• Home
• About Us
• Encyclopedia
• Educator’s Corner
• Community Calendar
• Commentary
• Site Help
• Contact Us

Font Size: AAA

Battle of Guilford Court House

Perhaps the greatest event to shape Guilford County in the early colonial period was the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781.  After their northern campaigns proved unsuccessful, the British decided to incite a rebellion in the South and establish a monarchy to separate the northern colonies from much needed resources.  General Nathanael Greene took command of the Southern Continental Army as Lord Cornwallis entered North Carolina.  With inferior numbers, Greene avoided direct Napoleonic warfare and chose to engage in quick skirmishes and hasty retreats.  This battlefield method wore Cornwallis and his army down as they chased the illusive Greene and his troops.

In 1781, Greene (and his 4,400 soldiers) engaged Cornwallis at a strategic location surrounding the Guilford Courthouse because of the open terrain for battle and thick forest which allowed for a safe retreat.  His plan involved setting up three defensive battle lines that would clash one-by-one with Cornwallis’s incoming forces, and after the the lines had fired several times, Greene would withdraw his troops from the British advance.

On March 15th, Cornwallis, along with his 2,000 troops, picked up rumors of Greene’s encampment, and he organized his army for battle.  At first, the course of the battle was in Cornwallis’s favor because the British quickly broke through the first two defense lines.  However, the terrain and marksmanship of the trained regulars proved devastating to Cornwallis’s advance.  The British army eventually surpassed the third line, but Cornwallis lost over a quarter of his troops to death or injury.  As Greene quickly reassembled his forces in Wilmington, Cornwallis had trouble boosting the morale of his soldiers and he never fully recovered from his loss at the Guilford Courthouse.  Seven months after this battle, General Washington defeated Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown, ending the Revolutionary War.