Guilford Courthouse

Wikipedia

The Battle of Guilford Court House was a battle fought on March 15, 1781 in Greensboro, the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, during the American Revolutionary War. A force of 1,900 British troops under the command of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis defeated an American force of 4,000 troops, commanded by Major General Nathanael Greene.

Despite the relatively small numbers of troops involved, the battle is considered pivotal to the American victory in the Revolution. Before the battle, the British appeared to have had great success in conquering much of Georgia and South Carolina with the aid of strong Loyalist factions, and thought that North Carolina might be within their grasp. In the wake of the battle, Greene moved into South Carolina, while Cornwallis chose to march into Virginia and attempt to link up with roughly 3500 men under British Major General Phillips and American turncoat Benedict Arnold. These decisions allowed Greene to unravel British control of the South, while leading Cornwallis to Yorktown and eventual surrender to Major General George Washington and Lieutenant General Comte de Rochambeau.

The battle is commemorated at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.

Greene reported his casualties as 57 killed, 111 wounded and 161 missing for the Continental troops and 22 killed, 74 wounded and 885 missing for the militia: a total of 79 killed, 185 wounded and 1,046 missing.[1] Of those reported missing, 75 were wounded men who were captured by the British.[6] When Cornwallis resumed his march, these 75 wounded prisoners were left behind at Cross Creek,[2] Cornwallis having earlier left 70 of his own most severely wounded men at the Quaker settlement of New Garden[7] near Snow Camp.
Every year, on or about March 15, re-enactors in period costumes present a tactical demonstration of Revolutionary War fighting techniques on or near the battle site, major portions of which are preserved in the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, established in 1917. Recent research has shown that the battlefield extended into the area now within the boundaries of the adjacent Greensboro Country Park to the east.

Three current Army National Guard units (116th Inf,[8] 175th Inf[9] and 198th Sig Bn[10]) are derived from American units that participated in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. There are only thirty Army National Guard and active Regular Army units with lineages that go back to the colonial era.
In the 2000 historical epic The Patriot, the final battle was inspired by the battles of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse. The Americans used the same tactics in both battles. In the film, the name of the battle, as well as the winning side, was taken from the Cowpens battle. The sizes of the armies, as well as their being led by generals Greene and Cornwallis, come from the Guilford Courthouse battle. The scene where Cornwallis orders his artillery to "concentrate on the center," during which they killed both Continentals and his own troops, took place at Guilford Courthouse.