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2025 Chasing Cornwallis Challenge + K4A "America250" Semiquincentennial SES

Discussion in 'Amateur Radio News' started by W4OVT, Jan 8, 2025.

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  1. WA1BEE

    WA1BEE Premium Subscriber QRZ Page

     
  2. KK4NAW

    KK4NAW XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Love working the Cornwallis Challenge each year! Great bits of history, extremely high quality QSL cards and an excellent 2024 certificate. Thanks Marc for spearheading this event, I look forward to it again in 2025.
     
    NA1S likes this.
  3. K8NEE

    K8NEE XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Marc

    received my certificate yesterday afternoon - and wished to thank you for it as well as your efforts on behalf of all of us interested in the history of the war for independence. the map and brochure that were included are well done and most informative. the overmountain victory trail QSL card is an incredible piece of art work as were each and every one of the individual event cards.

    EXTREMELY well done my friend and very much appreciated.

    looking forward to working you again soon and at each and every one of the upcoming SES dates in '25 which have been marked on the calendar

    best 73

    dennis K8NEE
     
    NA1S likes this.
  4. WA8VES

    WA8VES Ham Member QRZ Page

    As always, your special event never disappoints. I have learned so much from listening to you explain the events that shaped America! I am truly looking forward to the 2025 event. Thanks, Marc, for all you do to make this event a hit!
     
  5. W4MJH

    W4MJH Platinum Subscriber Platinum Subscriber QRZ Page

    I met Marc just a few short weeks ago when he was running the K4Z -12 Days of QRZ event. He had asked for volunteers to help with the event and I jumped at the chance to help. I am so glad I did! Marc is a great guy and a pleasure to work with. Although I haven't know him that long, I already consider him a great friend. I have again volunteered to assist Marc. This time with the K4C - Battle of Cowpens event. I will be working mostly FT8. Look for me on 20 meters during the day and 40 meters at night. I'm really looking forward to this event. I know it's going to be a good one!
     
  6. AE7SX

    AE7SX Platinum Subscriber Platinum Subscriber QRZ Page

    I had the honor of working with Marc for the "12 Days of QRZ" and am looking forward to working Chasing Cornwallis Special Event Station. I am located in North Arizona and will be waiting to work the stations and learn some history at the same time. I have a new Technician Ham that will be working my station with me so he can get experience.
     
  7. W4OVT

    W4OVT QRZ Lifetime Member #738 Platinum Subscriber Life Member QRZ Page

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    It's Almost Go-Time, Starting Today, 01/17 0Z (01/16 7PM ET) Join Us for the K4C - Battle of Cowpens Special Event!

    On behalf of Team K4C, we’re thrilled to invite you to The Battle of Cowpens, a Revolutionary War triumph which followed the Battle of Kings Mountain.

    Two prominent figures during, and after the war, Thomas Jefferson and British Commander in the Colonies, Sir Henry Clinton each provided insightful quotes worthy of consideration...quotes too often obscured from a majority of history books, classroom teachings and even motion pictures such as "The Patriot."

    Let's review Jefferson's quote regarding Kings Mountain and save Clinton's for later...

    Thomas Jefferson in his letter to Patriot Militia Col. John Campbell wrote:

    "Kings Mountain was the joyful annunciation of that turn of the tide of success which terminated the Revolutionary War, with the seal of our independence!"

    The Battle of Kings Mountain, where George Washington, nor any of his Officers or Infantry attending, was won by skilled "Overmountain" frontier militia with their superior long rifles against the inferior British smooth-bore muskets.

    These frontiersmen a.k.a. "Backwater Men" possessed no military training, most had never fought side by side, nor would ever fight again, yet, in 1 hour and five minutes of fierce fighting 07 Oct 1780, 900 Frontier Militia defeated British Patrick Ferguson's Loyalist Army of nearly 1,200 men.

    The Militia would count 28 men among their dead to include my ancestor Rhys Bowen - ask me about his story some day!

    The British Loyalist losses were significantly higher, estimated at 230, to include Commander Ferguson who was taken from his horse by a lead ball fired from 72 year-old Overmountain Man Robert Young.

    Young later wrote in his diary, just before firing the fatal shot, "I spoke to my rifle having named it after my wife, saying, c'mon Sweet Lips, don't let me down now!"

    Ferguson was hurled from his saddle but not fully dislodged from his horse with one foot jammed in the stirrup.

    His startled white stallion galloped across the battlefield dragging Ferguson until eventually coming to rest where (8) eight more lead shot had found Ferguson.

    You may be wondering "hold on, I thought K4C was about the Battle of Cowpens...what's with all of this Kings mountain narrative?"

    It is essential to understand, without the Frontier Militia victory at Kings Mountain, there would not have been a Battle at Cowpens nor a Battle at Guilford Courthouse and likely no British surrender at Yorktown.

