Battle of Guilford Courthouse

15 March 1781

British Victory

General Charles, Lord Cornwallis and his British army of 1,900 troops attacked General Nathanael Greene’s 4,400-man army at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, at the end of a campaign that spanned seven months and hundreds of miles. Although the American army retreated from the field to end the battle, casualties in the British ranks were so high that Cornwallis was compelled to move to Wilmington and failed to subdue the state.

After the British had in effect conquered South Carolina and established several outposts there by late summer of 1780, Cornwallis decided to move into North Carolina to further destroy American forces and supplies in the South. Following his victory at Camden, South Carolina, on 16 August, he and his troops advanced into North Carolina at Charlotte. However, a Patriot defeat of Carolina Loyalists at nearby Kings Mountain on 7 October, temporarily halted his campaign. Reinforced in mid-January, Cornwallis again advanced toward North Carolina, despite part of his forces being annihilated at the Battle of Cowpens, South Carolina, on 17 January 1781. Undeterred, British forces marched into North Carolina by the end of January. Opposing Cornwallis was a small army of militia and Continentals, led by Greene. A period of several weeks of maneuvering by both armies in the Piedmont did not bring about a battle until 15 March 1781, at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. By this time, the British army numbered just less than 2,000 troops, facing Greene’s Army of approximately 4,400 men. Greene aligned his troops in three lines, with militia in the first line, Virginia state troops behind them in a second line, and finally a third line occupied by Continental infantry and artillery. After a hard fought struggle of several hours, Cornwallis forced Greene to retreat from the battlefield, but the Redcoats suffered tremendous casualties. 

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