Battle of Guilford Courthouse

On March 15, 1781 Nathaniel Greene and General Cornwallis engaged in a difficult battle. Greene had been putting the battle off because he did not fee like he had enough troops to fight against the British army. He finally stopped running in a small town in North Carolina, called Guilford, and prepared his troops for the battle. Guilford consisted mainly of a courthouse. It was a very small town with far less than 100 people living in it. Greene chose this as his ideal location to fight because of the advantageous natural surroundings. It was also about 200 miles away from the location where Cornwallis restored his supplies. Green predicted that Cornwallis would be very eager to fight, so he had no doubt that Cornwallis would attack even though he was so far away from his main base.
Greene had some extreme disadvantages .Most of his troops were untrained and had not fought before. Some of them had fought in previous battles but the majority would still weigh them down. They could not be depended on when they fought. They also had less supplies and had no bayonets. When the fighting started some of the inexperienced soldiers threw down their loaded guns and ran instead of fighting.
Greene’s troops also had some advantages. Many of them were farmers and hunters. They had very good aim, so they could make good use of whatever ammunition they were given. They could take out more people when firing only a few rounds. For this battle Greene had more troops than the British and they were determined to fight hard for their freedom.
During the battle Greene stayed with his troops. As expected, some of them ran away, but the ones who stayed put up a good fight. Cornwallis began to fear that he would lose the battle. This was a huge risk for him because if he did North Carolina would lose all of their respect for the Royal army, and his army would be sent to pieces. His fears were strengthened by the fact that the thick trees often kept the from moving toward the...