    Allow me to persuade you...

    Without the defeats at Kings Mountain and the Cowpens, Commander Lord Cornwallis, who was in charge of the entire Southern Campaign, would have continued his unblemished advance northward continuing to swell his Army with Colonial enlistments, called Loyalists, while enjoying plentiful resupply flowing inland from the British controlled seaports at Savannah and Charlestown.

    The amassed British momentum and strategic advantage cannot be overstated, especially following the Continental Army's defeat at the Battle of Camden where Washington's dispatched Commander Horatio Gates, the questionable hero at the Battle of Saratoga (IMO Daniel Morgan led to victory), would suffer a humiliating defeat despite his vastly superior number of men.

    The numbers tell the story.

    Gates commanded 3,700 Continental soldiers versus Lord Cornwallis' army of 2,230.

    And the losses?

    Gates suffered an estimated 1,900 casualties compared to the British losses, not a typo, 324 men - let those numbers marinate.
    Source: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/camden

    A contributing factor that led to the Continental defeat at Camden can also explain numerous other Continental losses due to smallpox, scurvy, starvation, frostbite, and another particular disorder that discouraged sitting in a saddle, dysentery!

    Put plus signs between each of those maladies and the other side of the equals sign spells disillusionment or worse, death...it is hard to imagine any of these men robustly engaging in battle and the numbers support that notion.

    Washington contracted smallpox as a teenager on his visit to Barbados which left him with natural immunity to the disease that would kill many of his men and even one of his Commanders.

    Major General John Thomas who was in charge of the withdrawal of Continental forces from Canada before dying from smallpox...so much for Canada becoming the 14th Colony...but I hear there are still statehood ambitions lol...pardon me as I sprint out of that rabbit hole...ok, onwards...

    But only after a Great White North Fun Fact - Canada did not achieve full sovereignty from Great Britain until 1982.

    Surprised at how recent that occurred? I certainly was.

    Also interesting is how close Nova Scotia nearly became the 14th Colony - that story along with "The Lost State of Franklin" saved for another time.

    After British victory at Camden, a sizable number of undecided Colonists quickly declared themselves as decidedly Loyalist to include tribal warriors and freedom-promised slaves.

    Lord Cornwallis' army surged in numbers.

    Provisions of food, black powder, lead and medicines were plentiful....it was ALL going the British way.

    The disgraced General Gates would survive the Battle at Camden, observed by his men, and Cornwallis, as cowardly fleeing the battlefield abandoning his infantry to certain death or capture.

    Cornwallis would then go on to encounter a brief, but determined "hornet's nest" of pesky resistance at Charlottetown but that was put down - even more enlistments resulted.
    Another Fun Fact - the Charlotte Hornets NBA team is named for that part of history.

    To fully understand just how significant the Battle of Cowpens would become, this backstory to include the Battle of Kings Mountain is essential to understanding the significance of what was to follow.

    What would become of Washington's Continental Army? How could Gates have so dramatically miscarried at Camden? That answer is simple although suppressed by Historians and Authors alike.

    The #1 question asked of me by audiences hearing these stories, is: "why have I never heard any of this before?"

    And that answer, self-quoting:

    "Because we Americans love our heroes...and by any measure, George Washington was a tremendous Statesman and First President...but as Commander in Chief, his increasingly diseased, disillusioned, disheveled Army left Washington, even early in the War, to write to his brother Samuel, stating "I think this deal is pretty near up."
    Letter to Samuel Source: "The Indispensables" https://groveatlantic.com/book/the-indispensables/
    (great book!)

    Certainly, the odds were stacked against Washington who had a nearly impossible assignment given the Continental Congress's stingy funding.

    Washington was heavily distracted from his battlefield command by repeated, unsuccessful efforts to pay his starving Men who were desperate to earn a wage to feed their starving families.

    And, to that point, what follows is seldom written about, yet essential to understand, literally, the climate of the war.

    There was a mini-ice age in the years leading up to, and during most of the entire Revolutionary War.

    Crops would not grow, livestock perished, and with no harvest in sight, many distraught Colonists enlisted with ambitions to earn a wage more than taking a formal position against Parliamentary taxation.

    You might ponder, why did the Continental Congress withhold money that could help to win the war?

    Answer: There were broke!

    It is essential to realize that only about 1/3 of the Colonists were Patriots...an equal number of Colonist's bent the knee to King George III...and the rest were undecided but those fence-sitters increasingly became Loyalists to the British cause. Yes, way back in early America we were a divided citizenry.

    And those brave men who signed the Declaration of Independence on August 2nd (I know, you were taught the signing took place on July 4th, it wasn't) were in fear for their fortunes, indeed, their lives since King George III ordered these "treasonist" to be killed in his response to John Adam's penned "Olive Branch Petition."

