Daniel Morgan, for whom the county was named in 1822, was born in N.J. in 1736 and moved to Va. He served in Pontiac's War and in Dunmore's expedition to Pa. in 1774, took part in the attack on Quebec in 1775, and as a colonel commanded a Va. corps of 500 sharpshooters at Saratoga in Oct. 1777. Regarded as a master of military art, he later led the victory at Cowpens as a brigadier general in Jan. 1781, commanded the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794, and served in the U.S. Congress from 1797 to 1799.