to the
Comte de Rochambeau (31 March 1781), in which Washington reports he is hearing first reports from the Battle of Guilford Court House The battle lasted 90 minutes. The British engaged half as many as the Americans yet won possession of the battlefield. However, almost a quarter of the British became casualties. The Americans withdrew intact, which accomplished Greene's primary objective. The British, by holding ground with their usual tenacity despite fewer troops, were victorious. However, Cornwallis suffered unsustainable casualties and subsequently withdrew to the coast to re-group, leaving the Americans with the strategic advantage. Seeing the Guilford battle as a classic
Pyrrhic victory,
British Whig Party leader and war critic
Charles James Fox echoed
Plutarch's famous quotation of
Pyrrhus by saying, "Another such victory would ruin the British Army!" In a letter to
Lord George Germain, Cornwallis commented: "From our observation, and the best accounts we could procure, we did not doubt but the strength of the enemy exceeded 7,000 men...I cannot ascertain the loss of the enemy, but it must have been considerable; between 200 and 300 dead were left on the field of battle...many of their wounded escaped...Our forage parties have reported to me that houses in a circle six to eight miles around us are full of others...We took few prisoners." Cornwallis wrote about the British force, "The conduct and actions of the officers and soldiers that composed this little army will do more justice to their merit than I can by words. Their persevering intrepidity in action, their invincible patience in the hardships and fatigues of a march of above 600 miles, in which they have forded several large rivers and numberless creeks, many of which would be reckoned large rivers in any other country in the world, without tents or covering against the climate, and often without provisions, will sufficiently manifest their ardent zeal for the honour and interests of their Sovereign and their country." After the battle, the British occupied a large expanse of woodland that offered no food or sufficient shelter, and the night brought torrential rains. Fifty of the wounded died before sunrise. Had the British followed the retreating rebels, the redcoats might have come across the rebel baggage and supply wagons, which remained where the Americans had camped on the west bank of the Salisbury road prior to the battle. On March 17, two days after the battle, Cornwallis reported his casualties as 3 officers and 88 men of other ranks killed, and 24 officers and 384 men of other ranks wounded, with a further 25 men missing in action. Webster was wounded during the battle and died two weeks later. Tarleton was also wounded, losing two fingers from taking a bullet in his right hand. When Cornwallis resumed his march, he left these 75 wounded prisoners at Cross Creek, near
Snow Camp. An analysis of Revolutionary pension records by Lawrence E. Babits and Joshua B. Howard led the authors to conclude that Greene's killed and wounded at the Battle were "probably 15-20 percent higher than shown by official returns," with a likely "90-94 killed and 211-220 wounded." Apart from the wounded prisoners, most of the other men returned as 'missing' were North Carolina militiamen who returned to their homes after the battle. To avoid another
Camden, Greene retreated with his forces intact. With his small army, fewer than 2,000, Cornwallis declined to follow Greene into the backcountry. Retiring to
Hillsborough, Cornwallis raised the royal standard, offered protection to Loyalists, and for the moment appeared to be master of
Georgia and the Carolinas. In a few weeks, however, he abandoned the heart of the region and marched to the coast at
Wilmington, North Carolina, where he could recruit and refit his army. At Wilmington Cornwallis faced a serious problem. Instead of remaining in North Carolina, he wished to march into
Virginia, justifying the move on the grounds that until he occupied Virginia he could not firmly hold the more southerly states he had just overrun. General
Henry Clinton sharply criticized the decision as unmilitary and as having been made contrary to his instructions. To Cornwallis he wrote in May: "Had you intimated the probability of your intention, I should certainly have endeavoured to stop you, as I did then, as well as now, consider such a move likely to be dangerous to our interests in the
Southern Colonies." For three months, Cornwallis raided every farm or plantation he came across, from which he took hundreds of horses for his dragoons. He converted another 700 infantry to mounted troops. During these raids, he freed thousands of slaves, of whom 12,000 joined his own force. General Greene boldly pushed toward
Camden and
Charleston, South Carolina, with a view to drawing Cornwallis to the points where he was the year before, as well as driving back
Lord Rawdon, whom Cornwallis had left in that field. In his main object—the recovery of the southern states—Greene succeeded by the close of the year, but not without hard fighting and reverses. Greene said, "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again." ==Legacy==