    Want to read a patronizing document, read the Olive Branch Petition which glorifies "Oh Ye, Thou Great King" silliness while asking the King to eliminate his tax-happy Parliament...to say the least, King George III frowned on that suggestion...and went back to making babies.

    Poor Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg - (15) fifteen children....no wonder King George III was the first Monarch to never fight in the battlefield with his army, he likely would have concurred with Rodney Dangerfield's quip "I'm not a fighter...I'm a lover!" Time to strap on the cleats to climb out of THAT rabbit hole...where were we, oh yes...

    About those men who risk it all to sign the Declaration of Independence....several were killed, and a majority of others were plunged into poverty and/or obscurity - their stories will be told within the Kilo 4 America - America250 Special Event returning in July for a full week in 2025 and again in the anniversary year, 2026.

    Lionizing Washington as Commander in Chief disrespects, I go as far to say, "trespasses" on the deterministic roles of both Militia and the French, as Paul Harvey used to quip "the rest of the story" we endeavor to share through the Kilo 4 Series...important facts and stories you were not taught - not by a long shot of a Deckard-made Militia rifle!

    Indeed, Kings Mountain dealt a mighty blow to British ambitions in the South.

    Angered by their defeat, the British scoured the Carolina countryside seeking revenge for their fallen cohort, Patrick Ferguson.

    Enter prior Continental Commander, Daniel Morgan, who had earlier resigned from the Army having been passed over for promotion.

    Idled at his Virginia homestead, Morgan learned of Gates' humiliating defeat at Camden and heeded a calling to return to duty, so off he rode to Hillsborough, NC.

    Morgan was given command of a special group of healthy Continentals.

    Morgan's story is one for the ages - highly recommend learning more about this amazing man and leader here: https://www.nps.gov/cowp/learn/historyculture/daniel-morgan.htm

    Fate as the hunter, Cornwallis' second in command, Banastre Tarleton would encounter Morgan and his men at a Loyalist cattle ranch where the animals were kept in pens, thus, the name Cowpens.

    Knowing of British angst at the loss at Kings Mountain, Morgan strategically placed Militia in plain view of Tarleton - Tarleton took the bait, believing these Militia to be leftover "scoundrels" who killed his pal Ferguson three months earlier...he would soon learn the Militia were nothing more than an appetizer to a five course meal of enemy lead seasoned with black powder!

    Morgan, utilizing a military tactic still taught at today's Military Academies called the "Double Envelopment Strategy," hid his main body of Army as Tarleton charged his army into what would become their valley of death.

    Morgan's brilliance led to another, in quick succession, devastating defeat for the British, first at Kings Mountain, and now at the Cowpens.

    What impact can you imagine these successive Patriot Victories had amongst the Colonists...especially those who were once undecided - do you think they started believing "we just might can win this war?" Indeed!

    Interestingly, Lord Cornwallis attended neither Kings Mountain nor the Cowpens battles but word reached him soon enough - he then knew his command of the Southern Campaign was at risk of both defeat and humiliation.

    Next came the Battle at Guilford Courthouse we present within Kilo 4 Golf in March but not in a celebratory manner as Continental Commander Nathaniel Greene would try, and fail, to replicate Morgan's "double envelopment" strategy with dismal results.

    Greene, previously unproven in battle but a man Washington trusted, lacked an essential element of the double envelopment tactic = a clear view of the battlefield.

    Although Guilford Courthouse is termed a British victory it is often described as "pyrrhic" in nature, meaning "a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat."

    Cornwallis then charged across North Carolina seeking battle, any battle, that could restore the once enjoyed momentum prior to Kings Mountain and Cowpens.

    Reaching Wilmington, NC, having outrun his spy network, he thought he had either/both Militia and Continentals giving chase so he sought to tuck tail, and rejoin the main British Army commanded by Sir Henry Clinton.

    Clinton and Cornwallis were not bosom buddies - to the contrary, they were rivals and often disagreed.

    Their exchange of letters post-war is remindful of the PeeWee Big Adventure exchange of "I know you are, but what am I?"
    Wait, did I just admit to watching that movie? No worries, I'll edit that out!

    As it were, Cornwallis had no pursuers but he certainly was shrouded in a panic-induced, dark cloud of humiliation haunting him all the way to Yorktown where he calculated his Army's planned escape route by way of the Atlantic.

    How did that work out? Not too good once he gazed upon the Atlantic and, to his horror, sees an ocean riddled with French warships.

    After two days of inland bombardment, Cornwallis would not only surrender his Southern Army, but surrender all of Great Britain much to the shock of Sir Henry Clinton and more so, a disbelieving King George III who refused to acknowledge defeat for two years.

