On Saturday March 15, 2025, a group of Revolutionary War reenactors took to the field and marked the anniversary of the Battle of Guilford Court House in Greensboro, NC. The events of the day start with tour of both the British and Patriot Militia and Continental Army encampments near the Guilford National Military Park.
This battle was fought on March 15, 1781 and was one of the last of the Revolutionary War. General Cornwallis, after losing one-quarter of his army at the Battle of Cowpens, pursued General Nathanael Greene into North Carolina. Cornwallis marched his army into Greensboro meeting Greene’s men that were deployed in three lines comprised of Virginia militia, North Carolina militia and William Washington’s 90 dragoons. The third line was comprised of 1,400 men of the Continental Army.
Cornwallis brought to the field, the 33rd Foot and Welsh Fusiliers, the 2nd Guards Battalion, and on his right wing was the 2nd Battalion of the Fraser highlanders and Hessian Regiment led by General Alexander Leslie. While there were skirmishes starting soon after dawn, the afternoon battle lasted only 90 minutes and ended with Greene withdrawing his troops, losing only 57 killed and 111 wounded, and 160 missing. . . Cornwallis lost about a quarter of his men, taking the battlefield, but had to withdraw to the North Carolina coast.
It is reported that General Greene never won a battle, and that Lord Cornwallis never lost a battle, but on this day in 1781, General Greene set in motion the eventual end of the Revolutionary War.
General Alexander Leslie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1731. He was the second son of Alexander Leslie, the 5th Earl of Leven. He was a descendant of the Alexander Leslie, first Earl of Leven who led Scottish troops against Roman Catholic rebels in Ireland in 1642–43, and later was Commander of the Scottish Army that fought on the side of Parliament during the English Civil War.
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