Historedia
AmericasEvent

Battle of Guilford Court House

When
1781
Where
Guilford Court House area; Near Greensboro, North Carolina
Episodes
2

On 15 March 1781, British forces under Cornwallis defeated American troops led by Greene near Greensboro, North Carolina. Although the British secured the field, they suffered heavy casualties, a result contemporaries described as a Pyrrhic victory.

Episodes

  1. 3-7 February 1781 · Guilford Court House areaArmy Consolidation

    Greene joined Morgan's troops and Lee's cavalry at Guilford Court House in early February 1781.

  2. 15 March 1781 · Near Greensboro, North CarolinaBattle of Guilford Court House

    British forces defeated the Americans on 15 March 1781, securing the field but suffering heavy losses.

Background and detail

Strategic Context. Following the loss of a quarter of his army at Cowpens, Cornwallis pursued Greene into North Carolina to destroy his forces. Greene joined Morgan's Continentals at Trading Ford and later rendezvoused with Lee's cavalry at Guilford Court House.

The Battle. On 15 March, the armies first met near the Quaker New Garden Meeting House, four miles west of Guilford Court House. Despite being outnumbered, the British force engaged the larger American army. The British won possession of the battlefield, but the Americans retreated with their forces intact.

People involved

Sources

  1. Battle of Guilford Court House Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-23

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.