Interesting Stories Associated with

Guilford Courthouse

(Short essays about people and events related to the history of the
Battle of Guilford Courthouse)

Guilford County is created in reaction to a taxpayer's revolt.

Some things never change! Americans today who grumble about how their
government operates or interferes with their lives may find the
eighteenth-century North Carolina Regulator movement an interesting
study, if not only of history, but of people and their government.

North Carolina prior to the American Revolution was a crown colony of
Great Britain. As such, the King of England governed by appointing a
royal governor to administer the affairs of the colony. The people were
represented in an Assembly. These literate men (*remember women were not
yet enfranchised)* came from the landed gentry and served to further the
best interest of the king or the governor, an interest they made sure
was as close to their own interest, too! One of the advantages of being
so close to the power of the crown was the platinum opportunity to
obtain for themselves, or for a friend, the "gift" of a lucrative
governmental post, such as assemblyman, county tax collector, judge,
militia colonel, magistrate, justice of the peace, *or all of them at
once!* Multiple officeholding was quite common because, without a
salary, their income came from the collection of taxes and fees.

By the late 1750's the people of piedmont and western North Carolina
were beginning to have their fill of these local officials who either in
their opinion or on a rare indictment were all corrupt, abusing the
power of their office for personal gain, particularly through the highly
favored practice of misappropriating or embezzling public funds. Riots
and protests in 1759 and 1765 resulted in some officials or their agents
angrily confronted or, worst, beaten short of death. North Carolina's
Royal Governor, William Tryon, viewed by the people as sitting on top of
this mountain of corruption, was not immune either. His condoning of
these practices and benefiting from them, too, irritated and ignited the
citizenry. Fueling the fire was his extravagance in building a "palace"
for himself at New Bern using tax money "stolen" from them.

In the backcountry counties of Rowan and Orange, far removed from the
improvements and benefits going to eastern North Carolina, rose up a
vigilante force of citizens taking the name "Regulators", an old English
term applied to those "*with the professed object of supplying the want
of the regular administration of justice*." Herman Husbands, their
outspoken leader, protested in the Assembly with no result, except to be
expelled. Rebuked in this lawful way-to-do-things arena, the Regulators
picked more aggressive leaders and their actions grew bolder. From 1768
to 1771, acts of violence and retribution against these officials ranged
from protests to mock trials. As these grew into mob violence more than
once the Governor was required to call out the militia. Seeking to
control the wrath of the Regulators, the Assembly passed the "Riot" or
"Bloody Act" on January 15, 1771 making rioters guilty of treason and
giving the Governor the power to quell any insurrection with military
force. In defiance of the Assembly, an "army" of Regulators marched on
Hillsborough. Barring the road near Alamance Creek stood Tryon's force
of militia. On May 16, 1771, in a short one-sided battle, the Regulators
were defeated. Content the rebellion was crushed and to be certain it
remained crushed, one of the movement's top leaders was executed
immediately and twelve others were later tried in court. Six of them
were hanged; their bodies drawn and quartered, and buried in unmarked
graves. Those not put to death were obliged to swear allegiance to the
government. As calm descended over middle-North Carolina, many of the
ex-Regulators left their homes in self-banishment for the
"non-government" of the frontier. Tryon and Fanning left to fill similar
government jobs in New York. Later, when the Revolution began, many of
those who had participated in this rebellion against the governor and
his cronies had to choose sides. Some took the road again to rebellion
and supported the cause of independence; others, sensing the officials
they had bitterly despised in 1771 were the same ones now in charge of
the Revolution, chose to remain loyal to the King.

One of the political reactions to the Regulators was the creation of a
new county formed by slicing off the western part of Orange and the
eastern part of Rowan County. The Governor and the Assembly hoped this
new county, stretching north from the Virginia border south to the
Uwharrie Mountains, would weaken the political influence of the
Regulators by installing more new "appointed" officials. Thus Guilford
County, named for the father of King George's Prime Minister, Lord
North, began by an act of Assembly in 1770 to take effect in April 1771,
a month before the battle of Alamance. A few years later, in its center,
county commissioners began erecting a small wooden building along the
Great Salisbury Wagon Road. Here, too, in less than ten years, an
important battle of the American Revolution would be fought.

Lord Cornwallis, a soldier who opposed a war against the colonies.

Lord Charles, Second Earl Cornwallis revealed that he was somewhat
sympathetic of America's colonial grievances in the years preceding the
Revolutionary War. While serving in Parliament he opposed the Stamp Act
and the other detested parliamentary measures that led the colonies to
start a shooting war in 1775. But, after the war began, Cornwallis
shared the displeasure with many of his fellow high-ranking British
commanders of having to fight against colonial Englishmen. But his
higher sense of duty as a professional soldier to king and country
directed him to serve in America. He performed amazingly well in
contrast to his superiors whose conduct of the war so far had not proved
all too successful. Cornwallis' abilities did not escape the eye of the
king and others within the military leadership. In 1779 he came quite
near to being appointed Commander in Chief in America. This lost
opportunity for Cornwallis, and perhaps Britain, came at a time when
British military strategists were considering a change in plans for the
war in America. Had King George III ignored his advisors and appointed
Cornwallis CIC over the favored Sir Henry Clinton, the final course of
the war would have been very different. The shift of the war to the
South, already set firm in the minds of the British military and
political strategists, would have, without a doubt, continued. But, with
the more aggressive Cornwallis in charge, would it have led to a place
called Guilford Courthouse?

Nathanael Greene, a pacifist who chose to become a soldier.

Greene was born in Rhode Island in 1742 to Quaker parents. His pacifist
upbringing scorned any connection to the evils of warfare or the
military life. In his early educational process Greene enjoyed reading
the Greek and Roman classics. Maybe the epic stories of the Trojan War,
the histories of the campaigns of Hannibal or the Roman conquests
spurred a martial interest inside him. By the 1770's, now successful in
his father's iron founding business, he had begun to take a personal
interest in the colonies' growing discontent over British policies. By
1773, then a Rhode Island Assemblyman, Greene's interest in things
military was apparent. After he was spotted at one too many military
parades, he was informed by the Society of Friends that his
contradictory actions forced them to remove his name from the meeting.
Then, in 1774, the British revenue cutter, "Gaspee", was boarded and set
afire in the waters off his Rhode Island home. In the trial that
followed, Greene was accused of complicity in the affair by one of its
crewmembers. Greene's anger over the accusation led to the utterance of
some very un-pacifist remarks. Although innocent of the charges, Greene
was now linked to the growing revolutionary movement. Lacking formal
military training Greene began to develop his own skills as a soldier.
Touchy about a stiff knee that he thought disqualified him, he declined
an officer's rank in the Kentish Guards, a local militia unit he had
helped to raise. He joined anyway as a private in the ranks carrying a
musket he purchased from a British deserter from Boston. Greene's keen
mind and natural leadership qualities made him less the private soldier
and more the obvious choice as its company commander. In June 1775,
after the Assembly appointed Greene brigadier general, he reported with
the Rhode Island militia to General George Washington's rebel forces
then assembling at Cambridge, Massachusetts. After Boston was evacuated
in March 1776, Greene's brigade was sent to defend New York City from a
British attack. On April 9 he was promoted to the rank of major general
by the Congress to command a newly formed division to defend Long
Island.

Cornwallis and Greene's first battlefield encounter was not at Guilford
Courthouse.

Soon after Greene's promotion to major general in April 1776, the
British Army of Sir William Howe attacked New York City. One of Howe's
trusted and experienced division commanders was Lord Cornwallis. At the
American-held Fort Washington, New York, Greene and Cornwallis came very
close to fighting each other for the first time. Greene, still learning
the art of war first-hand, wisely ordered the abandonment of the fort.
Later and still serving under other commanders the two came close to
blows at Princeton and Brandywine. They may have had their first real
head-to-head military encounter in June 1778 at the battle of Monmouth,
New Jersey. Here, Cornwallis led the attack of Sir Henry Clinton's
British army against General George Washington's American right
commanded by Greene. After Monmouth, the war began to change. Two and
one-half years of the war would elapse before they would actually face
each other again on a battlefield\--on March 15, 1781 to be exact\--at
Guilford Courthouse. By then both generals were experienced enough to
respect each other's ability.

Nathanael Greene might have been the "Father of the Country".

During the early days of the American Revolution, General George
Washington quickly recognized the talents of Nathanael Greene. The great
general took on the younger soldier much like a master craftsman takes
on a boy apprentice to teach him the skills of a trade. Washington was
an insistent master and persuaded the reluctant apprentice to take on
several difficult jobs that he knew would test his ability and develop
his skills. The friendship growing out of this association helped Greene
through many trying situations and obtained for him appointments that
might have gone to others of lesser abilities. The Washington and Greene
families were also close. When Nathanael and Catherine Greene named
their first two children George Washington Greene and Martha Washington
Greene the Washington's took a personal interest in their education and
development.

During the war, George Washington was often seen in the thick of the
fighting and could have been captured, wounded\--or killed. He could
just as easily been made sick or died from the epidemics of measles,
small pox and other catastrophic diseases that frequently spread through
the army. Although we know none of these things really happened, what if
something catastrophic had happened to George Washington, the military
leader and soul of the Revolution? Who would have taken over as military
leader---Gates?---Arnold? It was rumored, if not a known fact at the
time, Washington personally preferred Nathanael Greene to take over as
Commander in Chief to guide the War for Independence to final victory.
Maybe that is why he drove his apprentice so hard.

Nathanael Greene might never have become commander in the South.

Greene saw himself as becoming a great military commander, a leader on
horseback of soldiers in battle, much like the heroes of the Greek and
Roman classics he had read about as a youngster, so when he was offered
the appointment to Quarter Master General, a "desk job", in 1778, he
declined. Urged by Washington to take this important position he
accepted reluctantly. Switching from saddle to desk was a hard change,
but he excelled in the process. The changes he made in the Quarter
Master Department virtually eliminated the supply problems of former
times, but not without criticism and the envy of some malcontents in
Congress. Perhaps jealous of his success or hopeful to fill the position
with a crony, several members of Congress refused Greene even a vote of
confidence---a simple acknowledgement that he was doing a good job. When
they forced him to accept unneeded reorganization, Greene felt
personally insulted and resigned! Repulsed at such reaction, several
irate members of Congress wanted him immediately expelled from the army.
Had they done so, Greene's blossoming military career would have ended
rather abruptly. But General Washington had plans for his apprentice
general and strongly urged Greene to hold on for the betterment of the
cause. Washington, of course, was right. Greene's patience paid off. He
stayed with the army, accepting for the time being a command assignment
to West Point, the important bastion on the Hudson River. Then, in
October 1780, Washington offered his protégé the command of the Southern
Department, a difficult assignment Greene knew would be his ultimate
test as a general. Greene carefully pondered the offer and then with the
confidence born of patience, accepted the challenge.

Nathanael Greene takes over a traitor's job and hangs a spy.

Not every American general had the patience or virtuous thick skin to
endure criticism and personal insult. One of these was American General
Benedict Arnold. Wounded in the leg at the Battle of Saratoga, New York,
in 1777 Arnold was one of the ablest of Washington's generals and he
knew it. The laurels heaped upon his superior, Horatio Gates,
overshadowed Arnold's ability and his heroic conduct on that field.
Growing sour and discouraged by the way Congress and the Army dispensed
promotions and glory, Arnold became ever more convinced that these
irresponsible leaders would cause the Revolution to fail and he did not
want to be around at the collapse. By 1780 Arnold, now commanding the
formidable Hudson River stronghold at West Point, made up his mind that
he would abandon what he believed was a doomed cause and switch his
allegiance to the British. If personal treason was not enough, Arnold
arranged to give a British officer, acting as his accomplice, a copy of
the plans of West Point's fortifications and other valuable military
information that would aid the capture of that position. After Arnold's
treachery was complete, Nathanael Greene (then out of a job in the
Quartermaster Department) was appointed by Washington as the American
replacement to command the important Hudson River stronghold. As
commander of this post, Greene was therefore in position to sit as head
of the military court that would try (and later hang) the captured
accomplice in the conspiracy---British Major John André.

