Battle of Guilford Court House
Cornwallis beat Nathanael Greene at Guilford Courthouse in March 1781 and lost a quarter of his army doing it. The southern campaign had been running for a year. Greene had taken over an American force that had been destroyed twice and had adopted a strategy of dividing it, avoiding a decisive engagement, and making the British march — the race to the Dan in February took Cornwallis some 400 kilometres through the Carolina winter after an enemy he could not catch. Cornwallis burned his own baggage to move faster, which left his men without tents or spare rations. Greene then offered battle on ground of his own choosing, with about 4,400 men against 1,900. He copied Morgan's arrangement from Cowpens: North Carolina militia in the first line behind a fence with orders to fire two volleys and withdraw, Virginia militia in the woods behind, and Continentals on a hill at the back. The first line fired and left, the second fought harder, and the third held on the hill. The crisis came when the British line was broken into by an American counterattack, and Cornwallis ordered his artillery to fire grapeshot into the mêlée, killing his own men to break up the fight. Greene withdrew in good order. The British held the field with 532 casualties out of 1,900. Charles James Fox told the Commons that another such victory would ruin the British army, and Cornwallis marched to Virginia and Yorktown. Greene never won a battle in the southern campaign and won the campaign, which is a rare thing to be able to say. His own summary was that they fought, got beaten, rose and fought again.
- Year: 1781 CE
- Category: Military
