NC, USA
Battle of Guilford Courthouse — Cornwallis's Pyrrhic Victory
March 15, 1781
Cornwallis drove Greene's army from the field at Guilford Courthouse but suffered casualties so severe — over 500 killed and wounded, roughly 27 percent of his force — that he could not exploit the victory. He retreated to Wilmington to resupply and rest his army. Charles James Fox famously said in Parliament: "Another such victory would destroy the British army."
People Involved
British general who retreated to Wilmington NC after the costly victory at Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, then made the fateful decision to march into Virginia rather than south to reinforce South Carolina. His Yorktown surrender in October 1781 effectively ended the war.
Rhode Island general who took command of the shattered Southern Army in December 1780. At Guilford Courthouse he traded his army's retreat for a quarter of Cornwallis's force, then turned south when Cornwallis retreated to Wilmington — dismantling the British position in the Carolinas while Cornwallis marched to his destruction in Virginia.