Battle of Cowan ' s Ford The Battle of Cowan ' s Ford was a battle in the Southern Theater of Cornwallis ' s 1780 – 1782 Campaign that eventually led to the British Army ' s surrender at Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War . It was fought on at Cowan ' s ford on the Catawba River in northwestern Mecklenburg County , North Carolina , between a force of about 5 , 000 British and fewer than a thousand Americans who were attempting to slow the British advance across the river . The American general William Lee Davidson was killed in this battle . Background . After the British victory at the Battle of Camden , General Nathanael Greene replaced Horatio Gates as Commander of the Southern Department of the Continental Army . Rather than attempt to confront the much larger and better equipped British Army under Cornwallis directly , Greene attempted to wear down his opponents by engaging the British in a series of small battles . Of these battles , Greene stated of the Continental Army : " We fight , get beat , rise , and fight again . " Following the Battle of Cowpens , Cornwallis was determined on destroying Greene ' s forces . Cornwallis ordered his men to burn their supplies and pursued Greene in the " Race to the Dan " ( The Dan River which flows through Southern Virginia and Northern North Carolina ) . During the preceding weeks , Cornwallis ' s army had swung to the left and approached the swollen waters of the Catawba in late January . For three days , the British forces camped at Ramsour ' s Mill , where they were joined by the remains of Banastre Tarleton forces . On , General Daniel Morgan reported to General Nathanael Greene from his camp in Sherrills Ford that his forces had observed the British army moving towards the Catawba River . Morgan reported that he was attempting to collect the militia and delay Cornwallis ' s forces from crossing the river . To this end , Morgan ordered General William Lee Davidson with 500 militia ( two hundred and fifty of which were without flints for their muskets ) to Beatties Ford . Cornwallis marched his forces eastward toward the river to Jacob Forney ' s , where they camped for another three days after he had determined that the Catawba river at Beatties Ford was impassable because of the raging current . Battle . On , Cornwallis began to move his army despite the heavy rain fearing any further delay would cause him to lose his chance of destroying Greene ' s army . Some six weeks after the engagement , Cornwallis wrote that he had ordered a detachment under Lieutenant Colonel Webster to " make every possible demonstration by cannonading and otherwise , of an intention to force a passage " at Beatties Ford while he would march down the river to Cowan ' s Ford . General Greene arrived and ordered General Davidson , who had placed his men at the various fords along the eastern bank , to slow the British Army ' s crossing of the Catawba River . Greene and Morgan then left to accompany the bulk of their forces towards Salisbury , North Carolina . Davidson dispatched a company of cavalry and infantry southward four miles to Cowan ' s Ford . The cavalry was to see that the British did not make a surprise crossing under cover of darkness . Toward nightfall Davidson joined the detachment at Cowan ' s Ford . Davidson evidently feared that Tarleton ' s troops might slip across the river in the darkness and get behind him , from which position they could attack him as the British infantry began its crossing and therefore set up camp a half mile from the river , with pickets watching from the water ' s edge the Cowan ' s Ford . Near daybreak , after a difficult march in which the British lost some of their cannon , Cornwallis ' s army reached Cowan ' s Ford . Cowan ' s Ford was actually two fords ; one , the horse ford , though shallower than the other , was longer , because it crossed the stream to an angle ; the other , called the wagon ford , went straight across the river but was much deeper . Without hardly hesitating , the British began crossing the swollen stream straight across along the wagon ford and soon the horses were over their heads in the raging torrent . Davidson ' s forces immediately began to confront the Redcoats . The militiamen were picking off many British soldiers as they struggled in the water to reach the far bank . After the first elements reached the bank and formed a firing line , they began to fire a volley at the now retreating militia . Shortly after arriving on the scene , Davidson was struck from his horse by a rifle ball through the heart . Oral tradition has it that a local Tory guide fired the fatal shot . Late that evening Davidson ' s naked body was found . His corpse was evidently robbed by British soldiers , a fact established on when Davidson ' s wallet was brought back from England where it had been held in the Public Records Office in London since the Revolution . General Davidson is buried at Hopewell Church in Mecklenburg county , NC .