[4] On January 31, 1781, Greene and Morgan left the Catawba River defenses in the hands of militia General William Lee Davidson, and rode towards Salisbury to establish a rallying point.

[5] At Cowan's Ford on February 1, 1781, a force of Patriot militia commanded directly by Davidson held back the British Army for a period of time, and slowed their crossing of the Catawba River.

[2] After the engagement at Cowan's Ford, citizens between the Catawba and Yadkin rivers who were sympathetic to the Patriots became panicked, and many fled their homes with whatever valuables they could pack in a short period of time.

[12] At the first sign of the British approach, the Patriots attempted to organize a defense under the ad hoc command of Captain Nathaniel M. Martin, who tried to rally the militia to a line behind a nearby rail fence.

[10][14] While the battle was a minor engagement, the defense provided some additional time for Greene's main army of regulars to cross the Yadkin River without harassment near Salisbury, which allowed that force to regroup and resupply.

[10] Upon reaching Salisbury after the loss, and finding nearly 1,700 stands of muskets rusted and in useless condition, Greene reportedly exclaimed: "These are the happy effects of defending the Country with Militia from which the good Lord deliver us!

[10] The battle's effect on the war in the south was minor, but the failure of Patriot militia to stall Cornwallis at Cowan's Ford and Torrence's Tavern forced Greene to hasten his retreat.

[16] The total impact of Torrence's Tavern alone, however, has been rated as especially minor, since the Continental Army force commanded by Greene managed to escape Cornwallis' advance regardless of the short engagement's outcome, and given the more substantial delay to the British caused by the defense at Cowan's Ford the previous day.

"[11] Cornwallis, however, wrote to George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville about the engagements of February 1–2, 1781, and stated that "this stroke, with our passage of the ford, so effectively dispirited the militia, that we met with no further opposition on our march to the Yadkin.