1 Battle of Cowpens - At the Cowpens, a frontier pastureland, on January 17, 1781, Daniel Morgan led his army of tough Continentals and backwoods militia to a brilliant victory over Banastre Tarleton's battle-hardened force of British regulars. Located in present-day South Carolina north of Spartanburg. 2 Yorktown - On October 18, 1781, the British under General Lord Cornwallis surrendered to American and French troops under General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia.