Location
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Coordinates: 36.0919, -79.8900.
Type: Sight
Tour: Guilford Battle
County: Guilford
Full
Enter the driveway to the New Garden Friends Meeting House, drive to the far side of the building, and park in the lot next to the cemetery.
Only one comprehensive account of this battle has been published (Newlin 1977). Many details on this page thus come from that book, but the basic facts were confirmed by multiple sources.
Context
Continental Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s army has occupied high ground along Salisbury Road at Guilford Court House, and awaits an attack by British Lt. Gen. Lord Charles Cornwallis.
Situation
British/Tory
The British army, camped at Deep River Meeting House to the southwest toward Salisbury, has learned of Greene’s location. It left camp before dawn to march on him, led by forces under Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton. Tarleton had almost 600 cavalrymen and infantry, including German mercenaries called “Hessians.”[1]
Continental/Patriot
Lt. Col. “Light Horse” Henry Lee camped two to three miles from Guilford Court House toward the Quaker settlement of New Garden, to keep an eye on Cornwallis. He had Continental cavalry and infantry plus militia, again around 600 men.[2] Lee sent a small unit on horseback under Lt. James Heard to watch the British overnight. After sending word in the early morning hours that the British appeared to be moving, Heard retired to the New Garden Meeting House to watch for them. (He actually heard a supply party, but the warning gave Lee’s men more time to prepare.) Greene ordered Lee to move toward the British, to give Greene more time to arrange the rest of the troops.
Date
Thursday, March 15, 1781.
Timeline
