National Parks and National Battlefields

Ken Burns' newest series "The National Parks - Our Best Idea" was shown on PBS this week. In November, 2003 and without much fanfare, SC's own Congaree National Monument became Congaree National Park. This 22,200 acre park protects the largest contiguous area of old-growth bottomland hardwoods remaining in the United States. It borders the Congaree River in southeastern Richland County. SC ETV has an excellent documentary on the park called "Roots in the River. "

More relevant to the Upstate are the Revolutionary War sites, many of which are run by the National Park Service as National Battlefields. During my official visits, I have visited four of the 37 sites. Between my lunch meeting in Gaffney and my evening meeting at Blacksburg, I walked the one mile trail around the Cowpens Battlefield and watched the new park movie.

On a cold January morning in 1781, Daniel Morgan with less than 600 men defeated a British regular unit led by the hated "Bloody Ban" Tarleton that was twice the size of his own unit. The trail completely circles the battlefield. Signs describe every action in the battle. It took less than one hour for a major American victory that signaled the beginning of the end of the British. It is easy to see the ghosts. The Park Service is working on restoring the area vegetation to what it was in 1781.

In the bookstore at Cowpens is a small book with an epic poem titled "Daybreak at Cowpens." It was written by Greenville industrialist and philanthropist Arthur McGill. On January 17, 1981, on the 200th Anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens, Rotarian Don Koonce took McGill's poem, several thousand re-enactors, multiple photographers, three days and created a multi-image presentation of the battle. It was called "Daybreak at Cowpens - the Turning Point in the Revolution." He shot it at daybreak on one of the coldest days of the year. You can see the horses and soldiers breath, just as it was 200 years earlier.

I was honored to be one of 1200 people at a Regency Hyatt dinner when the show was presented. The British and American Ambassadors were present. It was a fabulous evening, with smoke and guns and flags, until the nine projector light and sound show overloaded the Hyatt electrical system and shutdown power in the Hotel. It was certainly memorable.

"Daybreak at Cowpens" is the story of a grandfather telling his grandson about the battle. The show won thie history category in a national competition at the International Association of Multi Image conference, beating out presentations from big agencies in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago and New York. The big agencies were further shocked when this small SC agency kicked their pitoutie and won "Best in Show." The muti-projector presentation ran at the park visitors center for nearly 25 years. Because of the difficulty of running nine projectors, it was eventually replaced with a single picture DVD, of course losing something from the original three screen preesentation. It was recently replaced with a new movie.

There are 37 listed listed Revolutionary War sites in SC. Some like Ninety Six and Cowpens have trails and elaborate visitor centers. Others like Musgrove Mill have a visitor center, but are still waiting for funding on the trail. As Walter Edgar in his definitive history of SC says, "The war (in SC) may have begun and ended in Charleston, but it was won in the backcountry of SC."