The Battle of Guilford Courthouse was a defeat for the American revolutionaries, but the heavy price of victory in North Carolina drew the British general Lord Cornwallis into Virginia and ultimately to his surrender at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. After the Battle of Cowpens (January 17, 1781), the revolutionaries withdrew into North Carolina. Hoping to catch and crush General Daniel Morgan, recapture prisoners, and dispel the impression of British vulnerability, Cornwallis followed, destroying all his excess baggage and supplies to increase the army's mobility and speed. Upon learning of the victory at Cowpens, General Nathanael Greene, in turn, maneuvered his forces to reunite with Morgan.

When the two armies finally reached Guilford Courthouse, Greene had approximately 4,400 men to Cornwallis's 2,200. Despite superior numbers, the revolutionaries lacked the experience and training of their enemy. Militia units, many of whom had never been in combat, formed the bulk of Greene's army. Generally considered to be highly unreliable on the battlefield, they were not used to formal drills and military discipline, and they carried a mixture of rifles, muskets, and fowling pieces, none of which had bayonets. Meanwhile, though better equipped and trained, the soldiers in the Continental army at Greene's disposal were of uneven quality, their ranks continually depleted of veterans as terms of enlistment ended. Nonetheless, the terrain at Guilford Courthouse favored the revolutionaries. The woods, shrubs, and underbrush provided cover for skirmishers and made it difficult for the British to march in their conventional long, tightly formed files. With these factors in mind, Greene deployed his men in three rows, the first two composed of North Carolina and Virginia militia, the third of Continentals.

The redcoats began their approach early in the morning. Greene's first line of militia performed better than expected, but they quickly fell back. As anticipated, the terrain hindered the British advance on the second column, and the redcoats took heavy losses. Exhausted, they engaged the third line, where, quite unexpectedly, a veteran Continental unit bolted and opened a serious breech in their position. Greene was forced to order a retreat. The British carried the day, but they had lost a staggering 27 percent of their engaged forces, compared to only 6 percent for the revolutionaries. An English parliamentarian later remarked that "another such victory would ruin the British Army."

In the aftermath, Cornwallis considered his options. Having generated little support from Loyalists in North Carolina, in desperate need of supplies and rest, and viewing Virginia as the key to victory in the South, he elected to march to the coast at Wilmington to obtain provisions and then move his tattered army north. This course of action allowed Greene to return to South Carolina almost unopposed. With the surrender at Yorktown in October, however, and Greene's reclamation of most of the South, Great Britain soon resolved to end the war and relinquish her rebellious colonies.

Bibliography:

1) Thomas F. Baker, Another Such Victory: The Story of the American Defeat at Guilford Courthouse That Helped Win the War for Independence (New York: Eastern Acorn Press, 1981);

2) Robert Leckie, George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution (New York: Harper Collins, 1993).

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