Greene takes command of a defeated army.

General Washington wrote an official letter to General Nathanael Greene
at West Point on October 14, 1780, offering him command of the Southern
Department, an immense area that included Maryland and all the states
south to Georgia. Greene penned back an acceptance letter, but with the
provision that he must first travel home to settle his personal affairs
and to see his beloved wife, Catherine. Washington refused this request,
not to punish Greene, but because the worsening situation in the South
needed immediate attention. Charlestown, South Carolina had fallen with
a sizable force of American Continentals and the present commander,
General Horatio Gates, had been defeated in battle at Camden in
mid-August; his army all but destroyed. Quickly writing to his wife,
Greene explained, "*My dear Angel, What I have been dreading has come to
pass, His Excellency General Washington, by order of Congress, has
appointed me to the command of the Southern Army*." Upon reading her
husband's sorrowful words, she dashed off to see him before his
departure. Greene had hoped to embrace his beautiful "Caty" before he
left, but the urgency of the times prevented the farewell meeting. At
Army Headquarters at Preakness, New Jersey, he met with Washington to
receive his orders, hear last minute instructions, and pack his goods
before riding south.

Greene had his first shocking glimpse of his new command when he rode
into Hillsborough, North Carolina. Here, he saw for himself the
wretchedness of Southern Army's condition. It was worst than he had
feared. Riding on, Greene arrived at the Army's headquarters in
Charlotte. General Gates turned the army over to the new commander.
There were no bad feelings between the two; on-lookers said both men
were extremely cordial in true 18^th^-century gentlemanly style. Gates,
relieved of his burden, went home to Virginia. Now, the fate of the
Southern Department rested solely on the broad shoulders of Nathanael
Greene.

**October 1780, a turning point in the cause of independence.**

Two important events in the first half of the month of October 1780 had
a significant impact on the war in the South---and the American
Revolution. On October 7, the Patriot forces in the South had won a
great victory---the total defeat of Major Patrick Ferguson's Loyalist
forces at Kings Mountain at the hands of a host of irate Appalachian
farmers and backwoodsmen. This rebel "army" came not into being as an
official corps of the Southern Army, but for no other purpose than for
its members to fight in defense of their homes and way of life. This
host not only crushed the Loyalists and killed their commander, but they
dealt harshly with the survivors, hanging some and allowing others to
escape to spread fear among their friends. Hearing of this, some
thinking loyal Americans began to shy away from supporting Cornwallis,
bending the linchpin of the plans the British commander had for the
coming campaign in North Carolina. Then, as quickly as this victorious
host had waged their war, they returned home. Fearful of such a powerful
force in his backyard, Cornwallis evacuated Charlotte and marched back
to the safety of South Carolina. Coming in the wake of the dark disaster
at Camden, the victory at Kings Mountain was a great patriot morale
booster. Thomas Jefferson was quick to recognize the victory at Kings
Mountain as a turning point. A moral victory, Kings Mountain was a
welcomed relief to an army at a time when it was still suffering from
the ill effects of the defeat at Camden in August.

On October 14, 1780 Major General Nathanael Greene was appointed
Commander of the Southern Army. A few weeks later, Greene rode into this
atmosphere of mixed victory and defeat. Seeing the condition of part of
the Southern Army at Hillsborough, he journeyed on to Charlotte to take
command on December 2 from General Gates. Greene found Gates' Southern
Army destitute, hungry and dispirited. Greene acted immediately like a
doctor tending an ailing patient, first obtaining any available food and
medical supplies, then reorganizing the Continentals and finally making
plans to take advantage of Cornwallis's recent reverses. Contrary to
by-the-book military strategy, he proceeded to divide his smaller army.
Greene sent 600 of his best and most dependable forces southwest under
his trusted subordinate General Daniel Morgan while he took the rest
east to the Cheraw/PeeDee River area. The plan was bold\--and risky. The
first, a strong force under Morgan, the tough Virginian, was to divert
British attention and make them wary of their mission; the latter, a
weak one under General Isaac Huger, to take care of the wounded, sick
and hungry. Cornwallis responded to the first by sending a part of his
army under Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton to counter Morgan's end-run
around his left flank. These two clashed at the Cowpens, near the
Pacolet River, on January 17, 1781 ending in a humiliating defeat for
Tarleton and the capture of his army. Word of another British force
crushed brought anguish to Cornwallis, but another boost in morale for
the rebels.

Because of two important historical events in October 1780\--the
appointment of Greene and the victory at Kings Mountain\--the war in the
South was starting to turn.

Cornwallis wagers his army in a bet on success.

After the battle of Cowpens in January 1781, Cornwallis was determined
to catch Daniel Morgan before the American general retreated too far
into North Carolina. Putting his army into motion they arrived at
Ramseur's Mill (now Lincolnton), North Carolina, on January 25. So soon
into the pursuit of Morgan, it was obvious to Cornwallis that the army
was being slowed by the excess number of wagons and camp supplies. He
was also aware that it would take a rapid march to catch Morgan and free
the British prisoners captured at Cowpens before they could link up with
the other half of Greene's army now preparing to move north out of their
camp of repose 150 miles away. Cornwallis, taking a bold gamble, decided
to scrap the army's excess baggage, putting any unneeded items to the
torch, including wagons, tents, personal belongings and camp furniture.
As a display of solidarity, Cornwallis added some of his own excess
goods to the bonfire. The remaining wagons were loaded high with only
what was needed for a rapid march\--provisions, ammunition, medical
supplies, and salt. To provide for the faster-moving vanguard under
Brigadier General Charles O'Hara, excess team horses were designated as
"bat horses" with provisions and ammunition strapped on their backs. The
men were instructed to put their heavy knapsacks into the wagons, roll a
few necessities in their blankets and wear them across their shoulders.
A large supply of sole leather, acquired from tanneries in the area, was
distributed out to each man for future shoe repair, certainly a clear
indication to every soldier in Cornwallis' army a long march was ahead.

Cornwallis was gambling for success, using his reputation and troops as
ante, committing the army to a rapid pursuit while living off the
generosity of the land. An even greater risk was that they would be
marching into territory first passed over by the enemy, a major
consideration for the late winter campaign ahead. As risky as it was,
Cornwallis was confident that his decision would achieve success. This
was very reflective of his aggressive nature that earned him the title
"The Modern Hannibal" from his peers. In his army of professional
soldiers, some no doubt grumbled, but they all knew they could trust the
decision of the commander whom they affectionally referred to as "Ol'
Corncob".

In the weeks ahead, as the pursuing British army struggled to feed
itself, Greene's retreating army fared much better. The old
quartermaster's past experience as a provider paid off. Ahead of his
route of retreat toward Virginia, Greene had issued orders for the
location and construction of "magazines" filled with wagonloads of
supplies and provisions for the use of the army as it passed by. When he
reached Virginia he could then depend more on the steady flow of
additional supplies and reinforcements sent to him from its Governor,
Mr. Thomas Jefferson.

**North Carolina and Nathanael Greene lose a valuable General.**

With no way to ask permission from London or seek guidance from Clinton
in New York, Lord Cornwallis had to make a tough decision alone. To him,
burning his excess baggage at Ramseur's Mill was a sound military
decision, but in many ways it was a roll of the dice. It could go either
way, the ruination of his army or success if he could catch Daniel
Morgan before he linked with Greene's other forces coming up out of the
Cheraw/ PeeDee area of South Carolina. Defeating Morgan's force would
free the Cowpens prisoners, refilling his ranks to strengthen him before
taking on the second half of Greene's army. Time and speed, after all,
were more important than an unneeded trunk or canopy.

Even though Morgan's force was the stronger of the two halves of the
Southern Army, Greene was frantic. He dreaded what could happen if
Cornwallis' force caught up to Morgan before the two halves reunited.
The Southern Army needed time and Cornwallis had to be stopped or, at
least, delayed. Greene sent out letters urging the militia of North
Carolina to assemble and contest the British invasion of their home
state. One of these letters went to Brigadier General William Lee
Davidson, commanding the militia in the western counties of North
Carolina. Davidson was as capable officer as the war could produce. He
quickly posted a strong force of militia on the east bank of the Catawba
River at Cowan's Ford. Here, he waited for Cornwallis and his British
army to cross. Arriving at the ford on February 1, 1781 the British
began crossing the frigid and rapidly flowing river in force. On the
river's western bank, a Loyalist rifleman is said to have taken
deliberate aim at a rebel officer on horseback on the opposite side. The
rifle ball hit the officer---General Davidson---square in the chest and
he fell dead. As Davidson's body toppled to the ground, his horse
bolted. Without their leader, the militiamen were easily scattered by
the British infantry and cavalry. Finding Davidson's body, the British
searched it and took a black leather wallet from a pocket in his coat.
Cornwallis examined the wallet's contents finding a few papers, some
money and one of the letters Greene had written (the wallet and its
contents remained in Cornwallis' possession throughout the remainder of
the campaign and after Yorktown were taken to England). Davidson's
horse, borrowed from a militia major prior to the fight at Cowan's Ford,
returned riderless to its owner's home still with the general's two
pistols in their saddle holsters. After the British army pressed on in
pursuit of Morgan, Davidson's body was found and buried in the cemetery
of nearby Hopewell Presbyterian Church. Davidson's death came as a
severe loss. Greene was denied a capable officer and leader at a
critical time. Had Davidson lived, the advance of Cornwallis may not
have been stopped, but it would have been slowed, and subsequent events,
including the battle at Guilford Courthouse never fought.

Today, General William Lee Davidson is honored in North Carolina by the
county, town and college named for him. In far away London, the Public
Records Office preserves the vast Cornwallis Papers Collection.
Carefully preserved within this impressive collection of papers written
by and to the British general is Davidson's black leather
wallet\-\--with its contents, including Greene's frantic letter, still
as they were in February 1781. Davidson College owns (one now on loan to
Guilford Courthouse National Military Park) the two flintlock pistols,
marked with the general's name, that were saved after his borrowed horse
returned home.

**The Revolution's Southern Campaign came very close to ending in
Piedmont North Carolina.**

Following the battle of Cowpens in January 1781 General Daniel Morgan's
victorious American army force retreated northeast across North
Carolina. Cornwallis began a rapid pursuit from his camp in
Winnsborough, South Carolina hoping to free hundreds of British
prisoners captured in the battle and catch Morgan's force before it
could re-unite with the other half of the army moving north from Cheraw.
After successfully crossing the Catawba and scattering the local
militia, Cornwallis sent a vanguard of fast-moving infantry under
General Charles O'Hara toward Salisbury, 30 miles northeast. Cornwallis
calculated that Morgan would be stuck at the Yadkin River 10 miles east
of Salisbury, unable to ford across rising waters caused by late winter
thaw and rain. With the rebel's backs against this major river,
Cornwallis' gamble would pay off giving him the victory he wanted.

Unbeknownst to Cornwallis, General Greene, hurrying up from South
Carolina with a small escort, had already met Morgan west of Salisbury.
Greene, the resourceful strategist, had issued orders to have "bateaux"
(flatboats) constructed and waiting at Trading Ford to ferry Morgan's
army across. Passing through Salisbury, Greene's forces began crossing
the rising waters of the Yadkin River on February 4. Some of the last to
cross were the prisoners from Cowpens. Almost as soon as the last
bateaux were safely over, they were sunk, holes drilled through the
bottoms and weighted by rocks. Then, General Charles O'Hara's redcoat
vanguard appeared on the western bank above the ford. Irritated at this
last minute arrival, O'Hara ordered his artillery to open fire on rebel
targets on the opposite shore, particularly at a small cabin surrounded
by men and horses. Some of the British iron cannon shot struck the cabin
where, inside, Greene sat undisturbed writing dispatches.

