Brigadier General William Lee Davidson, the leading partisan officer of the North Carolina piedmont in the Revolutionary War, was killed on the Mecklenburg bank of the Catawba River at Cowan's Ford on February 1, 1781. The exact spot is now under water near the east end of the dam. With a small force of volunteer militia, he attempted to stop or slow the crossing of the Catawba by Lord Cornwallis and the British army as they pursued the main American forces under General Nathanael Greene. The young brigadier, only thirty four, was shot from the river, presumably by a tory guide, and fell dead from his horse on the bank. Although the British completed the crossing, the fight at Cowan's Ford delayed them enough to allow the main army to escape to Guilford Courthouse, where Greene gave successful battle to Cornwallis. Davidson, reared in the North Carolina piedmont and the most popular commander in the area, was the chief instrument relied upon by Greene for calling out the impulsive and often reluctant state militia in defense of their country. He was buried by torchlight in Hopewell Presbyterian churchyard in Mecklenburg County because the territory around his own church, Centre, was that night infested with British and Tories. He was married to Mary, daughter of the patriot squire John Brevard, and left a large family of small children. Davidson College and Davidson counties in North Carolina and Tennessee are named in his honor.