Morgan, Daniel

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Morgan, Daniel

MORGAN, DANIEL. (1735?–1802). Continental general. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Morgan's place and year of birth are uncertain. After quarreling with his father, a Welch immigrant, Morgan

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moved to the Shenandoah Valley in 1753, working as a farm laborer and teamster. In 1755 he joined Edward Braddock's expedition as a teamster, where he was punished with a life-threatening 500 stripes for knocking down a British officer who had hit him with a sword. After Braddock's defeat, Morgan helped to evacuate the wounded and hauled supplies to frontier posts. In 1758 Morgan became an ensign. While carrying dispatches to Winchester he was struck by an Indian bullet that passed through his neck and his mouth. He lost all the teeth on one side of his face. In 1762 he took possession of a small grant near Winchester, Virginia, and moved in with Abigail Curry, whom he married ten years later. The next year he served as a lieutenant in Pontiac's War, and he took part in Dunmore's War (1774). In between, he prospered as a farmer and slave owner.

Commissioned a captain of one of the two Virginia rifle companies on 22 June 1775, he enlisted the prescribed 96 men in the next ten days, and led them the 600 miles to the Boston lines without losing a man. Morgan's company volunteered to join Benedict Arnold in his march to Quebec, which occurred from September to November 1775. In the disastrous assault on Quebec, 31 December, Morgan took command from the wounded Arnold and drove on with magnificent élan until subordinates prevailed on him to make a decision that probably was fatal to the enterprise. A prisoner in Quebec until the next summer, he returned on parole and was included in a prisoner exchange in January 1777. Commissioned a colonel of the Eleventh Virginia Regiment by Congress, Morgan joined Washington's main army a few months later. After serving with distinction in the New Jersey operations of 1777, Morgan was selected by Washington to lead 500 riflemen personally selected by the commanding general. This unit was known as "the Corps of Rangers." Washington then ordered this corps, the only rifle unit in the American army, to join the campaign against General John Burgoyne.

Morgan and his riflemen played a decisive role in winning the two battles of Saratoga, which occurred on 19 September and 7 October 1777, decimating the British in both instances. Morgan immediately led his corps back to Washington's main army, arriving in time to skirmish several times with British troops in December 1777. While in winter quarters at Valley Forge, Morgan's Eleventh Virginia Regiment was brigaded with the Seventh Virginia Regiment under the command of Brigadier General William Woodford. Morgan was not engaged in the battle of Monmouth on 28 June 1778, but he did conduct a preliminary harrassment and a vigorous pursuit after that action.

Morgan took an extended furlough from the army on 18 July 1779, after Anthony Wayne rather than Morgan was chosen to command a new light infantry brigade. Congress ordered him in June 1780 to report to Horatio Gates in the southern theater of operations, but he declined to comply. He took this action in protest, since Congress apparently did not value his services highly enough to accompany its call with the restoration of his relative rank, much less make him a general. When Morgan learned of the disaster at Camden, however, he rejoined the army regardless of rank. On 2 October he was given command of a corps of light troops that had been organized by Gates. On 13 October Congress at last appointed him brigadier general, and when Nathanael Greene succeeded Gates he confirmed the assignment of Morgan as commander of the elite corps.

At Cowpens, South Carolina, on 17 January 1781, Morgan displayed tactical genius in feigning a rout before turning on Lieutenant Colonal Banastre "Butcher" Tarleton's legion and winning a battle that is considered a classic. Morgan then, and wisely, started running again. Soon after linking up with the main body under Greene, Morgan, riddled with disease, took a leave of absence (10 February 1781).

Morgan was deaf, at first, to appeals to support the Marquis de Lafayette in halting British raids in Virginia, although he did arrive after the real danger was over. Back on the frontier, the old warrior's aches and pains—arthritis, rheumatism, and sciatica, according to different accounts—did not prevent an active life in diverse enterprises. As a major general, Morgan led the Virginia militia into Pennsylvania during the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, encountering no opposition. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Federalist in 1795, and was elected in 1797. Ill health forced Morgan's decision not to seek re-election. He retired to Winchester, the old teamster now a major landowner, and died there in 1802.