, I believe we are going to win. And I’ll tell you why.
Our enemies of today's self-styled ruling class are full well as arrogant,
prideful, cruel and voracious for other peoples’ lives, liberty and
property as “The Butcher” Banastre Tarleton and the powdered wigs who
sent him. But there is one thing that such people are most afraid of
losing and that is their lives. They have no real principles, these
collectivists, only appetites. They have no principles that they are
willing to die for and are frightened to death by people who are and
who do.
Afghanistan and Iraq, even to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, is
written the promise, the threat, the credo -- WE ARE EVERYWHERE.
And they know this.
They know this.
And yet, and yet, this is no small thing, to restore a republic after it
has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for many years and I
cannot recall reading of such a thing. It may be that our task is
impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be
done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The
Founders' Republic, the one that they fought and died for here, on this
very ground, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.
LOST.
But I tell you this: If that is so, we will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make
with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward
will be forced to take note, even if they despise us in the writing of
it.
And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in
forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty
until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will
live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.
But just now, today, looking out across this battlefield park, reading and
hearing of the mighty upsurge of the voices of like minds all over the
50 states, I believe we are going to win. And I’ll tell you why.
Our enemies of today's self-styled ruling class are full well as arrogant,
prideful, cruel and voracious for other peoples’ lives, liberty and
property as “The Butcher” Banastre Tarleton and the powdered wigs who
sent him. But there is one thing that such people are most afraid of
losing and that is their lives. They have no real principles, these
collectivists, only appetites. They have no principles that they are
willing to die for and are frightened to death by people who are and
who do.
In the final analysis, the only solution for a tyrant's appetite is to punch his sharp teeth down his lying throat.
And that is the task of the Three Percent, regardless of what time and place they were born into.
So when the enemies of the Constitution and the Founders' Republic ask
Tea Party candidates such as those here today about how "extreme" and
"crazy" they believe Second Amendment remedies are, I hope they will
say: "It does not matter if YOU think that they are extreme and crazy
people. The fact of the matter is that they exist, and they do not
believe that they are extreme or crazy. They do not seek to tell you
what do, but they insist that you cease telling THEM what to do. My
suggestion is to leave them the heck alone, lest your appetites get you
in deep, deep trouble, for if you are able to corrupt the electoral
process and collapse our ability to resist you politically, you WILL
have to deal with them."
"crazy" they believe Second Amendment remedies are, I hope they will
say: "It does not matter if YOU think that they are extreme and crazy
people. The fact of the matter is that they exist, and they do not
believe that they are extreme or crazy. They do not seek to tell you
what do, but they insist that you cease telling THEM what to do. My
suggestion is to leave them the heck alone, lest your appetites get you
in deep, deep trouble, for if you are able to corrupt the electoral
process and collapse our ability to resist you politically, you WILL
have to deal with them."
And I swear to you all today, upon the lives and futures of my children,
they WILL have to deal with the Three Percent. And they will not like
the cards they are dealt.
the cards they are dealt.
NOT ONE MORE INCH BACK.
We are the Founders' third line of resistance -- within supporting
distance of the second line of politics -- and we will not fail.
WE WILL NOT FAIL.
Thank you..,
Comment
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