North Carolina-Guilford Courthouse Battle

After Greene resigned as Quartermaster he was on the military court in which convicted John Andre, who had been a spy along with Benedict Arnold in September of 1780 (Logan, 2009). After Benedict Arnold had been exposed as a spy, Greene took his place as Commander of West Point in New York (Carborne, 2008, p. 143).   Greene only stayed at West Point for a very brief period of time, for the American armies in the Southern states were losing and a new Southern commander was needed. George Washington chose Nathanael Greene to be the new Southern Commander in 1780 (Carborne, 2008, p. 144).

 Greene arrived in Charlotte, NC on December, 2, 1780. Greene was surprised at how weak American army in the South was under former commander Horatio Gates. In the Southern troop in which Greene took over only 800 of the 2, 307 men were fit for duty, and had proper clothes. Greene and Gates did not like each other, but when they met they were civil because Gates appeared like such a beaten man, which caused Greene to take pity on him (Carborne, 2008, p. 154).  Nevertheless, Greene needed to effectively make decisions about his troops, for his rival British General Cornwallis had four thousand men with the best training and equipment (Carborne, 2008, p. 156).  

 Greene’s first decision as Southern Commander was to move the troops away from the camp Horatio Gates had them in because the conditions were terrible (Carborne, 2008, p. 157).  Greene decided to divide his troops into two groups. Greene place 600 of his best troops with Daniel Morgan to go to the Catawba Valley, which was 100 miles from Charlotte (Carborne, 2008, p. 157). The rest of Greene’s army went to set up camp on the Pee-Dee River on the hills of the Piedmont in North Carolina (Carborne, 2008, p. 159).  Greene’s strategy to separate his army was to maximize the limited resources of the land, while at the same time be able to keep the units close enough to communicate with each other (Logan, 2009). A second was for Cornwallis to confront Greene’s best troops separately, since Greene considered many of his troops to be inferior (Carborne, 157, p. 157).  The troop separation proved to be effective for Morgan’s division had managed to make General Cornwallis 86 percent of his troops, who fought in the Battle of Cowpens on July, 17, 1781.  When the officers in Greene’s camp heard the news along with Greene they celebrated with an alcoholic beverage called cherry bounce (Carborne, 2008, p. 166-167).  Greene’s were not able to celebrate for long, for Cornwallis in anger arranged 2, 500 troops to come fight Morgan, and Cornwallis.

Greene did not panic, but remained completely under control at the news in which Cornwallis was after him (Carborne, 2008, p. 170). Greene decided to unite the troops at Guilford Courthouse (Carborne, 2008, p. 170-173).  Guilford Courthouse was a tiny village in North Carolina. The village had a large amount of farm acres, and Greene believed the land would make a good battlefield (Scheer& Rankin, 1957, p. 444).  The journey to Guilford Courthouse was called “The Race to the Dan,” where both Cornwallis and Greene would set camps near to each other, and were always on alert with the knowledge that Cornwallis could attack at any moment (Carborne, 2008, 177).  The journey was not easy for Greene he had very little sleep, and developed a chronic ache in eye, which lasted a few days. However, despite his health problems Greene continued on his journey (Carborne, 2008, p. 177).  The “Race to the Dan” demonstrated an impressive mobility, for they traveled in a month’s period 200 miles of North Carolina wilderness in very bad weather (Logan, 2009).  The “Race to Dan” also showed Greene’s wide knowledge of geography, and preparation skills (Logan, 2009).  

 On March, 14, 1781 Greene had reached Guilford Courthouse. Greene had acquired a wide collection of troops from Virginia, and North Carolina, who were called the North Carolina and Virginia militia. Greene had two Continental regiments, who were considered to be the best regiments (Carborne, 2008, p.178). Greene’s overall force contained 4,300 members of the militia, 1,600 Continentals, and 160 cavalrymen of General Lee’s and William Washington’s legion (Scheer & Rankin, 1957, p. 444).  The battle of Guilford Courthouse officially took place on March, 15, 1781. Greene divided his troops into three different lines.  The first line was across the main road of Guilford behind a zigzag rail fence, and members of the Carolina militia were on the line. On one side of the land was an infantry of William Washington’s group and on the other stood a Virginian group, which formed the shape of an angle. Moreover, the goal was the troops would fire at Cornwallis’s army in a geometric direction (Scheer & Rankin, 1957, p. 445).    The second line was approximately three hundred miles behind the first and the troops on the line were members of the Virginia militia, discharged Continentals, and there were Continental officers supervising them. The village had a courthouse, which stood on top of a domesticated hill in the village (Scheer& Rankin, 1957, p. 443).   In the third line Greene had his best soldiers his Continentals, who were at the edge of the courthouse hill, and about five hundred and fifty feet behind the second line (Scheer & Rankin, 1957, p. 445).  Before the battle began Greene went to the first line, and gave them a speech about liberty, and honor. Greene then went to the top of the hill with the Continental soldiers (Carborne, 2008).

  The Battle of Guilford Courthouse happened with the beginning sounds of fifes, pipes, and snare drums. The sound of the British army instruments got higher as the British marched closer to the first line. The first action in which the American troops did when the British came to the first line was to fire their muskets, which had flame and lead. The smoke from the muskets lingered in the air (Carborne, 2008, p. 180). The second wave of fighting in the second line had help from the trees, which block the structure of the British line. Therefore, the British would fight the militia in clustered groups, until they pushed the militia unevenly. In the third line, the American’s shot a high range of musket fire at the British. However, Greene was forced to withdraw his troops when Cornwallis fired a shot from a canon called grapeshot, which killed men on both sides (Carborne, 2008, p. 181).  By the rules of war fare the British won the battle, because they held the ground at Guilford Courthouse. However, the British army experienced a significant number of loses. General Cornwallis who had started out with 2, 500 ended up with less than 1, 400 of them, so he lost more than half his troops (Carborne, 2008, p. 183). Greene’s surviving troops were stronger than Cornwallis’s they were tired, but ready to fight again; where as Cornwallis were hungry, weak, and some had acquired diseases ( Carborne, 2008, p. 182-183).  In a letter Greene wrote, “They had the splendor, we the advantage (Carborne, 2008, p. 183).  Therefore, Greene felt that even though his army did not win, they had an advantage of ending up stronger than Cornwallis army.

    Greene at first tried to chase Cornwallis army into Wilmington, NC. However, then he decided to leave Cornwallis behind, and to go to South Carolina, where the British had a huge amount of outpost. Cornwallis decided not to follow Greene, for if he did not want lose the British claim on North Carolina (Carborne, 2008, p. 184). On April of 1781, Greene began his 140 mile journey into South Carolina.