[5] He continued as a wagoner, which much of the profits initially being spent on alcohol, gambling, and female company, and resulted in several appearances before a Virginia magistrate, for charges from assault, through the burning down of a neighbours tobacco shed, to horse theft.

[5] Morgan later served as a rifleman in the provincial forces assigned to protect the western settlements from French-backed Indian raids.

[5][7] They called for the formation of 10 rifle companies[6][7] from the middle colonies to support the Siege of Boston,[5] and late in June 1775, Virginia agreed to send two.

[5] This caused great outrage within and without the British army; amongst others, Washington disapproved of this way of war, and when gunpowder began to run out he forbade Morgan to fight in such a manner.

[15] Colonel Benedict Arnold convinced General Washington to start an eastern offensive in support of Montgomery's invasion.

On June 13, 1777, Washington also gave Morgan command of the Provisional Rifle Corps, a light infantry force of 500 riflemen chosen from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia regiments of the Continental Army.

Washington wrote the following letter to Morgan on August 16, 1777: "Sir: After you receive this, you will march, as soon as possible, with the corps under your command, to Peekskill, taking with you all the baggage belonging to it.

After their victory at Saratoga, Washington sent them to harass General William Howe's rearguard, and Morgan did so during their entire withdrawal across New Jersey.

[19] Morgan led his regiment, with the added support of Henry Dearborn's 300-man New Hampshire infantry, as the advance to the main forces.

Daniel Morgan's sharpshooters were ordered to specifically shoot British officers and their Native American Guides.

[20] Passing through the Canadian loyalists, Morgan's Virginia sharpshooters got the British light infantry trapped in a crossfire between themselves and Dearborn's regiment.

Although the light infantry broke, General Fraser was trying to rally them, encouraging his men to hold their positions when Benedict Arnold arrived.

Arnold spotted him and called to Morgan: "That man on the grey horse is a host unto himself and must be disposed of — direct the attention of some of the sharpshooters amongst your riflemen to him!"

With Fraser mortally wounded, the British light infantry fell back into and through the redoubts occupied by Burgoyne's main force.

That night, he withdrew to the village of Saratoga, New York (renamed Schuylerville in honor of Philip Schuyler) about eight miles to the northwest.

Being ordered by General George Washington, in the summer and fall of 1779, Morgan and his riflemen were part of Sullivan's Expedition into the Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions of New York.

Gates was taking command in the Southern Department, and Morgan felt that being outranked by so many militia officers would limit his usefulness.

After Gates' disaster at the Battle of Camden, Morgan thrust all other considerations aside, and went to join the Southern command at Hillsborough, North Carolina.

He gave Morgan's command of about 600 men the job of foraging and enemy harassment in the backcountry of South Carolina, while avoiding direct battle.

Morgan's plan took advantage of Tarleton's tendency for quick action and his disdain for the militia,[22] as well as the longer range and accuracy of his Virginia riflemen.

The captured commander of a battalion of the 71st Regiment of Foot, Fraser's Highlanders, Archibald McArthur, said after the battle that, "He was an officer before Tarleton was born; that the best troops in the service were put under 'that boy' to be sacrificed".

[23][24] Cornwallis had lost not only Tarleton's legion but also his light infantry, losses that limited his speed of reaction for the rest of the campaign.

The damp and chill of the campaign had aggravated his sciatica to the point that he was in constant pain; on February 10, he returned to his Virginia farm.

[22] In July 1781, Morgan briefly joined Lafayette to pursue Banastre Tarleton once more, this time in Virginia, but they were unsuccessful.

As part of his settling down in 1782, he joined the Presbyterian Church and, using Hessian prisoners of war, built a new house near Winchester, Virginia.

Serving under General "Light-Horse Harry" Lee, Morgan led one wing of the militia army into Western Pennsylvania.

In 1881 (on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens), a statue of Morgan was placed in the central town square of Spartanburg, South Carolina.

In late 1951, an attempt was made to reinter Morgan's body in Cowpens, South Carolina, but the Frederick-Winchester Historical Society blocked the move by securing an injunction in circuit court.

Morgan and his actions served as one of the key sources for the fictional character of Benjamin Martin in The Patriot, a motion picture released in 2000.

[38] In the early 1780s, Morgan joined efforts with Col. Nathaniel Burwell to build a water-powered mill in Millwood, Virginia.