Historic Sites of Greensboro, North Carolina

Guilford Courthouse National Military Park

Charles, Lord Cornwallis commanding a British force of over 2,000 men had been pursuing American General Nathanael Greene and his ragged army of mostly militia for several months. Minor skirmishes and stunning British defeats at Cowpens and King's Mountain had frustrated British attempts to quell the American rebellion in the South. Cornwallis committed himself and his army to destroying Greene and his Americans. The chase across South Carolina and North Carolina ended on March 15, 1781 at Guilford Courthouse.

The following battle was fierce and hard fought through dense undergrowth. When the battle ended the British held the field, but the Continental Army had once again slipped away to renew the fight another day. The British Army was worn and low on supplies. To rest and replentish his troops, Cornwallis moved his forces to Wilmington. Obtaining scarce supplies from the North Carolina port, the British sought better accomodations at another southern port, Yorktown, where they were compelled to surrender in October. The action at Guilford Courthouse directly contributed to Cornwallis' decision to move to Yorktown.

150 acres of the original battlefield at Guilford Courthouse in modern Greensboro are now a national military park. There are 29 monuments and a visitor center-museum on location.

Greensboro

This jump takes the reader to the city of Greensboro's official website.