Guilford Courthouse National Military Park

On our way home from Greenville, South Carolina, we stopped at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park outside of Greensboro, North Carolina.

This is a beautiful national park, and perhaps my favorite among the battlefields I have visited with my husband. The Guilford Battleground Company, established by David Schenk in the 1880s to buy up the land where the Battle of Guilford Courthouse took place on 15 March 1781, was not able to purchase all of the land on which the fighting took place, and there is undergrowth in many places where there was none at the time of the battle. However, painstaking efforts have been made to establish the exact locations where the first, second, and third lines of the Continental forces under General Nathaniel Greene fought the British under Lord Charles Cornwallis, including a revision of the locations erroneously identified by Schenk. The Visitor’s Center has some excellent educational resources, and in addition to the visitors who tour the battlefield, many locals also take advantage of the park’s beauty for walking, jogging, cycling, and other activities.

As we passed one of the rows of monuments near the Visitor's Center, my husband started to read the inscription at the base of a statue of a woman: "Kerenhappuch Turner." This was a surprise - I am related to her (through the Norman line). I had completely forgotten that this was the battle in which her son had been wounded and she is said to have come to nurse him back to health.

Monument to General Nathaniel Green

Monument to Dr. David Caldwell, Presbyterian Minister

Cavalry Monument



Monument to Joseph Moorehead, who took over the management of the Guilford Battle Ground Company after the death of David Schenk

Monument to Kerenhappuch Norman Turner,
who came to Guilford Courthouse to nurse her wounded son