forced marches. They consisted of a brigade of Virginia militia,
under General Lawson, two brigades of North Carolina militia, under
Generals Butler and Eaton, and four hundred regulars, enlisted for
eighteen months. His whole effective force, according to official
returns, amounted to four thousand two hundred and forty-three foot,
and one hundred and sixty-one cavalry. Of his infantry, not quite two
thousand were regulars, and of these, three-fourths were new levies.
His force nearly doubled in number that of Cornwallis, which did not
exceed two thousand four hundred men; but many of Greene's troops were
raw and inexperienced, and had never been in battle; those of the
enemy were veterans, schooled in warfare. Greene knew the inferiority
of his troops in this respect; his reinforcements, too, fell far short
of what he had been led to expect, yet he determined to accept the
battle which had so long been offered. All detachments were ordered to
assemble at Guilford, within eight miles of the enemy, where he
encamped on the 14th, sending his wagons and heavy baggage to the Iron
Works at Troublesome Creek, ten miles in his rear.

Cornwallis sent his carriages and baggage to Bell's Mills, on Deep
River, and set out at daybreak on the 15th for Guilford. Within four
miles of that place, near the New Garden Meeting-house, Tarleton with
the advanced guard came upon the American advance-guard, composed of
Lee's partisan legion, and some mountaineers and Virginia militia.
Tarleton and Lee were well matched in military prowess, and the
skirmish between them was severe. Lee's horses, being from Virginia
and Pennsylvania, were superior in weight and strength to those of his
opponent, which had been chiefly taken from plantations in South
Carolina. The latter were borne down by a charge in close column.
Tarleton, seeing that his weakly-mounted men fought to a disadvantage,
sounded a retreat; Lee endeavored to cut him off. A general conflict
of the vanguards, horse and foot, ensued, when the appearance of the
main body of the enemy obliged Lee, in his turn, to retire with
precipitation.

During this time, Greene was preparing for action on a woody eminence,
a little more than a mile south of Guilford Court-house. The
neighboring country was covered with forest, excepting some cultivated
fields about the court-house, and along the Salisbury road, which
passed through the centre of the place, from south to north. He had
drawn out hi