Now Cornwallis was stuck! Without boats, it was impossible for the
British ford the swollen river. His forced march of weeks and miles to
this critical point had been for naught, the gamble wagered at Ramsour's
Mill now lost. Disappointed, if not disgusted, Cornwallis and his army
of exhausted redcoats settled for a few days rest in Salisbury. Leaving
Salisbury, he marched about thirty-five miles north and crossed the
Yadkin at Shallow Ford, west of Salem, still filled with the hope of
catching the retreating rebels.

The fortunate rising waters of the Yadkin had bought Greene's army
valuable time, but it cost Cornwallis the golden opportunity of ending
the campaign and bringing about the anticipated British victory. Had
Cornwallis been able to trap the rebels with their backs against the
Yadkin, the out-numbered Americans would have been forced to fight a
battle that certainly would have ended with the capture or destruction
of this, the strongest division of Greene's army. The decisive battle of
Trading Ford, an important engagement of the American Revolution never
fought, might have been the decisive episode of the Southern Campaign!

## Governor and General share their bed with a rude stranger! 

One bitterly cold rainy night during the campaign across North Carolina,
General Nathanael Greene and South Carolina Governor John Rutledge, who
had journeyed with the Southern Army after the fall of Charleston,
sought the shelter of an abandoned shack. Inside, the two bone-tired
leaders piled onto the remains of a bed and were soon sound asleep.

Sometime during the dark night the two men were rudely awakened by a
smelly, grunting lout kicking and trying to force his way in on their
meager accommodations. How irritating! Who was this soldier so brazen to
think he could disturb a tired and now wide-awake general and a governor
from their sleep? Whoever he was, he was in for big trouble: KP for a
month? At this hour, maybe even a firing squad? Greene and Rutledge's
irritation quickly turned from rage to amusement. Instead of some
hapless soldier, a *hog*, likely as cold and tired as they were, had
nuzzled in between them!

**Greene decides to fight at Guilford Courthouse and then changes his
mind.**

General Nathanael Greene, now across the Yadkin River, sped with his
army northeast across Piedmont North Carolina toward his next
point---Guilford Courthouse---about 40 miles away. Greene had directed
all the retreating militia to gather at this small hamlet between the
Deep and Haw Rivers. Here, too, Greene had planned that the two wings of
the Southern Army would re-unite. Indeed, on February 8, 1781 the Cheraw
force under General Isaac Huger (*pronounced* "*U-gheé*"), scion of a
prominent old French Huguenot family of Charleston, marched into
Guilford Courthouse. Although the army was rejoined, only two-hundred
militia had mustered at Guilford. Forty miles away, Cornwallis, still
determined to overtake and defeat Greene, waded his redcoats over the
Yadkin River at Shallow Ford the same day and headed east through Salem,
the Moravian settlement. Greene, anticipating the possibility of a
battle with Cornwallis within the next few days, called a council of war
with his officers. Daniel Morgan, the rugged "Ol' Waggoner", had
performed well with his victory at Cowpens and in the retreat to date.
But Morgan was ill and afflicted with back pains so painful he could not
sit a horse. He reluctantly asked leave of Greene to return home in
Virginia. Even with his whole army, Greene decided now was just not the
time to take on Cornwallis. Instead, the Southern Army moved out of
Guilford Courthouse headed toward the fords of the Dan River seventy
miles to the northeast.

Cornwallis loses the "Race to the Dan".

Before General Nathanael Greene left Guilford Courthouse for the middle
fords on the Dan River, he directed the army's adjutant general, Colonel
Otho Holland Williams of the Maryland Brigade, to lead a select 700-man
contingent of infantry and cavalry to stand between the retreating army
and Cornwallis and to deceive the redcoats of the army's true
destination. Williams' corps or "flying camp" left Guilford Courthouse
on February 10, 1781 marching northwest to draw Cornwallis toward the
upper fords of the Dan River farther to the west. Much to Greene's
relief, the ruse worked! Cornwallis swallowed the bait and stayed hard
on the heels of Williams' men. Arriving at the wrong ford, Cornwallis
was, to put it mildly, annoyed to find he had been decoyed. He shifted
direction, again chasing Williams hoping he would take him to the main
rebel army. On February 14, Greene and the main army had safely reached
Irwin's and Boyd's ferries on the flooded Dan River, again crossing on
bateaux prepared by his quartermaster, Colonel Edward Carrington. By the
time Cornwallis arrived in sight, Williams' "flying camp" and the rest
of the American army was fully across. Unlike the Yadkin River crossing
ten days before, the flooded Dan actually began to recede, but
Cornwallis decided wisely not to cross into the rebel stronghold of
Virginia.

As he looked at Greene's men on the far bank of the Dan River,
Cornwallis knew he had lost a great race. Since moving out of his camp
at Winnsborough, South Carolina, in January, his superb army was nearly
exhausted and hundreds of miles from the nearest British base. For four
long grinding weeks, the rebel fox had eluded the British hounds. Now
they were safe.

Greene plans a return to British-held North Carolina.

Major General Nathanael Greene's handling of the retreat across North
Carolina in the late winter of 1781 had been brilliantly conceived and
masterfully executed---a strategic triumph. Although he had not yet
fought a battle, he had, as Washington advised, kept the Southern Army
intact. Furthermore, he had saved its supplies ***and*** his prized
Continental troops, all the while drawing the enemy deeper into hostile
territory. Washington, Greene's master, had every reason to be proud of
his apprentice.

Lord Cornwallis had enough of this seemingly endless chase. He halted
the pursuit of Greene's rebel army on the south bank of the Dan River,
rested a day, and marched his tired British army south toward
Hillsborough, North Carolina passing through what is now Caswell County.
At a red-bricked Presbyterian Church his army stopped for the evening
and camped. Here, perhaps because of disgust at failure, British
soldiers or the flotsam of stragglers with the army committed an
outrage. The grave of the Rev. Hugh McAden, who had only died a few days
before, was dug up, it is said, by some soldiers thinking it contained
buried gold. When the poor reverend's corpse was the only thing found,
they plundered the church and McAden's home burning his library of
books, journals and papers. Whether Cornwallis condoned this action it
is not known.

Riding along with the British army was North Carolina's Royal Governor,
Josiah Martin. Arriving at Hillsborough, he and Cornwallis redeemed
military disappointment with political success. At this town, frequently
a center of colonial government, they announced, in Royal Proclamation,
the colony again restored to crown authority. Here, too, they "raised
the King's Standard", an ancient call for all friends of the King to
take up arms against their enemies.

As Cornwallis pondered his future plans in North Carolina, Greene at his
headquarters in Halifax Courthouse, Virginia, began calling upon
Governors Thomas Jefferson of Virginia and Thomas Burke of North
Carolina for men and supplies. Within a few weeks, units of Virginia
18-Month State Troops; militia; and riflemen from the Blue Ridge
Mountains began to arrive with more on the way. Beginning on February
18, Greene sent his regular and militia cavalry under Lt. Col. Henry Lee
and Brigadier General Andrew Pickens of South Carolina back to North
Carolina to reconnoiter Cornwallis's activities and if possible disrupt
their efforts to gather provisions and loyalist support. On the 20^th^
Greene dispatched more troops, and on the 24^th^, Greene rode with the
rest of the army back into North Carolina.

The strength and size of the American Southern Army were growing, and
with information that the militia from Eastern North Carolina was on the
way, the American commander was encouraged. Still, he felt the army was
not yet strong enough to go head-to-head with Cornwallis' army of tough
regulars. In the first two weeks of March 1781, Greene continued to move
from one headquarters site to another. Planning the actual time and
place for a battle he knew was imminent would have to wait.

Cornwallis decides to hold on to North Carolina with Loyalist support.

The desire to obtain the help of loyal Americans had been from the
beginning very much a part of Britain's political and military strategy
in the South. After a failed race to catch Nathanael Greene before he
reached Virginia, Cornwallis marched to the heart of North Carolina and
raised the King's Standard in Hillsborough. This was an official royal
proclamation, as if George III himself had sent out the call to every
loyal citizen of North Carolina to come to the aid of the King's troops.

One group of several hundred mounted loyalists gathered in Chatham
County under their commander, Colonel John Pyle. Riding north toward
Hillsborough on February 25, 1781, they encountered a column of cavalry
coming from the direction of the town. The column was led by several
British officers, including a young green-jacketed officer. They knew
this officer must be the renowned Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton
and the green-jacketed men in the column dragoons of his America-raised
British Legion. The British officers and Tarleton courteously greeted
Pyle and his men, speaking with them as the column continued past.
However, as the two columns were side by side in the road a fight began
in the rear and quickly spread all along the line. Pyle's men began
pleading for the killing to stop, shouting that they were loyal subjects
of the King, but the fight grew even more intense. Dozens of Pyle's men
fell dead and wounded by saber and pistol. Horrified and bewildered, the
rest of the loyalists, taking self-preservation to its maximum level,
fled into the forest. Colonel Pyle, too, saved himself by hiding rather
unceremoniously underwater in a cold pond breathing air through a hollow
reed. The survivors quickly spread the word amongst their Loyalist
neighbors that Tarleton, who the rebels called the "Butcher", was
killing the King's own friends.

In reality, the green-jacketed young officer ***was not*** Tarleton! It
was Lt. Colonel Henry Lee and the green-coated men riding with him were
not Tarleton's men, but troopers of Lee's Legion, a Continental Army
cavalry unit also uniformed in green jackets. To complete the deception,
Lee had recently captured several British officers and had used them,
likely with the threat of death, as decoys in this ruse that came to be
known as "Pyle's Hacking Match."

The brief, unplanned encounter in the road had been deadly\--over 100
Loyalists had been killed and dozens wounded\--yet few, if any, in Lee's
force. Accounts of "Tarleton's" brutality were told and retold many
times by those who had survived the incident. Piedmont Loyalists were
aghast. Although an often overlooked minor skirmish, the resultant
outrage, fear and hesitancy among the King's friends were better than
any plot the rebels could have dreamed up. At this critical time in his
campaign to destroy Greene and gain Loyalist support, this one incident
denied Cornwallis help when he needed it so much.

**A battle is imminent.**

On February 26, 1781 General Nathanael Greene established the
headquarters of the Southern Army at High Rock on the Haw River less
than 30 miles northwest of Hillsborough. Over the next few days he
changed his headquarters several times. Cornwallis left Hillsborough
sending forces to probe to the northwest hoping to bring Greene into
battle or to cut off that part of the rebel army operating south of the
Haw River. On March 2 Thomas Sumter and Henry Lee's cavalry, infantry
and riflemen struck Tarleton and Brigadier James Webster's forces at
Clapp's Mill on Alamance Creek and then withdrew. Just after dawn on
March 6 these units clashed again at Whitesell's (Wetzel's) Mill on
Reedy Fork. The Americans, under Colonel Otho Holland Williams, withdrew
as Webster's British troops pushed them back for over a mile. Fearing a
battle with Cornwallis before more reinforcements arrived; Greene called
all of his forces to join him north of the Haw River.

Having tasted blood, Cornwallis now moved quickly to catch Greene before
the rebel army grew any larger. Greene responded by keeping his army
moving, like a boxer avoiding his opponent, changing camps almost daily.
After the recent fights at Clapp's and Whitesell's, Greene grew
cautious, wary that a British surprise attack might catch him unprepared
or one that might come in the early morning hours. He made it a habit to
be up well before dawn personally inspecting the sentries and watching
and listening for signs of any enemy activity. Certainly, such vigilance
by their commander instilled confidence in the men. One morning Greene
was drawn to the rather audible snoring of Virginia Colonel John Green,
commander of one of the two Virginia 18-Month regiments. Asked how he
could sleep so soundly while the enemy was so near, the veteran Colonel
confidently replied, "*Why, General, I knew that you were awake*!"

Greene returns to Guilford Courthouse.

