Guilford Courthouse, Battle of , was an important battle of the American Revolution (1775-1783). It took place near Greensboro, North Carolina, on March 15, 1781. British forces led by Lieutenant General Lord Charles Cornwallis clashed with American troops under Major General Nathanael Greene. The battle ended when the British drove the Americans from the battlefield. However, the battle weakened the British army, which soon withdrew from North Carolina.
Background.
In late 1778, the British focused their war strategy on winning the South. They controlled all of Georgia by early 1779. In May 1780, the British captured the port of Charleston, South Carolina. In August, they won another major victory near Camden, South Carolina. General Cornwallis, encouraged by the victories, began to act more boldly. In September, he charged into North Carolina before South Carolina was firmly under control. In October, an American force badly defeated part of his army at Kings Mountain, just inside South Carolina. Cornwallis was forced to cancel his invasion.
Also in October, General Greene became commander of the American Southern Army. Greene divided his troops into two units. He led one, and he put Brigadier General Daniel Morgan in charge of the other. Greene hoped to avoid battle with Cornwallis’s troops while the American forces regrouped. Greene planned to let the British chase the Americans around the countryside.
In January 1781, Morgan’s troops defeated British forces at Cowpens, in northern South Carolina. The patriot victory at Cowpens enraged Cornwallis, who pursued the Americans. Cornwallis hoped to catch up with Morgan before Morgan could join forces with Greene.
In February, Morgan’s army crossed the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, just ahead of Cornwallis’s arrival. Morgan’s and Greene’s armies joined forces soon afterward. For the next several weeks, Greene led the army as it moved through North Carolina and Virginia. Local militia (citizens’ army) members joined with Greene along the way.
By mid-March, Greene had assembled his forces near Guilford Courthouse, a small village in northern North Carolina. Cornwallis’s forces were camped nearby.
The battle.
On March 15, the British approached the American defenses at Guilford Courthouse. Cornwallis led about 1,900 well-trained British, Loyalist, and German soldiers. Greene commanded about 4,400 men, most of them from Virginia or North Carolina. More than a third of his force was made of Continental Army soldiers. The remainder was made up of militiamen.
Greene arranged his troops in three lines. The first line was made up of inexperienced North Carolina militia. Virginia militia formed the second line, and disciplined Continental soldiers formed the third line. Cornwallis fought his way through the first two lines, suffering heavy losses along the way. The British encountered their stiffest resistance from the Continentals in Greene’s third line. After a few hours of battle, Greene withdrew his troops from the field. Cornwallis claimed victory in the battle, but the British had lost about one-fourth of their men.
Aftermath.
About 90 British troops were killed in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, and about 440 were wounded or missing. About 50 of the wounded died by the following day. About 80 Americans were killed, and about 185 were wounded. By some accounts, more than 1,000 militiamen ran away during the battle. Cornwallis’s weakened army abandoned North Carolina soon after the battle. His forces would later surrender to an American and French force at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781.
Today, the National Park Service maintains the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park at the site of the battle.
See also American Revolution (The war in the South) ; Cornwallis, Charles ; Greene, Nathanael .
