Equestrian Statue of Nathanael Greene in Greensboro

Nathanael Greene commanded the Continental Army's Southern Department starting in 1780, leading a campaign of strategic retreats and skirmishes that wore down Lord Cornwallis's forces across the Carolinas. His tactics at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, fought just a few miles from this site, left Cornwallis's army so depleted that it withdrew toward Virginia and ultimately surrendered at Yorktown later that year. The monument's base carries a line attributed to Cornwallis himself: "Greene is as dangerous as Washington; I never feel secure when encamped in his neighbourhood." Greensboro, founded in 1808, was named in Greene's honor for his role in turning the tide of the war in the South.