is lordship then proceeded to
Hillsborough, then the capital of North Carolina, where he invited the
inhabitants to repair to the royal standard. Greene, re-enforced by a
body of Virginia militia under General Stevens, soon re-entered North
Carolina, where numerous tories were embodying themselves to join
Cornwallis. On the twenty-fifth of February, Lee, with his cavalry, by
stratagem surprising a body of royalists under Colonel Pyle, cut them
to pieces. On the fifteenth of March occurred the battle of Guilford.
Greene's army was much superior in numbers, but consisted mainly of
militia and new levies. The cavalry of Lee and Washington was excellent,
but the ground was unfavorable for their action. The officers under
Greene were mostly veteran. The Virginia militia were commanded by
Generals Stevens and Lawson, and by Colonels Preston, Campbell, and
Lynch; those of North Carolina by Generals Butler and Eaton. Of the
continentals one Maryland regiment alone was veteran. Guilford
court-house, near the great Salisbury road, stood on a hill which
descends eastward, gradually, with an undulating slope for half a mile,
terminating in a little vale intersected by a rivulet. On the right of
the road the ground was open, with some copses of wood; on the left a
forest. Greene, with not quite two thousand regulars, was posted at the
court-house; in the field to the right of the road, the two regiments of
Virginia under Huger, the two of Maryland under Williams. Three hundred
yards in advance of the regulars were stationed the Virginia militia,
crossing at right angles the great road; and as far in front of them and
across the same road the North Carolina militia were formed: the
Virginia line in the woods; the Carolinians partly in the forest and
partly on its edge, behind a strong rail-fence, in front of which lay an
open field. Two pieces of artillery, under Captain Singleton, were
placed in the road a few yards in advance of the first line. The right
flank was guarded by Washington's cavalry, a veteran Delaware company
under Kirkwood, and Colonel Lynch with a battalion of Virginia militia.
The left was guarded by Lee's legion and Campbell's riflemen. At about
ten o'clock in the forenoon, after some firing of artillery, the
British, reaching the rivulet, deployed into line of battle, the right
commanded by Leslie, the left by Webster. The North Carolina militia,
unable to stand the shock, a few excepted, broke, threw away their ar