Although General Nathanael Greene had passed through Guilford Courthouse
during the retreat to Virginia in February, there is not very much
indication that he thought much of it as a future battle site. Some
historians over the years, writing of the battle and the Southern
Campaign have argued that Greene's overall plan was to lure Cornwallis
back into a "trap" at Guilford Courthouse.

Greene, having camped here a month before, knew something of the area
and was knowledgeable of the Piedmont and its rolling terrain, its roads
and rivers and certainly had advisors who could point him to places
ideal for a battle. But, when he came back on March 14, the location of
Guilford Courthouse was, to Greene, more as a known point, an easy to
find place with good access, a place where his militia reinforcements
from eastern North Carolina and Virginia could rendezvous. With now less
than half-day's march existing between them, Greene intended (*in his
March 16^th^ post-battle report to Congress*) an offensive action
against Cornwallis. Set for the morning of Thursday, March 15, it was to
begin with a dawn sortie from Guilford Courthouse in order to strike the
British in their camp located twelve miles to the southwest.

Although confident and seemingly aggressive, throughout the night of the
14^th^-15^th^, Greene, as cautious as a stranger in a dark house,
questioned his original decision. Leery that Cornwallis might make an
offensive thrust at him, and if the rain continued, his firepower would
be useless knowing the British were better with the bayonet. Sleep must
have been impossible. In the cold dark rainy hours before dawn,
dispatches coming in from cavalry patrols reported signs Cornwallis
might be preparing to leave his Deep River camp. Indeed, on March 14 at
this camp within the forks of the Deep River, Cornwallis had issued
orders for his soldiers to be ready to march at dawn the next day.
Before sunrise, Greene's choice was obvious. Rather than move his army
out and encounter the enemy somewhere not of his choosing, he dropped
his original plan and began preparing for a defensive action at Guilford
Courthouse. Whether or not he planned it that way from the beginning,
the rolling terrain with its fields and forests west of the county seat
would now become a "trap" to take on Cornwallis\--only if the rain would
stop! It would by mid-morning.

A battle in a Quaker community precedes the battle of Guilford
Courthouse.

General Nathanael Greene must have concluded Lord Cornwallis might
attack him before he could get his original plan into action. To protect
his forces gathered around Guilford Courthouse, Greene sent Colonel
William Washington and Lt. Colonel Henry Lee to wait and watch what he
knew would be the two possible road approaches. On the morning of March
15, 1781, Greene ordered Lee, who had spent most of the dreary night on
patrol duty, to advance with his cavalry and foot troops, along with
several companies of riflemen and militia, and post on the Great
Salisbury Wagon Road near the small Quaker settlement of New Garden,
four miles west of Guilford Courthouse.

In a misty rain, the British army moved out of their camp at 5:30 A.M.
choosing the Great Salisbury Wagon Road approach, a route that would
take them by way of the New Garden Meetinghouse. At about 10 A.M. the
cavalry and light infantry led by Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton, in
advance of Cornwallis's army, ran into Lee's troops at New Garden.
Forcing Lee's weaker force back a half-mile along the road in a running
firefight, Tarleton's cavalry confidently galloped after them as they
passed into a narrow lane. Here, Lee's cavalry coming from the opposite
direction charged headlong into them. Stopped, the British troopers were
trapped within the confines of the fenced lane. Many of Tarleton's
troopers fell as Lee's men cut into them with drawn sabers. As soon as
the survivors could turn about, Tarleton and his men were routed.
Tarleton led them down a side road through thick woods, but Lee chose to
dash after them using the Great Road as a certain shortcut. It was a
mistake. Instead, Lee ran face to face into the approaching main British
column. Lee fell back and made a brief stand at a crossroads a half-mile
farther. Again outnumbered and outgunned, he wisely withdrew. Arriving
back at Guilford Courthouse, Lee reported to Greene of the recent action
at New Garden and the British approach. In less than two hours the
British army would arrive on the battlefield.

Greene's army has decided military advantage at Guilford Courthouse.

General Nathanael Greene's American army on the afternoon of March 15,
1781 numbered approximately 4,400 to 4,500 men. His opponent, Lord
Charles Cornwallis, started out at 5:30 AM with about 1,924 men.
Suffering some casualties in the fight with Lee at New Garden in
mid-morning, Cornwallis now led a little over 1,900 British troops to
the battlefield. Reports from other British officers hint that
Cornwallis expected a larger force of rebels waiting for him at Guilford
Courthouse, possibly as many as 7,000. While this high figure was an
error based on either poor information or estimation, tactically the
size of Greene's army gave the rebels a numerical superiority, an
important military factor, of almost 2½ to 1!

In defense, Greene possessed another favorable military factor. He was
able to choose the field of battle and deployed his larger forces into
positions based on its best terrain features. Today, modern military
tacticians give an army in defense a multiplication factor of *three,*
giving Greene the equivalent of over 13,000 troops! Cornwallis, as the
offensive army, was placed on the disadvantage by being forced to march
his weary redcoats twelve miles to the battlefield and then engage a
waiting American force that was fresh and ready to fight.

Greene's men were also better fed and clothed. Quantities of provisions
and supplies had been issued to Greene's men prior to the battle,
whereas Cornwallis' men had been a long time on short rations with no
reserve of any extra supplies. Despite their many disadvantages, the
only advantages the British army possessed were the professionalism of
its soldiers and the number of artillery pieces\--they had *six* guns to
the American's *four*.

The battle of Guilford Courthouse was fought in North Carolina, but it
might be considered a Virginian's battle.

In addition to the blow suffered with the fall of the South's major
seaport, Charles Town (Charleston), South Carolina, in May 1780, was the
surrender of the Continental regiments from Virginia and North Carolina.
The loss of these Continental line troops (some of these troops were
sent home as prisoners on parole) meant that, at a time of facing a
British invasion, both states were solely dependent on calling out their
militia. North Carolina managed to raise two companies of Continentals
(sometimes described as "drafted militiamen") in time for Guilford
Courthouse. Virginia, facing British forces in her Tidewater area and
south in North Carolina managed to raise several units of regular
troops, or 18-month regiments, sending two in time for Guilford
Courthouse. Although North Carolina fielded over 1,100 militiamen and
about 100 Continentals at the battle, The two 18-Months regiments and
the large number of Virginia rifle companies, and county militia cavalry
and infantry regiments sent to the battle by Virginia's Governor Thomas
Jefferson accounted for well over half of General Nathanael Greene's
4,500-man army.

The King's loyal subjects fail Cornwallis.

Weak on manpower from the beginning of the war, the British began early
to seek support for their outnumbered and overworked professional
soldiers. The British first approached Catherine the Great of Russia who
declined their request. Rebuked, the British were more successful in
negotiations with the princes and Landgraves of the German states.
Several of these were, for a price, quite willing to hire out their
soldiers as allies with the British. As the war progressed, manpower
again became a concern. The royal officials of the South, mostly removed
from their power by the newly-formed rebel governments, spoke of
something worth listening to. To them the South was a vast reserve of
loyalist manpower sympathetic and supportive of British military
operations. This convincing and irresistible offer made a noticeable
change in British military affairs beginning as early as 1778.

Lord Cornwallis, planning a fall 1780 campaign into North Carolina,
wanted the good Loyalists to stay at home and tend their farms during
the summer growing season. By remaining quiet, yet productive, they
would provision his troops as they marched across North Carolina toward
Virginia, his September 1780 goal. Part of this plan also included the
establishment of a British base of supplies at Wilmington to supply him
by way of the Cape Fear River, navigable as far inland as Cross Creek
(Fayetteville). But, by mid-summer of 1780, the loyalists in North
Carolina could not wait any longer to go to war to settle some old
scores with their rebel neighbors. Taking matters in hand they rose up
and created a poorly-organized and ill-prepared force. Their hasty
"flash-in-the-pan" uprising was stopped cold by a rebel force on June 20
at Ramseur's Mill (Lincolnton). Cornwallis was furious, threatening to
court-martial the loyalist leader, Colonel John Moore! Four months
later, the disastrous defeat of the model loyalist army at Kings
Mountain on October 7 ruined his fall campaign plans and the harsh
treatment of the survivors quenched much of the loyalist fervor.
Cornwallis was devastated!

Some independent loyalist groups such as the one led by David Fanning
continued to operate out of Chatham and Randolph counties of North
Carolina by keeping the rebels busy in campaigns of attack and run.
Despite Fanning's successes, much of Cornwallis' immediate loyalist
support was destroyed following the disastrous episode called "Pyle's
Hacking Match" of February 25 where over a hundred were killed by
American cavalry posing as Tarleton's green-coated cavalrymen.

At Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781, Cornwallis was forced to fight
his opponent, Nathanael Greene, primarily with his outnumbered British
regulars. His 250 loyalist North Carolina Volunteers under Colonel
Hamilton were detailed with 120 regulars to protect the baggage train.
Only one loyalist Provincial unit was on the field---Lt. Col. Banastre
Tarleton's British Legion of about 270 men recruited in America.

Had the loyalists been a little more patient back in the summer of 1780,
Cornwallis might have had the manpower and logistical support he so
absolutely needed to wage a successful fall campaign. Certainly the
disaster at Kings Mountain would have been avoided and with unfettered
loyalist support Cornwallis would not have had to force his army to live
off the land thereby escaping the destructive campaign that led to
Guilford Courthouse.

**Colonel Penn's militiamen arrive too late.**

Among the many historical documents preserved in the Virginia archives
is a Revolutionary War period military document, a "General Order" for
Major John Waller signed by his commander, Colonel Abraham Penn. Known
today to historians as the "Penn Muster Roll" it lists nearly 300 names
of Henry County, Virginia, militiamen ordered by Colonel Penn to join
General Nathanael Greene's army in North Carolina. Evidently penned and
signed by Penn, it reads:

*Henry County, V^a^.*

*You are forthwith required to march the militia under your command*

*from this county to Hillsborough, North Carolina, or to any post where*

*Gen^l^* (Edward) *Stevens may be with the men under his command,
observing to*

*avoid a surprise by the enemy, by the best route to be found.*

*Given under my hand this 11^th^ day of March 1781*

*Abra^m^ Penn, Col^l^ , H.C.*

For years this truly rare document has provided historical and
genealogical researchers with a valuable list of Henry County men sent
by their commander to fight in the battle of Guilford Courthouse. It has
also been used by park historians to add names to the battle participant
file of Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. However, historians
delving into the early 19^th^-century pension applications of these same
men are frustrated to find only a few filed. Of those who did, not one
whose name is on the list has been found to say he was *in the battle*!
Why is it, these men from the Virginia border county closest to Guilford
Courthouse did not report for action?

Penn's order was issued on March 11, only four days prior to the battle
of Guilford Courthouse. Once called out, assembling the militia would
have taken several days, however presuming the militiamen were already
gathered and Waller received the order the same day, he still had time
to reach Greene's headquarters. While it is possible to cover the mean
distance of sixty or so miles from Henry County to Guilford County in
*two* days by horseback (period militiamen often chose to ride their
horses to battle), most of these militiamen were apparently infantry.
Covering a hard-marching distance of 15-20 miles a day an infantry unit
could not have made the trip in less than three to four days. Those
whose record their service in their pension declarations say they
arrived for the Guilford battle too late, either "hearing the guns", or
arriving the day after the battle.

Henry County man, Henry Mannon (not on the list), states in his 1833
pension application he was "drafted" for a "tour" of three months "about
the first of March 1781" under Captain David Lanier (on the list) and
Lieutenant James Prathey (on the list). Mannon states that he "*got to
Guilford* *the day after the battle",* but "*heard the firing".*

Another Henry County man, Jacob Lawson (not on the list), states they
made a "tedious march", crossing the Dan and other smaller rivers, and
arrived on the day after the battle at Greene's headquarters "encamped
at the ironworks on Troublesome Creek".

