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The creation of the battlefield park was largely due to the vision, the
energy, and the devotion of David Schenck (1835-1902). A lawyer by
profession and a Superior Court Judge, Schenck moved with his family to
Greensboro from Lincoln County in the early 1880s to accept the position
of General Counselor for the Richmond and Danville Rail Road Company, a
position he described as being "ideal", for it provided him a handsome
salary and most pleasing to him, periods of free time. Taking advantage
of the latter advantage, Schenck wasted few opportunities to drive his
horse and buggy the five miles north of the city for the sole purpose of
studying the battlefield over which the armies of Greene and Cornwallis
clashed on March 15, 1781. On one of these visits in October 1886
Schenck recorded in his diary that he had decided to purchase the site
of the battle, as he wrote, in order "...to redeem the battlefield from
oblivion." It was late in the day before he returned home, but such an
irresistible urge to carry out his plan spurred him to immediate action,
and before the twilight had faded, he had bargained to purchase thirty
acres of land.

In a few days following his initial purchase, Schenck succeeded in
imparting some of his enthusiasm for the preservation of the battlefield
to a group of his closest friends, and together they determined to place
the bold enterprise on a firm basis. This group incorporated under the
name of the Guilford Battle Ground Company and petitioned the North
Carolina State Legislature for a charter. An act of incorporation was
passed by the legislature and ratified on March 7, 1887 with the sated
purpose that the corporation would exist "*for the benevolent purpose of
preserving and adorning the grounds on and over which the battle of
Guilford Court House was fought*" and th "*erection thereon of
monuments, tombstones, or other memorials to commemorate the heroic
deeds*

*of the American patriots who participated in this battle for liberty
and independence.*" These actions by David Schenck and the members of
the Guilford Battle Ground Compnay (GBGC) marked one of the earliest
steps in the United States to preserve a battlefield of the American
Revolution.

![](media/image3.png){width="4.270833333333333in"
height="2.5416666666666665in"}^th^ and 19^th^ century artifacts found on
the field and by donation and purchase from individuals and government
agancies. This collection could be viewed by the public for the price of
five cents admission the the "Battle Ground Museum", a handsome
structure built near the center of the the "battle ground", a name still
used locally to designate the park. The GBGC also constructed several
spring houses in the park for the refreshment of visitors and dammed up
a spring fed creek to create Lake Wilfong in the middle of the park.
During their thirty years, the GBGC would obtain about 150 acres of the
battlefield including the tradition site of the courthouse building that
gave its name to the battle in 1781.

In addition to its program for the development of the battlefield, the
Guilford Battle Ground Company desired to make ite property a historic
shrine to the North Carolina patriots of the Revolutionary War struggle.
To this end they wished the site to be a repository for the remains of
patriotic and distinguished individuals important in the state's part in
the war. The remains of six persons were secured and re-interred on the
battlefield. Among these were William Hooper and John Penn, two of North
Carolina's three signers of the Declaration of Independence; Joseph
Winston, a North Carolina militia officer and senator; and Jesse
Franklin, a North Carolina soldier and governor.

![](media/image4.png){width="4.385416666666667in"
height="3.3020833333333335in"}*en masse* to picnic, hear famous speakers
or witness the unveiling and dedication of a new monument. People
traveled to the grounds by horse, or later by automobile, on foot, or by
train excursion on the Old Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Rail Road that
ran through the park (the line later was absorbed by Southern Railway
who abandoned it in the 1980s). To take care of the numbers arriving by
train a platform station was constructed along the tracks within site of
the museum. A large open air pavilion was also constructed west of the
railroad tracks to shelter from the hot summer sun the hundreds of local
citizens who had gathered for the huge picnic and speeches that became
so much a part of the festivities.

An effort to have its property recognized as of national significance
and to have it delcard a national preserve was inaugurated by the
Guilford Battle Ground Company in 1910. Several bills to effect the
transfer of the property to the Federal government were introduced in
Congress by local representatives, but it was not until March 2, 1917,
that the legislation creating the Guilford Courthouse National Military
Park was enacted making it the first battlefield of the American
Revolution so preserved by the Federal Government. Promptly after the
passage of the act, the GBGC deeded its land haolding (125 acres) to the
United States, wound up its affairs, and went out of existence.

