The Gratitude of Congress, re: Cowpens

March 9, 1781

The United States, in Congress assembled, considering it as a tribute due to distinguished merit to give a public approbation to the conduct of Brigadier General Morgan and of the officers and men under his command on the 17th of January last, when with eighty cavalry and two hundred and thirty-seven infantry of the troops of the United States and five hundred and fifty-three militia from the States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia he obtained a complete and important victory over a select and well appointed detachment of more than eleven hundred British Troops commanded by Lieut. Col. Tarleton, do therefore resolve,
That the thanks of the United States in Congress assembled be given to Brigadier General Morgan and the men under his command for the fortitude and good conduct displayed in the action at the Cowpens, in the State of South Carolina, on the seventeenth day of January last: That a medal of gold be presented to Brigadier-General Morgan, a medal of silver to Lieutenant-Colonel Washington, of the Cavalry, and one of silver to Lieutenant-Colonel Howard, of the Infantry of the United States, severally, with emblems and mottoes descriptive of the conduct of those officers respectively on that memorable day.
That a sword be presented to Colonel Pickens, of the Militia, in testimony of his spirited conduct in the action before mentioned.
That Major Edward Giles, aid-de-camp to Brigadier-General Morgan, have the brevet commission of a Major; and that Baron de Glabuck. who served with Brigadier-General Morgan as a Volunteer, have the brevet commission of a captain in the Army of the United States in consideration of their merit and services.
Ordered that the commanding officers in the Southern Department communicate these resolutions in general orders.

(Source: Cowpens Papers: Being Correspondence of General Morgan and the Prominent Actors, from the collection of Theodorus Bailey Myers, pp. 37-38)