Guilford courthouse is my favorite battle of the War for Independence. I've visited the field several times (including the re-enactment in 1981 and on my honeymoon in 1983 - my wife tolerates a lot from me), most recently in 1994. During my talks with the rangers, principally Tom Baker, author of Another Such Victory, it turns out there is an interesting problem with the battlefield. That is, the markers currently delineating the site of the third American line are probably in the wrong place.

This was discovered through a number of methods. A major source of intormation was the map of the battle used by Banister Tarleton in his history of the southern campaign, and reprinted in a number ot other works such as Charles Hatch's The Battle of Guilford Courthouse and Henry Lumpkin's From Savannah to Yorktown. When this map is superimposed on an aerial photograph of the park in the same scale? everything lines up perfectly (the American's first two lines, the road, hill slopes, everything but the third line).

On Tarleton's map the third line is some hundreds of yards farther back towards the courthouse site. This would fit with descriptions of action taking place closer to the courthouse than the present site would allow. Interestingly enough, the attack of the First Maryland on the Thirty-third Foot on the Tarleton map fits exactly on the site now marked as the third line.

Another clue to the current site being incorrect is what is now marked as a segment of the "retreat road." current research and archeology now show that rather than being a road contemporary with the battle, what we have here is a fragment of driveway from a house that existed on the site in the 1920's.

More archeological work was done on the site now marked as the hill from which William Washington led a cavalry charge into the rear of the Second Guards Battalion. What was found on this hill were cannon balls, leading to the belief that this was the second location of the British guns and the place from which Cornwallis ordered them to fire into the guards/cavalry melee (the First Maryland was also in this melee driving off the Thirty-third Foot).

The idea that this was a cavalry location apparently came about because of a belief that Washington started his charge from behind the British line and this hill fit in with what was thought to be the third line location. It is now thought that the cavalry started behind the American line, as shown in 11. Charles McBarron's great painting from his Soldiers if the American Revolution series.

Now, if you agree with the premise that the line monument should be moved, and add the fact that the new location is within the park boundaries, you would think that it would be a simple thing to fix. Not so. The new line is currently covered with trees that have to be cleared. This causes problems with the locals, not due to environmental concerns, but because people with no sense of history think of the area as the Guilford Courthouse National Shady Jogging Track and Doggie Bathroom. I don't know what will come of any of this, but Ranger Baker is writing a history of the park for the Department of the Interior, and maybe he can make his case.

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