Many of the Henry County men had previously been called out for three
months under Colonel James Lyons (not on the list), in December 1780 to
report to Greene in North Carolina. After having to cross late winter
swollen rivers and enduring cold weather they arrived in the area south
of the Haw River. Here, they remained for several days without
contacting Greene. Growing fearful of possible contact with the British,
their commander, according to the men themselves, ignored the advice of
his officers and wishes of his men, and retreated home. One soldier,
Lewis Franklin (not on the list) of Captain Brice Martin's (on the list)
company, in his 1832 application reported on this earlier turnout: "*the
men raised and equipped were put under the command of Colonel James
Lyons, who delayed some time in the county, and at length marched his
men within a few miles of Gen^l^ Green's* (sic) *camp*". Upon arrival,
Franklin states Colonel Lyons and about 30 or 40 men "went off"
(deserted!). The remaining men, including Franklin, agreed that several
officers should go to headquarters and report the desertion and receive
the 40 who had not. When these officers returned, they told the men they
were "*not wanted".* At that point Franklin and the rest of Lyon's men
went home; end of tour.

With all of his men back by mid-March, Colonel Penn began calling them
out again to join Greene in North Carolina, but not under the timid
Colonel Lyons this time. Colonel Abraham Penn chose Major John Waller.
Although farther-away Virginia militia units would make it to the
Guilford Courthouse battle on time, for close-by Henry County, most,
maybe all, of its militiamen missed the battle by a few hours or a whole
day.

**Cornwallis' troops fire rifles back at the Americans.**

It seems every American has been taught to believe that their ancestors
in the Revolution all hid behind a rock wall or oak tree using an
accurate-shooting rifle to easily shoot down the machine-like British
soldier with his red uniform and cumbersome, inferior musket that could
not hit the side of a barn. Actually, this is such an entrenched
American myth that it is nearly impossible to convince people otherwise.

Actually, most colonial Americans and most soldiers never owned or
carried a rifle (a shoulder weapon that featured a barrel whose bore was
cut with helical grooves called rifling). A rifled barrel caused the
ball to fly straighter and made shooting much more accurate; certainly a
positive reason for possessing one on the frontier or even in the
backcountry where game was plentiful, but lead and powder were not.
Shooting a rifle required skill and practice (why soldiers are trained
in target practice today). A rifle was also an investment few could
afford. The military much preferred the faster-loading smoothbore musket
with its fitted bayonet and colonial laws were written to require the
citizen-soldier militiaman to possess a musket or a similar smoothbore
civilian version called a fowler. If the smoothbore was required, how
could a poor militiaman lavish his meager funds on two weapons? Few
could, but those in the backwoods far enough away to escape the militia
laws and dependent upon the rifle's accuracy would spend the extra
money.

Although the smoothbore musket was *the* military weapon of the American
Revolution, this is not to say that rifles were not used in any battles.
Riflemen were recruited for their shooting skills early in the war and
brought their personal weapons with them. Throughout the war, the
American Army included several rifle companies and corps. Only in the
Southern Campaign did rifles make a major contribution. In 1780 almost
every backwoodsman fighting Colonel Patrick Ferguson's Loyalist army at
Kings Mountain was armed with some sort of "rifled-gun" and they all
used them with killing effect. Even later at Guilford Courthouse, two
special units of riflemen from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia were
placed on the flanks of General Nathanael Greene's first line. Here,
they could take full advantage of the long-range accuracy of their
American-made long rifles.

Ironically, and contrary to what Americans have been taught of American
history, these Americans were not the only soldiers using rifles.
Opposing them from the British line, was an 84-man unit of
Anspach-Beyreuth and Hesse-Cassel "Feldjägers" (*pronounced
"Felt-yeah-ghers"),* military riflemen recruited from the forests of
Germany, clad in grass-green coats and armed with short-barreled
European rifles just as accurate\--and just as deadly\--as their famous
American counterparts.

**Participants in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse represent a
diversity of people.**

The soldiers who fought in the two armies at Guilford Courthouse
represented several nationalities and ethnic groups. Cornwallis's
British army fielded soldiers from the British Isles---England,
Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Allied with them were several units of
German soldiers from Hesse-Cassel and Anspach-Beyreuth. As desperate as
the British were for manpower, some soldiers may have come into the
British Army from other parts of Europe and America.

The army of Greene fielded Americans of English, Scottish, Scots-Irish
and Irish ancestry or of recent immigration. There were soldiers of
German ancestry, too. The Marquis of Bretigny, an officer in Greene's
army, was French and the famed Virginia "giant", Peter Francisco, was of
Portuguese birth. Greene's engineer officer was Thaddeus Kosciusko, a
Pole. In the ranks of the American army were Native Americans and
African Americans, especially in the two Maryland units, but also
documented among the militia, too. Certainly, African Americans may have
been represented, if not in as large numbers, in British or Loyalist
ranks as well. Large numbers of African Americans, trying to escape
slavery and their rebel masters, flocked to the British army along its
route of march. Women and children accompanied both armies as wives and
camp labor. After the battle, both the Scots-Irish Presbyterian men and
women of Guilford Courthouse were faced with caring for of the hundreds
of wounded scattered about in their community and assisting in burying
the dead. Soon, too, the pacifist English Quakers at New Garden, obeying
their religious obligation, would open their homes to the wounded left
behind as the armies moved on.

**Famous names of another war fight at Guilford Courthouse.**

At times visitors to Guilford Courthouse National Military Park walk
into the visitor center and are soon, if not immediately, confused with
what they see and read. Either not knowing enough of their history or
misled in some other form, they come here believing this battle was one
not fought during the American Revolution, but the American Civil War!
After all, this is the South, and "everybody" knows the Revolution was
fought in New England with Paul Revere and the Minutemen; right? !781;
can't be; the war ended in 1776 with the Declaration of Independence;
didn't it? The true answers come as a surprise.

Rangers might choose to compound the confusion if they informed them
that four of the famous names of that mid-nineteenth century conflict
can also be found as participants in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.
Yes, names such as Lee, Jackson, Stuart and Grant are also associated
with the battle's history.

Lieutenant Colonel Henry "Light-horse Harry" Lee of Virginia commanded a
legion of infantry and cavalry. North Carolina private Solomon Jackson
served here with the Warren County Militia. And, Major Alexander Stuart,
an officer in the Rockbridge County Militia of Virginia, fought here and
was captured by the British. A young British officer, an Ensign Grant,
served in Cornwallis's army with the 23^rd^ Regiment of Foot, the famous
Royal Welch Fusiliers. Other Civil War names also are found, but
researchers are yet to find either a Sherman or Sheridan as a
participant.

The Civil War came in 1861; eighty years after the battle, and some of
these men's descendents would fight in that great conflict. Henry Lee's
son, born in 1807, was Robert E. Lee, who would command the Confederate
armies. Major Stuart's grandson, James Ewell Brown Stuart, would become
the renowned Confederate cavalryman, "Jeb" Stuart. Others, too,
descendents of the battle's Revolutionary War American soldiers who
fought to establish one country, would face the fire and destruction of
that later divisive conflict.

**Greene and Cornwallis are in the thick of the fighting at Guilford
Courthouse.**

In 1781, communications on the battlefield were two centuries behind the
sophisticated digital and satellite systems available today. Without a
quick communication system, a field commander, no matter how well he had
planned his tactics, had to be in the action to personally direct the
fight on the ground. Both Greene and Cornwallis risked death or capture
by being in the thick of the fighting at Guilford Courthouse.

Cornwallis's nearness to battle resulted in at least one horse shot from
beneath him and sustained a slight wound. In the thick grayish smoke and
swirling action on the second line, Welsh Sergeant Roger Lamb of the
23^rd^ Regiment wrote that he seized the reins of Cornwallis's horse to
keep him from riding into the grasp of the Virginians. At the third line
Cornwallis was there to see the repulse of the advance of the Guards by
William Washington's dragoons and the Marylanders, and to personally
direct the cannon fire that stopped it. Washington reported that he
missed capturing a high-ranking British officer, perhaps Cornwallis,
when he stopped for a moment to retrieve his dropped helmet.

Greene and his staff came within a few yards of British troops at the
action near the third line, but smoke and the confusion of battle saved
him from being seen. Perhaps Greene's conduct at Guilford was similar to
that later at Hobkirks Hill (April 1781). In this South Carolina battle,
William R. Davie described the General's bold behavior "more like a
Captain of Grenadiers than a Major General."

**A Virginia Officer misses his chance to fight**

Colonel John Green was the scion of an old Virginia family of Quakers.
The 50-year old colonel was an experienced officer having seen a large
share of the Revolutionary War prior to his arrival with his regiment of
18-Months Virginia Continentals to join Major General Nathanael Greene's
(*no relation*) Southern Army several weeks prior to the battle of
Guilford Courthouse. Starting the war in 1775 as a captain commanding a
company of "minutemen", he became a major serving with the First
Virginia Continental Regiment. In the fighting around New York City,
Green was wounded as Washington's American army attempted to retake the
small village of Mamaroneck. Recovering, he was promoted to lieutenant
colonel and then to full colonel of the 10^th^ Virginia Regiment in
1778. Switching to the Sixth Virginia he distinguished himself at the
battles of Brandywine and Monmouth. His service in Washington's army
ended, he returned home to Virginia. In mid-January 1781 he brought his
400--man Virginia regiment and wagonloads of supplies from Philadelphia
to join General Greene's Southern Army. Green, his men, and supplies
were a welcomed addition to an army preparing to contest Lord
Cornwallis's British Army poised to invade North Carolina.

As his men camped at Guilford Courthouse on the cold, rainy night of
March 14-15, 1781, Colonel John Green, described by a fellow officer as
"the bravest of the brave", anticipated the battle he knew was a few
hours away and dreamed of the glorious part he and his men would play in
it. A tough old warhorse, Colonel Green was not naïve, for he was aware
the battle around the courthouse would be a desperate one, but he and
his men relished the chance to give ol' Cornwallis a beating. He may
have even asked General Greene for an important spot in the battle.
Greene was aware of his subordinate's trust for, a few dawns before
while inspecting the preparedness of the army, he had been distracted by
Colonel Green's raucous snoring. When the general later asked the
colonel how he could sleep so soundly knowing the enemy so near, the
Virginian replied, "Why, general, I knew that you were awake."

Colonel Green's regiment, recently formed of new recruits and old
veterans, was a Virginia 18-months unit. More Continental than militia,
Virginia had hastily assembled several of these units (whose service
time was half that of a Continental regiment) with the intent of putting
as many men into the field as possible. Green's and a brother regiment
under Colonel Samuel Hawes were brigaded together under General Isaac
Huger, a respectable officer born into an old South Carolina Huguenot
family. Huger's assigned position, on General Greene's third line to the
right of the Continental regiments from Maryland and Delaware, would
place his two Virginia regiments in an important spot where they could
be assured of some hard fighting.

As the sounds of battle rattled far to the front, Green and Hawes
readied their men. As the sounds of battle grew louder in approach,
General Greene rode to Huger and ordered him to take Green's regiment
out of line to head north to guard the army's escape route via the Reedy
Fork Road. Colonel Greene was stunned! Send somebody else, I'm here to
fight! Guard the retreat? What a disgrace! Green's men were fighters,
not rear echelon troops! General Greene recognized the Colonel's
disappointment, but he needed a dependable commander he could trust to
safeguard the route of a possible retreat. Although he may have been
sympathetic of Green's feelings, General Greene was more concerned of
the safety of his whole army. If the road or the ford on Reedy Fork
Creek was blocked by British cavalry or infantry, the army could be
trapped. Who could he better trust for such an important mission than
dependable Colonel John Green?

Colonel Green was rightly furious. Withdraw his men without even a
"taste of battle"? He resented the order and his opinion of the General
was quickly dropping. *But, he was a soldier and he had to obey orders*.
As the battle swung against Greene, the army had to retreat. Although
Colonel Hawes' Virginians helped protect the rear until the American
army was safely across the Reedy Fork and headed to the camp on
Troublesome Creek, it was Colonel Green who had given General Greene the
relief of knowing the retreating American army was in safe hands.

