Historical Haywood

Nathanael Greene – The Race to the Dan and Guilford Courthouse

Nathanael Greene is one of the most celebrated Generals of the American Revolution for his crucial role in taking the southern theater from the British and securing a revolutionary Patriot victory. Born in 1742 to Quaker parents, Nathanael Greene possessed a curious mind, excelled in math and read Greek and Roman classics to broaden his views on Society and the ways of men. Nathanael pursued his family business of iron forging for ships, but when his family was accused of involvement in the Gaspee Affair (burning of a British revenue ship) in 1772, he began to take an interest in the growing discontent in the colonies. It was this interest that led him to join the military, a choice that conflicted with his religious upbringing. When Greene attended a military parade and showed support for armed rebellion against England, he was expelled from his church. Greene remained a devout Quaker and struggled to reconcile Quaker admonitions against warfare under any circumstances with his support for and participation in the War for American Independence. In May 1775, Greene was commissioned as a brigadier general of militia commanding the three Rhode Island regiments raised for service with Washington’s army at Boston. The following June, Greene received his Continental commission and two months later was promoted to major general. His innate military skill soon made him Washington’s most trusted subordinate.

In 1778, after the deadly winter at Valley Forge, Greene was asked to take charge of the quartermaster department, which had failed in its ability to feed and clothe the army. Greene reluctantly accepted the offer by Washington and performed remarkably well reforming and reorganizing the department. Greene’s new methods did not please all members of the Congress. When they refused him a vote of confidence, Greene resigned in July 1780. On August 16, 1780, one of the largest American defeats of the war occurred at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina under General Horatio Gates. As the American troops retreated, Gates left the battlefield and abandoned his army, riding nearly 200 miles in three days. When Congress asked Washington to recommend a new commander for the Southern Department, Greene was immediately recommended and appointed to command in October 1780. 

If there was a “critical moment” during the Revolutionary War in the South, then the two Patriot victories in the Carolinas at Kings Mountain and Cowpens in the fall and winter of 1780-81 should be credited. Even with prior defeats, it is the view of many historians that the British were strong enough to subdue Patriot support in the South until Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene blunted the British advance through the Carolinas at Guilford Courthouse. Prior to this Battle, British strategy centered on conquering the South by destroying Greene’s army. Aware of this plan, Greene and other American leaders refused to give Cornwallis a traditional fight and instead engaged in several skirmishes and strategic retreats. This American strategy resulted in the defeat of two detachments of Cornwallis’s main army: one led by Patrick Ferguson at King’s Mountain in October 1780 and the other led by Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens in January 1781. These victories demonstrated the commitment and the renewed spirit of the Patriot militia, setting the British campaign back for weeks during a critical time when American forces were organizing under newly arrived Southern Department commander Nathanael Greene. 

After Cowpens, Greene’s forces withdrew to Virginia in what became known as the “Race to the Dan,” a river in Virginia. This initiative weakened the British forces costing Cornwallis irreplaceable numbers of men to desertion and small skirmishes. Trying to increase his ability to follow Greene’s forces, Cornwallis burned his baggage at Ramseur’s Mill in the interest of speed but unsuccessfully pursued Greene to the Dan. Greene’s forces crossed the Dan River on February 13, 1781, shortly before Cornwallis’s men arrived on February 15, taking with them all the boats along the south bank. Recent rains had flooded the river making the local fords unusable, saving Greene’s army from destruction by Cornwallis’ army. Unable to wait for the rivers to recede without supplies, Cornwallis fell back from the Virginia border while Greene’s army replenished itself with food, ammunition and reinforcements. 

On February 22, 1781, Greene’s forces recrossed the Dan River and began pursuing the British southward. The two armies fought several skirmishes within the area including engagements at Weitzell’s Mill and Clapp’s Mill. Headquartered at High Rock Ford, Greene, with replenished supplies and holding a two-to-one advantage in men (4000 vs 2000), decided to offer the open battle that Cornwallis had pursued for nearly three months. By March 14, the armies were within ten miles of each other near Guilford Courthouse, a heavily wooded area consisting of a few small houses, the county courthouse, and several plowed fields. On March 15, several months of hard campaigning by the armies of Nathanael Greene and Lord Charles Cornwallis culminated with the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Greene deployed his army in three lines, each spaced approximately 400 yards apart. The first consisted of nearly 800 North Carolina militia arranged on the edge of a field with “their arms resting on a rail fence.” The North Carolina militiamen included William R. Davie, Benjamin Williams, Nathaniel Macon, James Turner, and David Caldwell. Nearly 850 Virginia militiamen stood as a second line within dense woods to the rear of the North Carolinians. The third line consisted of Greene’s regulars, the Continental soldiers from Maryland and Virginia. In addition, on the right and left flanks of the first line, Greene posted veteran Virginia and North Carolina riflemen, as well as Continental dragoons and infantry led by William Washington and Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee. Among the riflemen stood Joseph Winston, Jesse Franklin, and Richard Allen. Marquis De Bretigny led a small detachment of North Carolina militia dragoons attached to Washington’s force. Greene posted artillery at both the first and third lines, with those along the first having orders to fall back after the fighting began. Greene, following the example of Daniel Morgan at Cowpens earlier that year, ordered the North Carolina militia to fire two volleys and then fall back behind the Virginians. 

