On the 15th of March Greene took a stand and offered battle at Guilford Court House.

In the early afternoon, after a march of twelve miles without food, Cornwallis, with less than two thousand men, attacked Greene's force of about four thousand.

By evening the British held the field and had captured Greene's guns.

But they had lost heavily and they were two hundred miles from their base.

Their friends were timid, and in fact few, and their numerous enemies were filled with passionate resolution.
Cornwallis now wrote to urge Clinton to come to his aid.