Colonel Green, in his dissatisfaction and anger, must not have fully
understood the importance of his orders. Other officers tried to console
him by pointing out the confidence placed in him, but he dismissed their
words and acerbically announced that in the next fight some other
regiment could have "the *honor* of covering the retreat." Greene had
great respect for the colonel and when heard of Green's bruised
feelings, he asked him to be patient, "you shall have the first blow
next time." According to Henry Lee's *Memoirs*, Green's demeanor
changed. He was delighted, and "he always reckoned upon the promised
boon with pleasure."

Did Colonel John Green's "promised boon" by Greene ever come? Thirty
Virginia officers, as a whole complained of their circumstances in a
letter to the general in April, 1781. Dissatisfied over discipline,
organization, soldier's clothing, and duties, they chose Colonel John
Green to return to Virginia to have their complaints resolved. Colonel
Green left for Richmond with a letter from the general and, after a
time, requested leave to return home. A recurring bout of rheumatism had
hit him hard. Colonel Green writes back to the general to assure him of
the success of his mission, but Greene's "promised boon" never comes.
However, Colonel Green may have gotten into the fight again. In some
later battle, perhaps Yorktown, he was wounded while storming a
breastwork and was crippled for life. He retired in January 1783 and
became one of the original members of the Order of the Cincinnati. He
died in 1793.

Despite his orders to leave the field, Colonel John Green is still
considered a participant in the battle of Guilford Court House. Although
he was buried at his Virginia home, Liberty Hall, his remains were moved
in 1911. Today Colonel John Green lies buried in the Arlington National
Cemetery, *the only known soldier of the battle of Guilford Court House*
buried in that hallowed ground.

**A mistake in uniforms nearly spells disaster.**

After the initial charge of the British on the first line at Guilford
Courthouse, a separate action began on the American left flank. This was
to become a very hotly contested action separate from the main flow of
battle centered on the New Garden or great Salisbury Road. Lieutenant
Colonel Henry ("Light-horse Harry") Lee's Legion and militia on the far
left flank broke off, first back to the left of the second line and then
southeast, drew several British units of Cornwallis' right flank with
it. One of Cornwallis' units drawn into this action was a German allied
unit from Hesse-Cassel\--the Regiment Von Bose. As these Germans
approached through the forest on the flank of one of one of the
Rockbridge County, Virginia militia units, the Virginians squinting
through the thick battle smoke thought they were Continentals coming to
their assistance. Holding their fire and shouting "liberty," perhaps as
a parole-sign, the Virginians did not receive a recognizable
countersign. Fortunately, the men from Virginia found out their mistake
in the nick of time. Uniformed in blue coats, the Von Bose Musketeers
had been mistaken through the smoke for friendlier American Continentals
who, by the way, also wore blue regimental coats.

A British officer is killed.

In a climactic conclusion to the battle of Guilford Courthouse, the
Grenadiers and the Second Battalion of the British Guards broke through
into the open field in front of Greene's third line. Surging across the
field they encountered the untried Maryland Extra Regiment Greene had
re-designated as the Second Maryland Regiment. These men, faced with a
bayonet attack by the King's own elite troops, tried to hold their
ground, but when they tried to reposition their ranks, they gave way.
Their flight emboldened the Guards to advance and overrun and capture a
two six-pounder gun battery of American artillery. Continuing on into
the rear of Greene's last defense, the Guards were halted by a sudden
charge by Colonel William Washington's dragoons and the veteran First
Maryland. Clobbered with saber and bayonet, the Guards fell back over
the ground they had just taken. In the midst of this action, Lieutenant
Colonel James Stewart, commanding the Second Guards battalion, faced a
Captain John Smith of the First Maryland. In what could be described as
a personal duel, Stewart was killed not by Smith, but by a shot from a
Maryland soldier's musket. Later, in the battle of Hobkirks Hill, South
Carolina, Captain Smith was captured and condemned to death for
"murder", the British claiming Smith killed Stuart after he had
surrendered. A barrage of threatening letters from General Greene saved
Smith from execution.

Years later, in 1866, a Revolutionary War officer's sword, still in its
scabbard and wrapped in a crimson sash was found in a hollow log on the
battlefield. Eventually, the sword, rusty and missing its other
components, was purchased by David Schenck, leader in the preservation
of the Guilford Courthouse battlefield in the 1880's. In cleaning the
years of neglect from the sword's blade, Schenck discovered the scant
images of a coat of arms. Making a tracing he sent it to England with
the hope of finding some small clue as to its owner. A few months later
he received notification that the coat of arms belonged to a family that
had lost a son at the battle in 1781---Lieutenant Colonel James Stewart!
Schenck's prized sword was placed on display in his "Battle Ground
Museum" along with the story of the famous "duel".

Visitors to the park today can see the monument placed by the Guilford
Battle Ground Company in 1895 to mark the spot where the sword was
found, *but not the sword*. Its whereabouts today is a mystery. For
several years after the battlefield became a national military park in
1917, the Schenck family kept David Schenck's personal collection on
display. Then, about 1920, the collection was returned and at the same
time the sword disappears from all records. What happened to the
battlefield's most important artifact is unknown. Descendents of the
park's founder are just as disappointed as the National Park Service
that Stewart's sword has been lost---again!

**Another British officer plays dead.**

The elite Brigade of Foot Guards is the King of England's own personal
soldiers\-\--his "Household Troops". The dignity of being a soldier or
an officer in the Guards is a prized honor and one not to be shamed. At
the battle of Guilford, a Captain Lovelace (some sources say Lovett or
Loveless) led his company of Guards into the attack on the third line.
In the midst of the hand-to-hand fighting that ensued, Captain Lovelace
went down, one of the many casualties in that terrible engagement.
Pushed back by the counterattack of William Washington's dragoons and
the First Maryland, his unit was overrun. An American soldier seeing the
dead officer also saw the opportunity to rob him of his engraved gold
watch. Seven months later, after the surrender of Cornwallis's army at
Yorktown, the watch's new owner, William Washington, sought to return
the timepiece to the dead officer's family in England, a token of
goodwill and an expression of genteel regret for their son's death. When
Washington presented the watch to the captive Guards officers, they were
quick to reply that the same Lovelace, now promoted to Lt. Colonel, *was
still alive!* This episode forced the real story to be told. In the
fighting at Guilford, then Captain Lovelace, according to one account
had feinted death---played 'possum, so to speak---to survive the fight;
another says he gave the watch to keep the soldier from bayoneting him.
Whatever the story, this act, viewed as cowardice, was not fitting and
proper for a Guards officer. Eventually Lovelace, teased and disgraced
by his fellow officers, was forced to resign his commission and leave
the army. No more is known of the "brave" Captain Lovelace.

The story, amusing for its day, must have been told widespread. St.
George Tucker, a learned man and participant at Guilford Courthouse and
at Yorktown, wrote an ode to Lovelace "Who Counterfeited \[sic\] Death
at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse" and likening him to another false
hero, labeled him the "living Falstaff of the Age".

**A Virginia officer's name becomes associated with injustice.**

In 1733 Sarah Clark, a Virginia Quaker, married Charles Lynch, a
non-Quaker born in Ireland, but one who had lived and worked in their
community. About 1750 the Lynch's moved to "Chestnut Hill", a farm on
the James River. Here, their first son, Charles, was born in 1736. Sarah
raised Charles and all her children in her faith, hoping all would
follow the tenets to which she was devoted. Indeed, her daughter Sarah
became a devout leader in the Virginia Meeting. Her other son, John,
born in 1740, became a life-long Quaker and opened a ferry on the James
in 1757. In 1786 he gave the land for the town named after
him\-\--Lynchburg, Virginia. But it was Charles, the Lynch's oldest son,
who left the faith to become a soldier.

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Charles Lynch became an
officer in the Bedford County militia rising in 1778 to the rank of
colonel. In 1781 Colonel Lynch commanded a regiment of riflemen sent to
join another former Quaker, Major General Nathanael Greene, in North
Carolina. Lynch's riflemen were assigned to a unit of infantry and
cavalry commanded by Colonel William Washington. At the battle of
Guilford on March 15, 1781, Lynch's riflemen and Washington's men were
hit hard by the left wing of Cornwallis' army under Brigadier General
James Webster. Eventually, they were pushed back to the third line and
helped repulse Webster's bold assault. Lynch's men fought well, but were
ordered off the field as Greene's whole army left in retreat.

Colonel Charles Lynch's military record does not seem to be anything
less than honorable. However, in the summer of 1780, Lynch and several
other Virginia officers had held an informal military court under a
black walnut tree on Lynch's estate, "Green Level". Here, Tories
captured before they could aid the British army or cause the patriots
trouble were "tried" in "Judge Lynch's court" giving rise to the term
"Lynch's Law" coined as a result of their actions. Although it has never
been proven that anyone was ever put to death by this "court", those
convicted were tied to the walnut tree and flogged 39 times. If they
agreed to cry aloud "liberty forever" the whipping would stop. In 1782,
Lynch and his fellow officers were excused from their actions by the
Virginia General Assembly.

Eventually, the term "Lynch's Law" came to define any illegal court
handing out irrational or severe punishment or sentences of death by
hanging or torture. Regrettably, the boy Quaker and later Revolutionary
War hero---and participant in the battle of Guilford Courthouse\-\--has
his name smeared by the term "lynching", a brutal and senseless action
practiced by the worst of mankind.

**An American Officer's Grandson Fights in Another War.**

On March 15, 1781, twenty-six year old Lieutenant Matthew Rhea was a
Virginia officer with one of the two 18-Months Regiments (records are
not clear which one) in the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Isaac
Huger at Guilford Court House. Having served in the American Revolution
since 1777 Rhea was a veteran officer. His company of Virginians fought
well in the battle of Guilford Court House, repulsing British General
James Webster's attack on the third line and ably conducting a
successful rearguard action protecting the American army's retreat off
the field. At the crossing over the Reedy Fork, these men gave an
excellent account of themselves, forming such a formidable defense the
two British regiments Lord Cornwallis sent in pursuit refused to attack.
Nathanael Greene complimented them in his account of the battle:
"General Huger was the last that was engaged and gave the Enemy a
check." According to records, Lieutenant Rhea continued with the
Southern Army, finished the war in 1783 and returned to civilian life.
He moved to Tennessee and began raising a large family and naming his
oldest son, Matthew. On October 5, 1816 the elder Matthew, the veteran
of the Revolution, died in Blountville, Sullivan County, Tennessee and
is buried there.

In 1861, eighty years after the battle of Guilford Court House, the
United States was torn asunder into North and South by the Civil War. As
troops assembled for that conflict, Rhea's grandson, also named Matthew,
was commissioned an infantry officer in Company A, 13^th^ Tennessee
Regiment, a Confederate unit. In November 1861 Rhea and the 13^th^ were
part of a large Confederate army camped near the Mississippi River at
the town of Belmont, Missouri. A Union general by the name of Ulysses S.
Grant landed a large force of Union troops three miles north of the
Confederate camp on November 7, and in one of the war's earliest western
battles, the Union troops attacked and pushed the Confederates back
through their camp and heavy woods to the very edge of the Mississippi
River. Victory for Grant seemed a certainty. However, another force of
Confederate troops counterattacked and outflanked Grant, forcing him to
retreat. Defeated in the battle of Belmont, it was a minor reverse for
Grant whose later victories would win him promotion and distinction in
the war in the east.

The 13^th^ Tennessee and its Company A was one of the Confederate units
hit hardest by Grant's attack. Forced back to the river's edge, they
were cut off and surrounded. Captain Rhea's company, reduced to a hand
few by heavy casualties, refused to surrender. Rhea shouted his refusal
to the Union demand and boldly waved his sword above his head in
accentuated defiance. His stand was temporary for young Rhea was killed
and over half his company was captured.