    The King would finally concede the loss of his "beloved Colonies" at the Treaty of Paris in 1783.

    Thomas Jefferson's quote was offered above - now we turn to the losing British Commander of the Colonies, Sir Henry Clinton's response following the war who stated succinctly (suggest reading the following words out loud with meaning):

    "Kings Mountain was the first link in a chain of evils that followed each other, in regular succession, until they at last ended in the total loss of America."
    That, ladies and gentlemen, is a MIC drop quote (hope it's not a RE320 - those can hurt if they hit foot flesh!)

    Cowpens, although unnamed, was the second deterministic link that would lead to British surrender.

    So there you have it - a condensed version of the prelude, the battles and outcome of what we call the Revolutionary War the rest of the world term the "American War of Independence."

    Often I use the phrase "American War for Global Independence" - think about this - and you're not still reading out loud are you?

    Had King George III emerged victorious in the Revolutionary War combined with his well known "universalist" writings, please define what nation on earth, who had not already been defeated, could have conquered what would have become the world's most feared, most provisioned Army - the British Army? Anyone?

    Did I hear "France?" Nope, already tried a few years earlier - see "The Seven Years War"

    "Spain"? Hardly...ready for another Fun Fact (unless you are reading from Spain) - did you know, in the middle of our Revolutionary War, in 1779, Spain declared war against Great Britain?

    How did that turn out even with British deployments in the Colonies and their defense of Caribbean sugar plantations....the poor Spanish Armada (you can make bubble sounds out loud if you wish) all of those beautiful war ships...a voyage to the bottom of the sea...wasn't that a TV series...ok, different era.

    Join us later this evening as Team K4C honors these historic events, presented here and on the K4C page, to create a memorable experience for operators around the world.

    The above will be posted on the K4C Page...once I edit out the PeeWee Herman thingy.


    Whether you’re looking to log a new QSO, collect a special event QSL card, or just enjoy connecting with operators who share your passion, this event is not to be missed...unless your XYL/OM is calling you for the third time...you don't want those brake lights to give you a bad look!

    Feel free to share this invitation with your fellow operators....and remember, we do our best to list in real-time on the K4C page where you can find a current Activation(s) when the ON-AIR sign is flashing.

    BUT WAIT!! In my best Billy Mays voice (who remembers him?) during my W4OVT SSB activations, to bust through the pile-ups, give the last letter of your callsign followed by the password "Buford's Quarter!" to earn priority Check-in status - that'll work better than a kilowatt from a SteppIR yagi demonstrating YOU made it to the bottom of this narrative.

    OK, now to post this epistle to hopefully not break the forum - nah, no matter how hard we hammer QRZ, forums or logbooks, it has never once crashed - HUZZA!!! to the QRZ Staff!!!

    And a Hip Hip HUZZA!!! for the enormity of positive comments posted within this thread - really means a lot to the entire Team K4C!

    Marc - W4OVT

    mailto:marc@w4ovt.org
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    AE7SX and AE8EM like this.
  8. K4KE

    K4KE QRZ Lifetime Member #798 Platinum Subscriber Life Member QRZ Page

    Awesome-looking QSL card, awesome-looking certificate! As a new ham I am looking forward to having my gear and shack more squared away to be able to take part in more events like this.
     
  9. KJ2LBR

    KJ2LBR XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Looking forward to the chase this year!
     
  10. K8LES

    K8LES Ham Member QRZ Page

    Marc,
    Love what you are doing.
    Les
    K8LES
     
  11. KK4NAW

    KK4NAW XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    Got K4C Saturday, January 18th, on 20 Meters! Thanks & looking forward to the chase!
     
  12. KJ5DUL

    KJ5DUL XML Subscriber QRZ Page

    I was a little disappointed that The Battle of Cowpens was not on 10 meters. Are any of the others going to be?
     
  13. W4OVT

    W4OVT QRZ Lifetime Member #738 Platinum Subscriber Life Member QRZ Page


    Hi Jim:

    The K4C QRZ page confirms Activation #29 was offered on 10m - 28.074MHz FT8.

    All K4x Activations are left up to each NCS Volunteer to determine which band/mode they choose to operate based on preferences and propagation dependent.
    There were numerous strong M-Class and even X-Class solar flares that fired during K4C that left Volunteers to focus on mostly 20m and 40m.

    Happy to add you as a future Volunteer to Activate on 10m if you would like to help - send an email to mailto:marc@w4ovt.org to communicate your interest and I will reply with the K4B - Battle of Moores Creek Bridge - Net Control Station Guide for your review.

    K4B is scheduled for February 27-28th.

    The K4B page has been updated for 2025 - please visit.

    73,
    Marc - W4OVT
     

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