The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-03-24
Lexington Claim
 Is Denied By
 Many Historians

Guilford Court House, N. c March
 24.-Most Americans think the revo
 luton began at Lexington and end ed at Yorktown.
 Close students of histo tory however
 know that the North Carolinans had
 begun taking up arms in TIT soon
 alter the Mecklenberg Declaration of Independence. The battle of Cuilford Court House. which imm eGia teIy pre- ceedcd the retreat of Corvallis to the
 surrender at Yorktown, has beer ac-
 claimed by many as the battle that
 won the revolutionary war. Described
 in the British parliament a "'victory''
 it drew from John Fox the rejoinder that another such victory would
 mean the destruction of British forces
 in America
 The one hundred and forty-first an-
 1iversary of the battle of Guilford Court House was celebrated here on March 18th with the placing of the celebrated Battle Ground Oak in the Hall of Fame for Trees establish ed by the American Forestry Asso- citation. It was the tree to which General Nathaniel Greene tied his horse during that celebrated engage tnent, and the majestic oak, known to he more than two hundred years old now has spread of more than hun dred feet and is twenty-one feet around at the base.
 Four miles away is the New Garden oak in 2 cemetery where stood an old Quaker meeting house where the wounded rom the battle were cared for. In the shade of the New Garden Oak lies buried the grandfather of Uncle Joe Cannon. This celebrated tree is also to take it's place in the hall of fame, on the same day. Nonlina tionS for the Battle Ground
 Oak in the hall of fame were made by Mrs. Dorian H Blair of the Daugh- ters Of the American Revolution of
 Mills of Guilford College and Paul
 c. Lindley of Pomona, N. C., Profes-
 sor Mills also nominated the New
 Garden Oak.
 At the Battle of Guilford Court House Cornwa1lis had three horses for whom Greensboro is named, was in command of the American forces which consisted of Huger's Brigade of Virginia. Williams Maryland and lars, North Carolina Militia, Virginia Militia, Light Horse Harty Lees Legion, Col. William Washfngton's s Dragons, Lees Dragons and Caval- ry.
 l Cornwallis retreated into Virginia and surrendered at Yorktown the fol- lowing October. The Lafayette Elm planted in front of the Yorktown headquarters when Lafayette visited | this country in 1924 is also in the Hall of Fame. The Guilford battle field is now owned by the nation after
 an association headed by Judge David 1 Schenck in 1887 started plans for preserving the site.
 Another nomination given a place l of honor is the Kentucky Coffee tree 1 in front of the Yer Planck mansion at
 FishkiIl-on-Huds nominated by l Cora June Sheppard of Shiloh, N. J. The tree was planted in 1894 on prop ! erty acquired by the Yer Planck fam l lily during the reign of James II, Kin g of England, in 1883. The property has remained with this family ever since. Baron Steuben occupied the
 mansion during the Revolution and under this tree the first meeting of the Society of Cincinnati was held.
 The tree is a magnificent specimen with two trunks 75 feet high. A tree adopted by the Boy Scouts at Eliza abethtown, Pa, is also given a place in the Hall of Fame The tree is a prone Juniper, 80 years old and forty eight feet in diameter. The limbs lie the ground and do not take root. The nomination was made by George B. Orlady, presiding Judge of the Superior court of Penn sylvania. The tree is at the Masonic Home and the Boy Scouts have built a fence around the remarkable speci- men to protect it.