Posted on 03/15/2024 3:44:35 AM PDT by Adder
On the morning of March 15, 1781, British General Charles Lord Cornwallis's force of 2,100 men discovered the Americans holding a defensible position on elevated ground about one and a half miles from the Guilford Courthouse near present day Greensboro, North Carolina.
(Excerpt) Read more at battlefields.org ...
One of my ancestors....7 generations ago...served in the North Carolina militia and fought in this battle. I have his written account given when he was an old man in the 1820s. In it he swears he fired his 3 shots before running away.
The big complaint was that the militia did not all fire their 3 aimed shots at the redcoats before fleeing - thus did not thin their ranks sufficiently - and that’s why the Colonial Secessionists lost the battle.
Me too...
He fought at Guilford Courthouse and was there wounded by a British saber slash. He survived and went on to be a witness to Cornwalllis’ surrender at Yorktown. After the war , for his long services in the Carolina militias he was rewarded with a land track , out in the far west, on the banks Cumberland River. As time passed , that land track has become what is nowadays known as Gallatin Tennessee.
Tangentially related, I had an ancestor who served in the Cherokee Wars, when the British stirred up the Cherokee to attack settlers in western Virginia. He settled in Dandridge, Tennessee, the only town in America named for a first lady (Martha Dandridge Washington), and saved by another first lady. When the TVA was going to flood Dandridge, the city fathers petitioned Eleanor to have a dam placed to protect the town, which snuggles under its protection today. A different ancestor from New York, served with Washington in White Plains and Valley Forge, his father was a militia captain. After the war, the son, became a minister in Duchess County, New York.
We licked um at Cowpens
Yeah, we did...and at King’s Mountain...
Very proud to come from the same family as General Nathanael Greene.
Fascinating. Commend to your reading Washington’s Immortals by Patrick O’Donnell, if not already a familiar tome.
Thanks for posting that great reminder.
My GG++ was at the Kings Mountain battle too. Pre-war , he had been part of the group known as ‘the Regulators’ . They evolved into the Carolina Militia(s) when fighting broke out in earnest. From Kings Mountain to Yorktown. What a legacy
Wow...that is awesome
“The big complaint was that the militia did not all fire their 3 aimed shots at the redcoats before fleeing “
That was the recurring complaint about Colonial militia. I discovered that I had a bunch of militia ancestors but none at Guilford Courthouse. A couple were at a Patriot militia vs Loyalist militia fight that while small, was a Patriot victory:
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/revolutionary-war/battles/williamsons-plantation
As a young man, in 1771, my GG++++ was a member of the original ‘insurgents’, the Carolina Regulators. By the time of Yorktown, he was a Captain. Of Militia or Continental Regulars, I have never learned.It is amazing that he survived. But he did.
” By the time of Yorktown, he was a Captain. Of Militia or Continental Regulars, I have never learned.”
Your GG+++ may have been both, like one of mine was. I had an ancestor at Yorktown who had been a Continental Regular until Valley Forge. But at Valley Forge George Washington took the opportunity to reduce the number of officers and he was one of them. This guy then went on to be a Colonel of Virginia militia which is what his role was at Yorktown.
Militia Colonels usually had held a different (lower) rank when they were Regulars. Good records from the Revolution can be hard to find. My ancestor shared his name with another man from the same city in Virginia- they appear to have been cousins- and they both were in the Revolution. Sorting that out their history was a chore. But the other fellow was a good deal more prominent so that was a help in figuring out whose record was whose.
Mine went on to establish a land grant in the far west , as a reward for his long services in the war. That land grant went on to become what is now Gallatin Tennessee. His name was Capt.James Trousdale.
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