Battle at Guilford Court House

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The Battle of Guilford Court House in the American Revolutionary War took place on March 15, 1781 near the city of Greensboro , North Carolina . The battle ended with a loss-making victory for the British troops under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis over Major-General Nathanael Greene, more than twice the number of the American army .

Historical and strategic context

The increasingly intense and brutal guerrilla war in South Carolina, as well as the modest but severe defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens , convinced the British commander- in- chief in South General Cornwalli that only by a decisive battle against the American Army General Greene's ability to save the British position in the south. Therefore, at the end of January 1781, he began to pursue the Americans with part of his troops; he left the rest in the garrisons of the south (especially Charleston and Savannah ). Greene avoided this decisive battle, however, retreated north and in the following weeks various British and American army units delivered a chase through South and North Carolina.

Cornwallis proceeded extremely unconventionally for the warfare of his time by having the extensive baggage of his army burned in order to advance faster. Thus, although the British troops marched faster and almost succeeded in catching up with the Americans several times, these forced marches through enemy territory (the hoped-for support from loyalists in North Carolina was almost completely lacking) weakened the British units very much. Greene, on the other hand, received reinforcements and supplies from Virginia and felt strong enough to offer battle to Cornwallis on March 17, 1781 near Guilford Court House.

Forces involved

General Greene's American Army consisted of about 1,500 continental troops under Brigadier Generals Isaac Huger and Otho Holland Williams and a large number of militia troops from Virginia (under Brigadier Generals Edward Stevens and Robert Lawson ) and North Carolina (under John Butler and Thomas Eaton ) ; plus a small cavalry contingent under William Washington and Henry Lee and snipers under Charles Lynch . Greene had a total of about 4,500 men. Parts of the army, especially the continental and cavalry troops, were quite experienced, but the militias were generally of very moderate combat strength.

The British Army of General Cornwallis consisted of the British 23rd ( Royal Welch Fusiliers ), 33rd and 71st ( Fraser's Highlanders ) regiments, two part battalions of the British Guard regiments (under Brigadier-General Charles O'Hara ), the Hessian regiment of Bose , Banastre Tarleton's British Legion , as well as some elite companies of light infantry (including German fighters ) and grenadiers . Due to losses, illness and the strenuous march, all units had shrunk considerably and comprised no more than 1,900 operational men, most of them battle-hardened veterans.

Course of the battle

Battle formation

General Greene carefully selected the battlefield; it was mostly forest with a few clearings around the Guilford courthouse. He tried to copy Daniel Morgan's successful battle line-up at Cowpens, a kind of staggered defense, by putting a line of North Carolina militia (supported by cavalry and snipers) in the front line, followed by a line of Virginia militia and finally his best (continental) troops in the third line. However, these units were too far apart to provide optimal support - as with Cowpens - and General Greene himself lacked Daniel Morgan's skill on the battlefield.

Earl Cornwallis attacked this complicated American order of battle with all his troops head-on; its left brigade of light infantry, the 33rd and 23rd was commanded by Brigadier-General James Webster , the right brigade with the 71st and Bose regiment by Major-General Alexander Leslie . As a reserve, Cornwallis retained the grenadiers, Tarleton's cavalry and the guard under O'Hara.

The battle was fought extremely bitterly; the first American line was routed by the British, but American cavalry and snipers on the flanks stopped the British. The second line of militias was also pushed back by the British; but General Webster was fatally wounded in the process. Eventually, the exhausted and decimated British forces faced the best American forces in the third line of battle. The first uncoordinated attacks were repulsed, Cornwallis sent the guard under O'Hara forward and a confusing battle developed in which the numerically superior Americans threatened to overwhelm the British. Earl Cornwallis made a cold-blooded decision just then, firing his artillery in the middle of the scuffle.

Greene, wanting to avoid a second defeat like Horatio Gates' at the Battle of Camden , ordered his troops to march off. The British were unable to organize an effective persecution due to their heavy casualties.

Consequences of the battle

Given the high British casualties on the battlefield (around 100 dead and 400 wounded out of 1900 men), Guilford Court House is often valued as a British Pyrrhic victory . Cornwallis' plan to defeat Greene's army in a decisive battle and thus eliminate it had not worked. The American losses (officially around 80 dead and 200 wounded and 1,000 missing) could be compensated relatively quickly by militias, while Cornwallis could not do without its fallen veterans in view of its situation.

The dearly bought success on the battlefield was offset by barely countable advantages for the further development of the war. Cornwallis now controlled North Carolina from Hillsborough , but his position remained uncertain and he soon marched back to the coast to reinforce and equip his troops. As a result, he marched - largely unmolested by the now even more cautious Americans - in Virginia and led the campaign that was to lead to the surrender at Yorktown . General Greene's American army marched south, attempting to defeat the weakened British forces in South Carolina that Cornwallis had left behind.

Anecdotes, interesting things

Statue of General Greene in Guilford Courthouse National Military Park (2015)
  • General O'Hara, friend and deputy of Cornwallis and commander of the Guards troops, begged - allegedly with tears in his eyes - his superiors to refrain from firing into the Guards; Cornwallis gave the order anyway, saving the battle. The soldiers do not seem to have blamed him for this ruthless approach, for he remained an extremely popular commander.
  • General Cornwallis personally rode several times to the hot spots to cheer on his troops. At one point, his horse ran away and carried him dangerously close to the American lines; the chronicler Sergeant Roger Lamb of the Royal Welch Fusiliers took the reins and led his general out of danger.
  • Due to incorrect information, Cornwallis was convinced before the battle that it was dealing with 9,000-10,000 Americans and thus five times the superiority. The fact that he did not hesitate to attack shows his confidence in his disciplined British troops and an extremely aggressive fighting spirit that few British generals had in the War of Independence.
  • Two 3-pounder guns of the American army, which were captured by the British in the battle, already had an interesting story: they had originally been British, fell into the hands of the Americans at Saratoga , recaptured by the British at Camden and at Cowpens been lost again. After the surrender of Yorktown in October, they finally became American property.
  • In Roland Emmerich's The Patriot , the film's decisive battle has some parallels to Guilford Court House; for example, Greene and Cornwallis actually faced each other as commanders; In the decisive phase of the battle, Cornwallis (in the film, however, has no effect) ruthlessly firing cannons into the center; Tarleton (referred to as Tavington in the film ) also fought, but while he dies in the film he actually survived until 1833. In the Hollywood version of the battle, the British troops are vastly outnumbered, have the advantage of elevated positions and still lose the battle due to the greater fighting spirit of the Americans. All of these factors were distributed exactly the other way around in the historical battle.

Web links

Commons : Battle at Guilford Court House  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guilford Courthouse National Military Park in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed February 3, 2020.
  2. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: North Carolina. National Park Service , accessed February 3, 2020.