in the South virtually collapsed. The states carried on their governmental functions, and the war was carried on by partisans such as Francis Marion, Thomas Sumter, William R. Davie, Andrew Pickens, and Elijah Clarke. General Clinton turned over British operations in the South to Lord Cornwallis. The Continental Congress dispatched General Horatio Gates, the victor of Saratoga, to the South with a new army, but Gates promptly suffered one of the worst defeats in U.S. military history at the Battle of Camden (August 16, 1780). Cornwallis prepared to invade North Carolina. Cornwallis's attempts to raise Loyalists in large numbers in North Carolina were effectively crushed when Patriot militia defeated a larger force of Loyalists in the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. Many of the Patriot men had crossed the Appalachian Mountains from the Washington District of North Carolina to fight the British, and were so named the Overmountain Men. The British plan to raise large Loyalist armies failed—not enough Loyalists enlisted, and those who did were at high risk once the British army moved on. The defeat at Kings Mountain and the continuing harassment of his communications and supply lines by militia forces in South Carolina forced Cornwallis to withdraw and winter in South Carolina. Gates was replaced by Washington's most dependable subordinate, General Nathanael Greene. Greene assigned about 1,000 men to General Daniel Morgan, a superb tactician who crushed Tarleton's troops at the Battle of Cowpens on January 17, 1781. As after Kings Mountain, Cornwallis was later criticized for detaching part of his army without adequate support. Greene proceeded to wear down his opponents in a series of skirmishes and military movements referred to as the "Race to the Dan" (so named because the Dan River flows close to the border between North Carolina and Virginia); each encounter resulted in a tactical victory for the British but gave them no strategic advantage, while attrition took its toll. Cornwallis knew that Greene had divided his forces and wanted to face either Morgan's or Greene's contingent before they could rejoin. He stripped his army of all excess baggage in an effort to keep up with the fast-moving Patriots. When Greene learned of this decision, his gleeful response was "Then, he is ours!" Cornwallis's lack of provisions as a consequence played a role in his later difficulties. Greene first engaged Cornwallis in the Battle of Cowan's Ford, where Greene