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Daniel Morgan was born in Hunterdon County, N.J.,
in 1736, and died July 6, 1802. Morgan was the commander of a
band of Virginia sharpshooters in the American Revolution. At
the outbreak of the Revolution he was commissioned captain in
the Continental Army, and he went with
Benedict Arnold on the expedition (1775)
against Québec, where he distinguished himself as commander
after Arnold was wounded. Taken prisoner, he was exchanged in
the fall of 1776 and commissioned a colonel.
He fought in the battles of Saratoga
in the fall of 1777. He and his frontier riflemen played a major
part in defeating the British at Freeman's Farm and Bemis Heights.
Dissatisfied and in ill health, Morgan retired from the army
in 1779 but reentered as brigadier general in 1780. On January
17, 1781, promoted to brigadier general, he won one of the most
brilliant victories of the war when he overcame a superior British
force (commanded by Col. Banastre Tarleton)
by his effective use of cavalry at the battle of Cowpens,
South Carolina.
After the war Morgan commanded troops in western Pennsylvania
charged with suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion. He served as
a Federalist representative in Congress from 1797 to 1799. |
Daniel Morgan