📅 On This Day in Military History
1 event across history
Cornwallis won the field but at catastrophic cost — over 25% of his force. Greene used the same layered defense as Cowpens. Cornwallis fired his artillery into a melee of both armies to halt the American attack — a ruthless decision that shocked even his own officers. Cornwallis won the battle but lost the campaign: his army was too crippled to hold the Carolinas.
Charles James Fox told Parliament: 'Another such victory would ruin the British army.' Cornwallis, unable to hold North Carolina, marched north to Virginia — into the trap that ended the war. Greene's Fabian strategy had worked perfectly.
Full battle details →