Battle of Guilford Court House The Battle of Guilford Court House was a battle fought on March 15 , 1781 in Greensboro , the county seat of Guilford County , North Carolina , during the American Revolutionary War . A 2 , 100 - man British force under the command of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis defeated Major General Nathanael Greene ' s 4 , 500 Americans . The British army , however , sustained such heavy casualties that the result was a strategic victory for the Americans . Despite the relatively small numbers of troops involved , the battle is considered pivotal to the American victory in the Revolution . Before the battle , the British appeared to have had great success in conquering much of Georgia and South Carolina with the aid of strong Loyalist factions , and thought that North Carolina might be within their grasp . In fact , the British were in the process of heavy recruitment in North Carolina when this Battle ( for all intents and purposes ) put an end to their recruiting drive . In the wake of the battle , Greene moved into South Carolina , while Cornwallis chose to march into Virginia and attempt to link up with roughly 3 , 500 men under British Major General Phillips and American turncoat Benedict Arnold . These decisions allowed Greene to unravel British control of the South , while leading Cornwallis to Yorktown and eventual surrender to Major General George Washington and Lieutenant General Comte de Rochambeau . The battle is commemorated at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park . Prelude . Following the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina , Lt . General Charles Cornwallis was determined to destroy Greene ' s army . But the loss of his light infantry at Cowpens led him to burn his supplies so that his army would be nimble enough for pursuit . He chased Greene in the " Race to the Dan " , but Greene escaped across the flooded Dan River to safety in Virginia . Cornwallis established camp at Hillsborough , foraged for supplies and recruited North Carolina Tories . However , the bedraggled state of his army and Pyle ' s massacre deterred Loyalists from turning out . Due to the fighting , thousands of slaves had escaped from plantations in South Carolina and other southern states , many joining the British to fight for their personal freedom . In the waning months of the war , the British evacuated more than 3 , 000 freedmen to Nova Scotia , with others going to London and Jamaica . Northern slaves escaped to the British lines in occupied cities such as New York . On March 14 , 1781 , while encamped in the forks of the Deep River , Cornwallis was informed that Greene was encamped at the Guilford Court House . With him was a body of North Carolina militia , plus reinforcements from Virginia , consisting of 3 , 000 Virginia militia , a Virginia State regiment , a corps of Virginian eighteen - month men and recruits for the Maryland Line , totaling between 4 , 000 - 5 , 000 men . Cornwallis decided to give battle , though he had only 1 , 900 men at his disposal . He detached his baggage train , 100 infantry and 20 cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton , to Bell ' s Mills further down the Deep River . Before breakfast could be eaten , Cornwallis set off with his main force , arriving at Guilford at midday . Battle . An excellent reference for this Battle is " The American Revolution In The South " by Henry Lee , Lt Col . Commandant of the Partisan Legion during The American War , Biography of the Author By Robert E . Lee . Arno Press , Inc . 1969 . Library of Congress Catalog Card No . 75 - 76561 . See Chapter XXVII . Originally published as " Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department " by Henry Lee . The advance guard met near the Quaker New Garden Meeting House . Dragoons from Banastre Tarleton ' s British Legion were briefly engaged by Light Horse Harry Lee ' s Dragoons about 4 miles ( 6 km ) from the Guilford Court House . The British 23rd Regiment of Foot sent reinforcements forward and Lee withdrew , ordering a retreat to Greene ' s main body . Cornwallis found the Americans in position on rising ground about one and a half miles ( 2 . 5 km ) from the court house . He was unable to gain much information from his prisoners or the local residents as to the American disposition . To his front he saw a plantation with a large field straddling both sides of the road , with two more further over on the left separated by 200 yards or so of woodland . To his right beyond the fields the woodland extended for several miles . On the far side of the first field was a fenced wood , 1 mile ( 1 . 6 km ) in depth , through which the road passed into an extensive cleared area around the court house . Along the edge of this woodland was a fence forming the American first line of defense and a 6 - pound cannon on each side of the road . Greene had prepared his defense in three lines . North Carolina militia formed the first line , with backwoods riflemen on the left and right flanks to snipe advancing British . In the second line , he placed the Virginia militia . Two more 6 - pound cannons were sited in the center of the line . His third and strongest line consisting of his regulars , included the Virginian Regiment , Delaware infantry , and the 1st and 2nd Maryland regiments was a further 400 yards further on , though placed at an angle to the west of the road . While superficially resembling the deployment successfully used by Daniel Morgan at Cowpens , the lines were hundreds of yards apart and could not support one another . Since the east side of the road was mostly open , Cornwallis opted to attack up the west side and , following a short barrage of cannon shot on the cannon positions of the first line , at 1 : 30 p . m . , Cornwallis moved his men forward . When they were about 150 yards short of the fence , a volley was fired from the Americans , but the British continued until they were within musket shot then fired their own volley in return . On a command from Webster , they then charged forward , coming to a halt 50 paces from the American lines because the North Carolina Militia , as noted by Sergeant Lamb of the 23rd Regiment " had their arms presented and resting on the picket fence . . . they were taking aim with nice precision " . Urged onwards by Lieutenant Colonel James Webster of the 33rd Regiment of Foot , the British continued to advance . The North Carolina Militia , to the west of the road , fired their muskets then turned and fled back through the woods , discarding their personal equipment as they ran . The British advanced on the second line . Heavy resistance was shown , but Webster pushed around the flank and on to the American 3rd line . The woodland was too dense to allow practical use of the bayonet s . The British army forced its way through the first two lines with significant losses . The 71st Regiment , Grenadiers and 2nd Guards moved up the center , following the musket shots from the 33rd and 23rd Regiments to their left . To the right , the 1st Guards and Hessians were being harried by Lee ' s Legion . The British guns and Tarleton ’ s Light Dragoons moved forward along the road keeping pace . The 2nd Guards in the centre found themselves coming out into open ground around the court house to the left of the Salisbury road . They spotted a large force of Continental Infantry and immediately attacked them and captured two 6 - pounders . They then pursued the Continentals into the wood and were repulsed by Lt . Col . William Washington ' s Light Dragoons , and the 1st Maryland Regiment , abandoning the two guns they had just captured . Lieutenant Macleod , in command of two British 3 - pounders , had just arrived and was directed to fire on the Dragoons . While many British soldiers were killed from friendly fire , the Americans broke off and retreated from the field . Cornwallis ordered the 23rd and 71st Regiments with part of the Cavalry to pursue the Americans , though not for any great distance . Tarleton and the remainder of the Dragoons were sent off to the right flank to join Bose and put an end to the action from Washington . During the battle , Cornwallis had a horse shot from under him . American Colonel Benjamin Williams was later decorated for his personal bravery at Guilford Courthouse . Aftermath . The battle had lasted only ninety minutes , and although the British technically defeated the American force , they lost over a quarter of their own men . The British , by taking ground with their accustomed tenacity when engaged with superior numbers , were tactically victors . Seeing this as a classic Pyrrhic victory , British Whig Party leader and war critic Charles James Fox echoed Plutarch ' s famous words by saying , " Another such victory would ruin the British Army ! " In a letter to Lord George Germain , delivered by his aide - de - camp , Captain Broderick , Cornwallis commented : " From our observation , and the best accounts we could procure , we did not doubt but the strength of the enemy exceeded 7 , 000 men . . . I cannot ascertain the loss of the enemy , but it must have been considerable ; between 200 and 300 dead were left on the field of battle . . . many of their wounded escaped . . . Our forage parties have reported to me that houses in a circle six to eight miles around us are full of others . . . We took few prisoners " . He further went on to comment on the British force : " The conduct and actions of the officers and soldiers that composed this little army will do more justice to their merit than I can by words . Their persevering intrepidity in action , their invincible patience in the hardships and fatigues of a march of above 600 miles , in which they have forded several large rivers and numberless creeks , many of which would be reckoned large rivers in any other country in the world , without tents or covering against the climate , and often without provisions , will sufficiently manifest their ardent zeal for the honour and interests of their Sovereign and their country . " After the battle , the British were spread across a large expanse of woodland without food and shelter , and during the night torrential rains started . Fifty of the wounded died before sunrise . Had the British followed the retreating Americans they might have come across their baggage and supply wagons , which had been left where the Americans had camped on the west of the Salisbury road prior to the battle . On March 17 , two days after the battle , Cornwallis reported his casualties as 5 officers and 88 other ranks killed and 24 officers and 389 other ranks wounded , with a further 26 men missing in action . Webster was wounded during the battle , and he died a fortnight later . Greene reported his casualties as 57 killed , 111 wounded and 161 missing for the Continental troops and 22 killed , 74 wounded and 885 missing for the militia : a total of 79 killed , 185 wounded and 1 , 046 missing . Of those reported missing , 75 were wounded men who were captured by the British . When Cornwallis resumed his march , these 75 wounded prisoners were left behind at Cross Creek , Cornwallis having earlier left 70 of his own most severely wounded men at the Quaker settlement of New Garden near Snow Camp . To avoid another Camden , Greene retreated with his forces intact . With his small army , less than 2 , 000 strong , Cornwallis declined to follow Greene into the back country . Retiring to Hillsborough , he raised the royal standard , offered protection to the inhabitants , and for the moment appeared to be master of Georgia and the two Carolinas . In a few weeks , however , he abandoned the heart of the state and marched to the coast at Wilmington , North Carolina , to recruit and refit his command . At Wilmington , the British general faced a serious problem . Instead of remaining in North Carolina , he determined to march into Virginia , justifying the move on the ground that until Virginia was reduced , he could not firmly hold the more southerly states he had just overrun . General Clinton sharply criticized the decision as unmilitary , and as having been made contrary to his instructions . To Cornwallis , he wrote in May : " Had you intimated the probability of your intention , I should certainly have endeavoured to stop you , as I did then as well as now consider such a move likely to be dangerous to our interests in the Southern Colonies . " For three months , Cornwallis raided every farm or plantation he came across , from which he took hundreds of horses for his Dragoons . He converted another 700 infantry to mounted duties . During these raids , he freed thousands of slaves , of whom 12 , 000 joined his own force . General Greene boldly pushed down towards Camden and Charleston , South Carolina , with a view to drawing his antagonist after him to the points where he was the year before , as well as to driving back Lord Rawdon , whom Cornwallis had left in that field . In his main object — the recovery of the southern states — Greene succeeded by the close of the year , but not without hard fighting and repeated reverses . " We fight , get beat , rise , and fight again , " were his words . Legacy . Every year , on or about March 15 , re - enactors in period costumes present a tactical demonstration of Revolutionary War fighting techniques on or near the battle site , major portions of which are preserved in the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park , established in 1917 . Recent research has shown that the battlefield extended into the area now within the boundaries of the adjacent Greensboro Country Park to the east . Three current Army National Guard units ( 116th IN , 175th IN and 198th SIG ) are derived from American units that participated in the Battle of Guilford Courthouse . There are only thirty Army National Guard and active Regular Army units with lineages that go back to the colonial era .