Howard’s Military Service
[Source]
Howard’s contemporaries considered him to be one of the finest officers of the period. “Light-Horse Harry” Lee wrote of him: “We have seen him at the Battle of Cowpens seize the critical moment and turn the fortune of the day; – alike conspicuous, though not alike successful, at Guilford and the Eutaws; and at all times, and all occasions eminently useful. He was justly ranked among the chosen sons of the South.” General Nathanael Greene wrote, “Colonel Howard is as good an officer as the world afforded, and deserves a statue of gold, no less than the Roman or Grecian heroes.” Congress honored John Eager Howard for his actions at Cowpens, not with a gold statue, but with a silver medal, which he received in 1790.