The sword Captain Rhea had waved over his head was described as a "grand
old relic", an old-style dating to the Revolution. The Confederate
grandson's brave last-stand defiance must have been inherited, for the
venerable old sword he waved had been "worthily won" in the Revolution
by his grandfather Matthew Rhea, the same Virginia Lieutenant who had
stood his ground at Guilford Court House. Inscribed upon its blade were
the inspiring words, "*Presented by Gen^l^. Greene to Matthew Rhea---the
last man to retreat from the Battle of Guilford Court House*"!

Thanks to the book, *The Battle of Belmont: Grant Strikes South* by
Nathaniel C. Hughes, Jr.

**An Old Soldier Fights at Guilford Court House.**

In 1833, James Patrick, aged 103 years, infirm, but still seemingly of
keen mind, submitted a written declaration for a veteran's pension in
Floyd County, Kentucky. Appearing before the Justice of the Peace, he
declared in open court that he had volunteered in early 1781, sometime
around his 51^st^ birthday, in a militia company from Botetourt County,
Virginia, commanded by Captain James Newell and Colonel Love. Arriving
in North Carolina, they joined General Nathanael Greene's army
maneuvering to avoid contact with Lord Cornwallis' hounding British
army. A few days later, on March 15, 1781, with Patrick and over 2,000
other Virginians helping him, Greene engaged Cornwallis in battle at
Guilford Court House. A few days afterward, these men followed Greene on
his campaign back into South Carolina. Sometime before the siege of
Ninety Six in the summer of 1781, Patrick fell ill and was sent back to
Salisbury, North Carolina, to recuperate. Discharged, he returned home
to Virginia and after the end of the war moved to and settled in eastern
Kentucky.

This *was not* James Patrick's first experience in military service! He
had been a Revolutionary War soldier several times before Guilford Court
House and the frontier wilderness and Kentucky were not new to him. In
March 1776 he had been drafted into Colonel Russell's Virginia State
Regiment and served in a combined campaign against the Cherokee Indians
in what is now Tennessee. Returning home, he again entered a year's
service in 1777 from Montgomery County, Virginia. Again, he marched
westward to the Cumberland Ford in Kentucky to again fight the
Cherokees. Patrick's unit joined with others at the settlement of
Boonsboro and moving on overtook the Indians at French Lick (present-day
Nashville). Here, they took the Indian town and destroyed their stores
of food. Returning to Boonsboro, he spent the fall and winter there.
Discharged in the spring of 1778, forty-eight year old Patrick prepared
to return home to Virginia and "*leave the battle field to Abler and
younger men*". But before he could leave, he was "*insisted on to join*"
an expedition under General George Rogers Clark to march against the
Indians on the Miami River in Ohio. For another year, Patrick served
with Clark who finally subdued the Indians in several hard-fought
skirmishes. Returning to the Falls of the Ohio, Patrick became ill and
lay sick for several months. In the spring of 1780, he was discharged at
a blockhouse "*where Cincinnati now stands*" and returned to Virginia
after being away from home for nearly three years. In February 1781, now
51 years old and drawn to the beat of the drums, he again entered
military service and, as mentioned above, marched with Colonel Love to
North Carolina where he fought in the battle of Guilford Court House.

By 1781 James Patrick had performed more military service in the
American Revolution than many of the soldiers half his age. Although we
think of all Revolutionary War soldiers as being in their teens and
twenties, a common soldier of or near Patrick's age was not typical, nor
a rarity. The upper age for service in most of the militia laws was age
fifty and there were probably more than a few older soldiers than he who
fought.

In 1833 James Patrick was an old soldier, both in age and by his long
service. In addition to the Revolution, he had also soldiered in an
earlier conflict. Applying for his pension, James Patrick three times
reminded the court that he had been a soldier in the French and Indian
War. Seventy-eight years earlier, in 1755, as a young ranger in the
Virginia militia forces, he had marched with British General Edward
Braddock into the Ohio wilderness and fought in a disastrous battle near
the French Fort Duquesne where Braddock was killed and his army
defeated. Fighting here, too, and displaying courageous leadership was
Patrick's commander, a then obscure Virginia colonel named George
Washington!

**Greene "Helps" Cornwallis Win the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.**

Who won the battle of Guilford Courthouse? Greene's retreat off the
field leaves little doubt that it was a technical victory for the
British, but the twenty-seven percent casualties suffered by
Cornwallis's army suggests to many an American victory. Even in 1781
reports, it is Cornwallis's army that is credited with winning the
battle since they held the field at the conclusion of the action. Greene
admitted that he had lost the battle and credited the enemy for winning
their victory "by superior discipline".

Greene's plan of battle was basically sound, but it did possess certain
flaws. In analyzing the battle, military historians have found fault and
credited Greene's tactics with actually *helping* Cornwallis to win! The
American general planned the battle by limiting his goal. He did not
want to gamble and risk too much in this, his first major battle where
reward or ruin rested with his decisions. This obviously made him too
cautious, a bad thing for a general to be. Many historians, instead,
believe that Greene must have intended to only cripple Cornwallis, that
he did not have the power to defeat or destroy him. For sure, Greene did
not want to risk losing his Continental troops, the backbone of his
army, and his retreat off the Guilford battlefield did save these troops
to fight again.

Historians also agree that Greene erred by placing his three defensive
lines too far apart to be any help to each other. This wasted his two to
one numerical superiority and allowed Cornwallis to fight only about
one-third of a portion of the American army at each line. The British
army equaled or outnumbered the Americans standing on each line.

By seizing the defense Greene did have the advantage of forcing the
British to march to him. This was important, but most of Greene's army
was militia, not the sort of soldiers who wait for a battle with the
patience of a veteran. At the sound of battle coming from New Garden at
10 AM, Greene began placing these men into their battle positions,
forcing them to wait and fret for over two hours before the battle
started.

The battle of Guilford Courthouse was an empty British victory.

Lord Cornwallis boldly claimed victory at Guilford Courthouse, but as
Charles James Fox (the opposition leader in Parliament and an avowed
opponent of Lord North's conduct of the war) would observe "another such
victory would ruin the British Army". Never since the battle of Bunker
Hill in 1775 had the British Army suffered so much for so little. Both
battles were "Pyrrhic victories", a reference to a classical battle
against the Romans that had been won at great cost to its victor, King
Pyrrhus of Epirus. The American Revolution's "Pyrrhus" was Cornwallis,
whose army at Guilford Courthouse lost about twenty-seven percent
casualties of the 1,900 redcoats engaged\--killed, wounded, missing and
captured. Twenty-nine out of one hundred officers had been killed or
wounded, including Cornwallis who had received a slight wound. The only
trophies won by the victors were four pieces of artillery captured from
the retreating rebels. Normally these would have been something extra to
brag about, but at Guilford Courthouse they were little compensation for
the heavy losses.

**The Quakers at New Garden tend the wounded.**

After the battle of Guilford Courthouse there were hundreds of wounded
of both sides needing immediate care. Army surgeons and doctors did the
best they could, but when the British Army left Guilford Court House on
March 17, 1781 they put the worst of the wounded in wagons and carried
them to New Garden. Here, on the following day they left the captured
rebel and the worst of their own wounded to the care of the peaceful
Quakers. Nathanael Greene, born a member of the Society of Friends in
Rhode Island, wrote to the meeting leaders asking them to prove their
faith by opening their homes to the wounded and giving every man equal
care. The Quakers did so and some paid a deadly price for devotion to
their faith.

At least one of the wounded, most likely a British soldier, carried the
smallpox germ. In the winter of 1780-81 smallpox had broken out in the
British camp at Winnsborough, South Carolina, making ill many of
Cornwallis's soldiers including the commander himself. In January 1781
one British unit, the Seventh Royal Fusiliers, marched with Lieutenant
Colonel Banastre Tarleton and was captured in the battle of Cowpens.
Interestingly, a document among the Cornwallis papers lists one man of
that regiment among the wounded at Guilford Court House. Could he have
been on the sick rolls while his regiment was marching to Cowpens and
afterward joined the main army as it marched into North Carolina? Could
that wounded man have infected his Quaker caretakers with the smallpox?
Not to know whom to blame, we do know that the dreaded disease afflicted
several in the Quaker community and several men and women died. Despite
the best of care many of the badly wounded soldiers also died from their
wounds and some by being weakened by the smallpox.

The Quakers buried these soldiers in the cemetery behind their New
Garden meetinghouse. They rest there today, now at peace, buried
together, without regard to any uniform or flag, a testament to the
Quaker belief in the equality of mankind.

The British win the battle, but lose the war.

Historians may argue over who won the battle of Guilford Courthouse, but
the results are obvious. The severe losses by the British army meant
they could not follow up on their success. Now too weak and anxious to
escape before Greene could rebuild his scattered forces, Cornwallis left
two days after the battle first heading west back to New Garden, then
southeast crossing the Deep River at Ramsey's Mill forty miles south of
Guilford Courthouse just ahead of the advanced forces of Greene's army.
Here, the Americans found the camp kettles still boiling and several
unburied dead. Moving along the Cape Fear River toward Cross Creek (now
Fayetteville) Cornwallis expected to get needed supplies sent up from
British-held Wilmington. To his disgust there were no supplies waiting
for him at Cross Creek. Cornwallis's tired and battered army continued
on. After arriving in Wilmington, theater commander Cornwallis, in a
council of war, decided to abandon the Carolinas and march his army
north into Virginia to join with a larger British force under General
William Phillips and the newly appointed general, Benedict Arnold. In
October, Cornwallis's hope for any success in the South would end with
his surrender at Yorktown. Reverses in America, compounded with other
political and military problems, plagued the British in the early
1780's. By September 1783 the British were reluctant, but willing to
concede to the provisions of the Treaty of Paris that would end the
American Revolution and their control over the thirteen American
colonies.

Greene loses battles, but wins a campaign.

As great as Greene's skills were as an organizer and strategist, he
somehow consistently failed as a battlefield commander. At Guilford
Courthouse, Greene had planned what he hoped would be a good defensive
action, but he made some mistakes. He lost the advantage of his larger
force by chopping up his army into three smaller forces, one at each
line. None of these lines could possibly support each other and each
force was always smaller than the British troops opposing them. Greene,
who never really had much regard for the fighting abilities of the
militia, depended too much on them to fight, then later criticized them
for failing him. Throughout the campaign, he never prevailed in a
general tactical action, but his strategic genius (along with a huge
measure of British bad luck) would eventually win the campaign. This
seemingly failing campaign prompted Greene to describe his army's
performance as "We fight, get beat, and rise again."

Greene has generally been overlooked in his contributions to the war and
Washington is rightfully regarded as the great general of victory, but
it was Greene's successful campaign in the South that set the stage for
Yorktown. Greene succinctly summed up his eclipsed contribution in a
letter to Henry Knox after learning Washington was closing in on
Cornwallis: "We have been beating the bush and the General has come to
catch the bird!"

The town of Guilford Courthouse fails to survive.

Immediately after the battle the courthouse building was used as a
hospital and at times, a military warehouse. Some people began leaving
the area to escape the reminders of war left behind by the armies. As
the war shifted away from North Carolina, the town continued to witness
the passage of troops and supplies. In 1785, two years after the war was
over, the little town was officially named Martinville (for its chief
promoter, former General and Governor Alexander Martin), with hopes of
growth and development. Back in 1771 when the county seat was fixed
here, Guilford Courthouse was near center of the new county, the
intended site of the county seat, but by 1800 two new counties had been
created out of Guilford shifting the county's geographic center
southward. Beginning in 1807 a movement was underway to move the seat
and in 1808 county commissioners voted to build a new courthouse on the
new center. A year later, Martinville was abandoned as the county seat
when the new courthouse, built six miles south, became operational.
Here, in the center of the county, the little town of Greensboro would
start and grow around it. As it did, Martinville began to decline. By
the mid-nineteenth century the town was gone, but Martinville's
successor, Greensboro, named for the American General, continues to
thrive as the third largest city in North Carolina.