From 1917 to 1933 to park was under the administration of the United
States War Department. Battlefield commissioners, appointed by the
Secretary of War, handled the day to day operations of the park, the
planting of decorative shrubbery and trees, and the mowing of well-kept
lawns. The War Department commissioners also continued to tradition of
erecting and dedicating monuments on the battlefield. However, the
"beautification" projects of the commissioners were not always seem as
signs of preservation of the battlefield. Trees and decorative plantings
were placed where such flora did not grow in 1781. One of the
commissioners had several of the monuments' statued painted black an
dgold, an attempt to help improve their aging appearance, but a practice
not looked on favorably by government officials in Washington or by many
visitors. Descrriptions of the park in the 1920s reveal scenes more in
keeping with a manicured city cemetery than a nationally important
battlefield of the American Revolution.

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One non-NPS improvement during this period that greatly benefited the
park over the years was the construction of the US220 bypass in the late
1940s. This removed from the park a major national route that has and
continues to expand and improve. After 1950 the park began developmental
projects which attempted to improve the park for the grwoing number of

visitors freed by the retraints of the war years. Several new items were
obtained for the museum, including a Revolutionary War era drum. Only
two small parcels of property were purchased. A new history handbook of
the park and battle was prepared for sale. Observances of the battle
were marked by special programs and the Fourth of July remained a day to
visit the "battleground", although no new monuments had been erected
since 1932. Despite all these changes the landscape of the park was
still not the historical scene of the 1780s.

In the late 1960s the park seized upon an opportunity to increase in
size. Over eighty acres of battlefield land was purchased or exchanged
with the City of Greensboro. The third line field, allowed to grow up
with trees and underbrush during the past two decades was cleared. A
lake on the creek near the courthouse site was never refilled once it
broke its dam in 1964. As more visitors began to come to the park,
especially after hours, the park was compelled to install security
gates. To assist the small staff with the questions of history and to
develop interpretive programs, a park historian position was created and
several seasonal interpreters were hired.

Plans for the Bicentennial of the American Revolution in 1975 were the
focus of the 1970s. An increase in funding and staff enabled the park to
provide new programs for the growing number of visitors. In 1975 a new
visitor center with new trails and exhibits were dedicated just in time
for the national two hundredth anniversary celebrations. The
Bicentennial served to heighten interest in the American Revolution with
a resultant rise in park visitation.

In 1981 the park's contribution to the ongoing national celebration was
the observance of the bicentennial of the battle of Gyilford Courthouse
in March. Over 15,000 spectators witnessed a grand creation of the
battle staged by 1400 "troops" dressed in period uniforms. Unable to
accommodate these numbers, the park and an organization of local
citizens arranged to "fight the battle" on property owned by
Jefferson-Pilot Insurance Compnay, two miles from the park. After this
big event, the history of the battle was the focus of numerous park
constumed interpretive programs.

![](media/image6.jpeg){width="4.270833333333333in"
height="2.7604166666666665in"} Since the 1960s the park has had to face
a major threat -- surrounding development and its consequences. From the
park's beginning in the 1880s the battlefield setting had been primarily
rural, but in less than a hundred years that setting had changed to a
suburban one. By the time the City of Greensboro annexed the land around
the park in 1987, new housing and business construction was already
flourishing. Re-zoning brought businesses and shopping centers to the
land historic to the battlefield. This growth brought more traffic, more
park use, and a subsequent widening of nearby roads and streets. Park
use increased as the park became a beckoning green oasis for hundreds of
new neighbors living in houses and apartments built right up to its
boundaries. By the year 2000 the park had changed little in size over
twenty years. Modern historical research proves that the battlefield is
five times larger than the 220+ acres of the park. Beginning that year,
new parcels of land were added to the park and these and undisturbed
surrounding properties in private and city-held hands were all
designated a National Historic Landmark. In 2001 a major historical
change to the battlefield and its interpretation was the correction of
an error made by the park's founders in 1887. Long recognized by
National Park Service and academic historians that the 1887 third line
was too far west, the park corrected this error by moving the marking
and interpretation of that position 450 yards to the east matching both
topographical features of a British officer's map drwan on the field and
various period accounts.

The challenge for Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in the new
century is to continue the legacy of the park founders who dreamed of
the preservation and restoration of the March 15, 1781 battlefield and
making its historical significance secure; and of the Congress that in
1917 created a national historical treasure to be saved for future
generations. To partner in that effort is a new park friends group, a
revitalized Guilford Battlegournd Company, named after the original
organization that was created in 1887 to "redeem the battlefield from
oblivion."