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NOTE 60. The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

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Volume 4, Chapter 60, The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

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Lord Cornwallis now found himself in a position often faced by imperialist commanders fighting against guerrillas and a revolutionary people.

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By classical standards he was in an excellent position.

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He was the conqueror of Georgia and all of the Carolinas, and no real army was left to oppose him south of the Dan River.

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But, in fact, he had no boats and few supplies and could not pursue green into Virginia.

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Furthermore, Green's army would outnumber his when it was reinforced by the divisions

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of continentals being raised in Virginia by General Steuben.

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Cornwallis, therefore, fell back on the fundamental axiom of British strategy.

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The rallying of the supposed majority of North Carolina Tories to form the solid support

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for British occupation and regime.

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He withdrew to Hillsboro and eagerly issued a proclamation on February 20, inviting all

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loyal subjects to join his army in the reestablishment of legitimate government in the province.

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Meanwhile, Green was having his troubles across the dam.

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His militia, their enlistments up, had largely left him, and neither the expected reinforcements

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from Steuben's Virginia Continentals nor Virginia militia had appeared.

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In addition, the level of the dam was falling, exposing him to a potential blow from Cornwallis.

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He therefore determined to cross the river back into North Carolina.

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He sent Williamson Lee across to join Pickens guerrillas, inhering the British and suppressing

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and Armed Tories. On February 23, they found a company of 400 mounted Tory recruits at

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Hall River under the command of Colonel John Pyle. Pickens and Lee duped, surprised, and

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virtually massacred the enemy. Most of the Tory force was killed or wounded. Not a man

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in the American force was even injured. Understandably, the massacre at Hall River dried up Tory

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Recruiting in the State.

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On the same day, Green, finally reinforced by Virginia riflemen, recrossed the Dan and

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headed towards Hillsboro, his force now numbering 2,100.

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His plan was to harass Cornwallis, discourage Tory risings and wait for reinforcements before

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engaging in any frontal action.

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Cornwallis found to his dismay that Green's recrossing and the harassment by his light

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Infantry under Williams were, like the route of Pyle, effectively crushing the incipient

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flocking of North Carolina Tories to the British cause.

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At Hillsboro, Cornwallis found himself among more and more enemies and ever fewer friends.

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The increase of enemies aggravated by British plundering and requisitions of foodstuffs,

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which were growing increasingly scarce in the area.

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It was clear that he had to leave Hillsborough. On February 27, he marched southwest to the

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south side of the Alamance, where he would be in a strategic position to march west to

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Guilford or Salisbury or southeast to Cross Creek or Wilmington on the Atlantic coast.

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Green encamped on the north side and shifted his camp continually, keeping Cornwallis off

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Off Balance, while awaiting reinforcements.

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On March 6th, Cornwallis tried to attack Williams in a sudden surprise, but Williams's corps

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managed to escape.

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Finally, both armies rested.

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Green received his long-awaited reinforcements of over 1,000 North Carolina militia, nearly

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1,700 Virginia militia, and a few Virginia Continentals.

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By mid-March he was at peak strength, over 4,500 men, greatly outnumbering the better-trained

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British force of about 1,900.

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Finding his food supplies running low, Green decided to make his stand promptly at Guilford

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Courthouse.

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This decision to do battle was strategically sound.

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Green's great numerical superiority ensured that the worst would be a minor defeat and

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and Victory could well have led to the final route of the British troops.

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For his part, Cornwallis could do nothing else.

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The entire long-run British strategy of occupying the South and calling forth the Tories rested

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on triumph over the American army in open battle.

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Following Morgan's earlier advice, Green arranged his army as Morgan had done with

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and such success at Cowpens, a front and second line of militia, a third line of crack-continentals

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and two cavalry units on the flanks under Washington and Lee.

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But while Green was a brilliant strategist, he was far inferior to Morgan as a tactician,

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and he made the grave error of stationing his three lines much too far apart.

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Morgan had placed the lines 150 yards apart.

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The King now placed them 300 and 400 yards apart, leaving the militia too great a distance

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before they could find cover.

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This also forced the cavalry to cover too much ground before it could come up to aid

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the front lines.

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The British swung into battle on March 15.

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The first American line of North Carolina militia panicked at the British advance and

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fled from the scene without bothering to reform at the rear.

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The second line of Virginia militia fought well, however, and did great damage to the

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British troops with its withering rifle fire.

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The third line of continentals was again very effective, but twice Green failed to administer

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the coup de grace to the British for fear of risking his army.

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Cornwallis finally managed to stop Washington's advance by firing his artillery indiscriminately

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into the fray.

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As the British reformed and advanced, Green withdrew from the battle, a technical defeat

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for the Americans, but actually a smashing victory, for at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse,

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the British had lost no fewer than 530 men, more than one-fourth of their army.

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In contrast, Green had suffered only 260 casualties.

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Where his severe mauling Cornwallis retreated southeast to Cross Creek, but there he made

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a fateful decision that was to bring the war to a close.

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Disregarding Clinton's instructions to safeguard Charleston and South Carolina above all, he

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abandoned the entire south below Virginia.

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Pushing on to Wilmington on the coast of North Carolina, where he could obtain supplies by

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C, he allowed Green to turn into South Carolina, leaving the Tories of Cross Creek to their

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fate. Never a man to assume a strategic defensive as a withdrawal into South Carolina would

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have been, Cornwallis decided on his own to march north into the privileged sanctuary

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of Virginia, the supply route for the Carolinas where other British forces were already deployed.

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For this unilateral change in fundamental British strategy in abandoning the South and

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the Southern Tories, Clinton sharply criticized Cornwallis.

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As Cornwallis pushed northward into Virginia at the end of April 1781, Clinton and the

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British could only come up with a middle-states variant of the now-abandoned Southern strategy.

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The plan now was to conduct a campaign in Maryland, Delaware and lower Pennsylvania where again

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Tories could supposedly be relied upon to organize and control the area after its conquest

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by British troops.

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Cornwallis disgusted with the extent of Tory support, now scorned the Tory strategy and

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Clinton continued the offensive against Virginia, an offensive Clinton knew to be unworkable

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because unlike the middle states, there were few Tories in that state to hold it after

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conquest.

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In this quarrel, each man was right in his criticisms of the other.

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On the one hand, Virginia ultimately could not be held.

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On the other hand, there were not sufficient Tories to implement Clinton's new project.