Taking Greene’s bait, Cornwallis’s army marched out from its camp at Deep River Meeting House in the early morning hours. Several clashes erupted between British and American advance parties led by Banastre Tarleton and Light Horse Harry Lee at the New Garden Meeting House several miles south of Greene’s main army. At one point, Tarleton’s dragoons withdrew across the grounds of present-day Guilford College. British forces drove back the Americans, and by noon, Cornwallis was in striking distance of Greene’s army. Cornwallis’s men advanced on Greene’s first line after a thirty-minute artillery barrage by both sides. The British broke through the first and second lines relatively quickly, but suffered severe casualties in the advance, particularly along the Virginia militia line. One American noted that, after his regiment fired a volley, the British “appeared like the stalks of wheat after the harvest man passed over them with his cradle.” Despite their losses, Cornwallis’s army pushed on to the American third line, where they engaged the Continental regulars in both small arms fire and hand-to-hand combat.

Unwilling to the risk the destruction of his army and realizing that he had inflicted massive casualties on the British, Greene withdrew his army to Troublesome Ironworks nearly fifteen miles away. The battered British army did not pursue. Although Cornwallis’s army held the field, the Americans had punished them severely. Twenty-seven percent of Cornwallis’s army lay dead or wounded on the field. The Foot Guards battalions, considered the finest troops in the entire British army, suffered fifty-six percent casualties, including nearly all their officers. By comparison, Greene lost only six percent of his force, the majority of whom were North Carolina and Virginia militiamen who had fled shortly after the battle began and were counted as missing in action. In a letter to Samuel Huntington, the president of Congress, Greene described the engagement as “long, obstinate and bloody.” After the battle, Cornwallis withdrew his army first to Ramsey’s Mill and then through southeastern North Carolina to the British base at Wilmington, where he resupplied his army. British Parliamentarian Charles James Fox told the House of Commons, “Another such victory would ruin the British army.” Fox’s assertion would be borne out in the following months. In late April 1781, Cornwallis marched north from Wilmington, focusing his strategy on Virginia instead of the entire South. Despite skirmishes at Swift Creek, Peacock Bridge, and Halifax, he and his men crossed into Virginia in mid-May. Five months later, Cornwallis surrendered his army to George Washington at the little seaside village of Yorktown, effectively ending major fighting in the southern colonies, and speeding along American victory in the war.

As part of the multi-year America 250 NC effort, Haywood County’s Sons of the American Revolution, Daughters of the American Revolution and the Haywood County America 250 NC team will host John Misenheimer portraying Nathanael Greene, a hero of the American Revolutionary War. Revolutionary War historian and reenactor John Misenheimer has an MBA from Appalachian State University and a B.S. from Pfeiffer University in Misenheimer, N.C. He is president of the Lt. Colonel John Phifer Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and previously he served 8 ½ years on the Charlotte/Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission and was the vice-chairman. Commission. 

Misenheimer was named North Carolina Historian of the Year by the N.C. Society of Historians and assisted the Battlefield Preservation Foundation and the Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution in research on the battlefields of Cowan’s Ford and Ramsour’s Mill in creating the Official Battlefields Report, to be turned over to the U.S. National Park Service.

The Program on June 7th at the Haywood County Library in Waynesville will begin at 10am with networking, coffee and snacks prior to the featured Speaker at 10:30. This is a free event, open to the public and will have representatives of the SAR, DAR and the Haywood County America 250 NC team. We will not only hear from John Misenheimer, but will also have information about Haywood County’s America 250 NC plans through 2026. 

Submitted by Mike McLean, with historical content provided
by the Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources America 250 NC newsletters from January
and March 2024