GUILFORD COURTHOUSE, BATTLE OF

(March 15, 1781), in the U.S. War of Independence, strategic victory for the Americans in North Carolina over the British, who soon afterwards were obliged to virtually abandon control of the Carolinas. After the Battle of Cowpens (January 17, 1781), the American commander Nathanael Greene united both wings of his 4,400-man southern army at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. There Lord Cornwallis, with a force of 1,900 British veterans, caught up with the Americans, and a battle ensued. American casualties were light; British casualties were heavy. Wishing to avoid another defeat such as the one suffered by General Horatio Gates at Camden, South Carolina, the previous August, Greene withdrew his forces intact. Declining to pursue the Americans into the backcountry, Cornwallis temporarily retired to Hillsboro, North Carolina. Acknowledging his failure to destroy patriot resistance in the South, Cornwallis abandoned the heart of the state a few weeks later and marched to the coast at Wilmington to recruit and refit his command.