Battle of Guilford Courthouse

Generals Greene and Cornwallis met at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse on March 15, 1781. Although the British held the field, their casualties from the numerically superior Continental Army were crippling.

People involved

• Nathanael Greene
• Charles Cornwallis

When this happened

Battle of Guilford Courthouse occurred in March 15, 1781, during the revolutionary era period of American history.

Where this happened

Battle of Guilford Courthouse took place in North Carolina. Explore the full history of North Carolina and primary source records from this era.

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) grew from colonial resistance to British taxation without parliamentary representation — a dispute that radicalized through the Stamp Act (1765), the Townshend Acts (1767), and the Boston Massacre (1770). Fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775; the Continental Congress declared independence on July 4, 1776. The Continental Army under George Washington faced severe shortages of supplies and troops, enduring the brutal winter at Valley Forge (1777–1778) before French alliance and French financing turned the military balance. Major engagements included Bunker Hill (1775), Trenton (1776), Saratoga (1777) — which secured French intervention — and Yorktown (1781), where British General Cornwallis surrendered to Washington. An estimated 25,000 American soldiers died in service, from combat, disease, and captivity. The Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized American independence and ceded British territory east of the Mississippi, though it left unresolved questions about Indigenous land rights and the status of Loyalists.

Content adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source: Wikipedia: Military campaigns of 1780–81.