**The original Guilford Court House structure remains a mystery.**

Fires have denied us much of the first decade history of the Guilford
Court House. The British burned the Clerk of Court's (John Campbell)
records in 1781 and several post-1809 court house fires in Greensboro
have destroyed valuable 18^th^-century documents. Among these were
records that would have certainly described the courthouse building that
was standing on March 15, 1781, the day of the battle. Neither
contemporary drawing nor description is available to tell us how it
looked. Perhaps the lack of such data might still tell us something of
its appearance. Lack of descriptions could indicate that it was of a
common appearance, quite possibly a simple log-type structure akin to
many others built in the county around 1775. Log buildings, without a
good foundation, generally tend to decay rapidly in the humidity, acidic
red clay soil, and termites of the North Carolina Piedmont. Surviving
records of the courthouse show numerous repairs to the old building
including new blocks and underpinnings beginning in 1782, only seven
years after its construction. Continuing repairs prompted the county's
officials by 1792 to begin work on a new, second courthouse in
Martinville. Others believe the court house was of frame construction
referencing information that it was covered with clapboards in later
descriptions. Frame buildings do better describe such early public
buildings and the argument is sound.

The exact locations of the old courthouse and its replacement are also
troublesome to those who want to know. The few surviving records and
period deeds give no real evidence of where they stood. The British
engineer map, drawn on the field (and Colonel Tarleton's engraved copy),
shows that the original courthouse stood in close proximity to Greene's
third battle line. Participant accounts confirm this. Indeed, witnesses
standing near the courthouse observed the clash of the Guards and
Marylanders. Someday, archeology, science and history may find the
answers to the mystery of the two Guilford Court Houses.

Greene dies in debt never getting to witness the formation of the
country he helped start.

While Greene was Quarter Master General under Washington he developed a
successful system of using paid contractors to obtain supplies for the
army. As commander in the South, he instituted the same system, but so
far from the purse strings of Congress he was asked by his chief
contractor, John Banks, to personally guaranteed payment, which he did
seemingly without the consent of Congress. When the war was over, a
destitute Congress was slow in paying its bills, so Greene was honor
bound to pay Banks, now in bankruptcy, the money he pledged. First,
Greene liquidated his assets. He also gladly accepted gifts of property
in North and South Carolina, and then promptly sold them. However, he
retained a land gift in Georgia, a plantation formerly owned by the
Royal Governor called "Mulberry Grove". Here, he and his family settled
hoping that growing cash crops, especially rice, could help settle the
rest of their money problems. In June 1786, after touring his fields,
43-year old Greene suffered what might have been the complications of
sunstroke, dying just fifteen months before the Constitution of the
United States created the new nation. What position of high office might
Greene have obtained had he lived? We will never know. Certainly, the
new government could have enjoyed and benefited from his leadership
abilities.

Sadly, the General had died while still in debt, but the resolute Mrs.
Greene was determined to free her family from the problem they had
wrestled with for many years. Caty's perseverance and pleas to the
Treasury and Congress continued without much success. But, when
President George Washington came for a visit in 1791, she must have had
a long talk with him. After returning to the halls of government
following his Southern Tour, Washington "approved and signed an act for
indemnifying the estate of the late General Nathanael Greene". The first
installment check of the \$47,000 to be paid to Mrs. Greene was written
by Alexander Hamilton in April 1791.

An American officer runs for Vice-President of the United States.

One of Greene's ablest field officers was Lieutenant Colonel John Eager
Howard of the Maryland Line. Howard was stationed with the First
Maryland on Greene's third line when the British Brigade of Guards
attacked and broke through into the open ground at the Courthouse.
Thundering into the field rode William Washington's dragoons. Ordered to
attack in support, the commander of the First Maryland, Colonel John
Gunby became entangled in the saddlery of his horse that had fallen.
Quickly, Howard took over and led the infantry charge which threw the
elite Guards back across the open field. Howard's attack was finally
checked by British artillery fire, but his bravery was unquestionable.
After the war, Howard received one of eight gold medals awarded by the
Congress, not for his outstanding Guilford Court House, but for his
valor in the battle of Cowpens. Howard, son of a very wealthy Baltimore
family, decided to enter politics. After serving in Congress and the
Senate and as Governor of Maryland, he was chosen to run as one of the
Federalist Party candidates in the campaign of 1816 for Vice-President
of the United States. Successful in war, his run for the second highest
office was not. His party was defeated by the Republicans of James
Monroe.

**Lord Cornwallis dies far from home.**

After Yorktown Lord Cornwallis and his army became prisoners of the
United States. The rank and file soldiers were marched off to northwest
Virginia and western Maryland under the guard of General Robert Lawson's
Virginia militia, the same Lawson who had faced some of these same men
at Guilford Court House. While the enlisted men of the British army were
imprisoned, most of the officers escaped imprisonment by being
paroled---either to embark for England or wait at some British-held
port. Some of the enlisted prisoners escaped. While some were
recaptured, others melted into the countryside to take residence among
their former adversaries.

In contrast, the ranking British officers were entertained and dined at
parties and galas. In November Cornwallis and Charles O'Hara returned to
New York as the chief prisoner on parole. Later he was exchanged for
Henry Laurens of South Carolina. Back in England Cornwallis was faced
with accusations from Sir Henry Clinton blaming Cornwallis for his
failure to win the war. The two feuded back and forth in books and
periodicals for years. Cornwallis, not one to dwell on the past,
continued in the King's service. He became an administrator in 1786
after being made Governor-General of India. In 1793 he was elevated from
earl to a marquis. He returned to Britain in 1797 to become the
Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of Ireland. He had the trust of
the people he governed and had the reputation as a very capable civil
servant who was, above all, fair and honest. An aged and ailing Marquis
Cornwallis was again called to India where he died in 1805. To Americans
he will be known as the general who lost America for the British, but to
Britain his surrender at Yorktown is overshadowed by his life-long
service to King and country.

**Mrs. Greene hires a tutor for her children and gets an inventor,
too.**

After the death of her husband in 1786, Catherine Greene took over the
running of the plantation Mulberry Grove. She wisely invested in land
and coordinated farming with other plantation owners. In 1792 a young
Yankee college graduate came to Georgia recently employed by Mrs. Greene
to be a teacher to her children. About his time Mrs. Greene and her
friends had decided that the raising of cotton might be a lucrative
crop, despite the amount of labor required to remove the troublesome
seeds from the boll by hand. The young man Caty had hired pondered the
problem and thought he could come up with some better means of tackling
the seed removal. With her help and that of Phineas Miller, the young
man designed and built a crude wooden machine. Turning a crank operated
a series of rollers festooned with wire teeth. In its first
demonstration, as the raw cotton was fed into a hopper on top of the
machine and the handle of the crank was turned, out the other end the
cotton emerged combed free of its seeds! Although the machine was not
perfect, the inventor proceeded to make improvements and, with Mrs.
Greene's help, made plans to open a factory to produce them. This new
invention, which they called a "Gin", was kept a secret. Mrs. Greene
realized its value. She intended to operate her gins as a business since
such machines would certainly demand the growing of more cotton. Mrs.
Greene's monopoly was ended as copy gins popped up outside Mulberry
Grove.

But sadly, the man who invented and built the first crude machine, Eli
Whitney, has received the credit of history, but saw little of the
profit envisioned from his invention. Instead of the cotton gin, the
brilliant Whitney went on to make his fortune in the manufacture of guns
for the government using the modern principle of interchangeable parts
made on machines and with gauges of his own technological design. It
would take Whitney years and much of his fortune to obtain any rewards
from his cotton gin that he invented for Mrs. Greene. It is ironic that
the cotton revolution in southern agriculture was the result of a
northerner's invention. Ginning demanded more cotton and hence more
slave labor to furnish the northern mills. Whitney's invention of the
cotton gin was one of the earliest steps toward the Civil War that would
flare in 1861, that was in part decided with the weapons Whitney's other
technology genius made possible.

**A future President practices law at Guilford Court House.**

In 1787 a young, redheaded lawyer arrived in the town of Martinville
fresh from the law school of Spruce Macay in Salisbury. Taking up
residence at the home of John McNairy, a friend from law school, he was
admitted to the Guilford County bar on November 19. Living near the
battlefield and with his law practice in the town, the young lawyer
engaged in the professional and social life of the community. He even
helped organize one of the first anniversary observances of the battle
on March 15, 1788\--his 21^st^ birthday! After a short stay of only six
months, he left to take advantage of opportunities in western North
Carolina, an area that would, in two years, become the new State of
Tennessee.

His move to Tennessee proved to be successful\--economically, militarily
and politically. Andrew Jackson, the young lawyer at Guilford Court
House, became a wealthy man and built a huge home, the "Hermitage", near
Nashville. He earned fame as a general in the War of 1812 and the Creek
Indian War, and in 1829 entered the White House as the seventh President
of the United States.

George Washington arrives on the battlefield\--ten years too late!

The Revolutionary War's greatest general became first President of the
new United States in 1788. After tours of the northern and eastern
states in 1789 and 1790, he made plans to visit the southern states in
1791. Primarily, the tours were to give Washington an opportunity to
observe first-hand the country and the reaction of the people to the new
federal government. Departing from Philadelphia on March 21, Washington
rode south in his "chariot", a white and gold carriage pulled by four
white horses, along with an entourage of baggage and servants. He
traveled along the eastern seaboard as far south as Widow Greene's
plantation, "Mulberry Grove", near Savannah, Georgia. From here he began
the long road home with the purpose of stopping at as many of the
battlefields of Greene's Southern Campaign as his route allowed. In
North Carolina, Governor Alexander Martin met him in Salem and
encouraged him to stay an extra night in the Moravian town (which had
very nice accommodations for this part of the world). On the morning of
June 2^nd^ the two departed Salem and arrived in the afternoon on the
battlefield of Guilford Court House. After a small crowd of citizens
greeted him, Washington spent several hours touring the field escorted
by veterans of the battle. He spent that night in Martinville at
Martin's home and early the next morning, the 3^rd^, he departed north
on the final leg of his great Southern Tour for Virginia and his home at
Mount Vernon.

Although Washington was never an open critic of Greene as a general, he
did later privately comment to Thomas Jefferson that Greene should have
put his Continental forces and artillery on the first line. According to
Washington, the regulars could have done much more damage to the British
crossing the open field in front of them than Greene's choice of the
North Carolina militia. While the faults and merits of Greene's tactics
at Guilford Court House may be argued, it is curious just how very
different the outcome *would* have been if Washington, not Greene, had
been the battlefield commander ten years and three months earlier.

The United States preserves a national park on a battlefield won by the
enemy.

The preservation of the Guilford Courthouse battlefield can take credit
as one of the first efforts to preserve a battlefield of our War for
Independence. The actual preservation began as an idea in the 1880's,
the decade following the nation's Centennial year. Lawyer David Schenck
came to Greensboro in 1886 to accept a legal position with the Richmond
and Danville Railroad. Schenck's interest in the American Revolution led
him to make several exploratory visits to the battle site that he
disappointingly described as a wilderness of abandoned old fields and
tangled vegetation. On one of his excursions he decided to do something
to save the site, or in his words, "rescue the battlefield from
oblivion." In 1887 Schenck assembled a board of prominent citizens and
stock investors chartered as the Guilford Battle Ground Company. The
GBGC immediately began the preservation of the March 15, 1781
battlefield. They raised money, oversaw the erection of monuments and
constructed roads and a "Battleground Museum" filled with artifacts
found on the field and items purchased and donated. After Schenck's
death in 1902 the GBGC continued the operation of the "Battle Ground",
but by 1915 they determined that the site could prosper better under the
care of the Federal government (which had already established national
military parks on battlefields of the American Civil War). Several bills
were introduced over the next few years, but in March 1917 the United
States Congress established Guilford Courthouse National Military Park
as the first national park to preserve a battlefield of the American
Revolution.

As great as all these early acts of historic preservation are, it is
also ironic that their initial beneficiary was a battlefield won by the
enemy!

Guilford Courthouse NMP 12/99. Rev. 12/10/05