The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

American Revolution
Written By Tom Hand

In March 1781, General Nathanael Greene decided to finally confront Lord Charles Cornwallis’s British army in a pitched battle and selected Guilford Courthouse in western North Carolina as the spot. Greene positioned his troops as Daniel Morgan had at Cowpens, with two ranks of militia in front and a final line of seasoned Continentals led by Colonels Otho Williams and John Howard. With hand-to-hand fighting raging just in front of him and the contest hanging in the balance, Cornwallis ordered his artillery to fire grapeshot point blank into the mass.

Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, a costly triumph for the British that led politician Charles Fox to remark, “Another such victory would ruin the British Army,” and why it still matters today.

Images courtesy of Brown University Library, National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, National Army Museum, The New York Public Library, Royal Collection Trust, National Park Service, Wikipedia.

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Tom Hand
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