Guilford Courthouse Battlefield
Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Guilford Courthouse. Armies of Greene and Cornwallis engaged in pivotal battle here on March 15, 1781. Site now U.S. military park.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
On March 15, 1781, American forces under Nathanael Greene met Lord Cornwallis's British army here in one of the Revolution's hardest-fought battles. Cornwallis held the field but lost roughly a quarter of his men—a victory so costly it pushed him toward Virginia and, ultimately, surrender at Yorktown. The ground is now preserved as a national military park.
Why it matters
Guilford Courthouse gutted British strength in the South and set Cornwallis on the road to Yorktown, hastening American independence.
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Related people
- · Nathanael Greene
- · Charles Cornwallis
Related events
- · Battle of Guilford Courthouse
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
The Genesis Monument
Greensboro, NC
In 1808, the leaders of Guilford County went looking for a new, more central home for their courthouse, and commissioners settled on a spot near the county's geographic heart to lay out the town of Greensborough. The new county seat—later spelled Greensboro—was named in honor of Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene, whose forces had fought the nearby Battle of Guilford Courthouse in 1781. This monument marks that deliberately chosen center point, the surveyor's-eye 'genesis' from which the streets and squares of a future Piedmont city were measured out.
Pyle's Defeat
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