and love in the face of hate. for all of america's shortcomings, these brave men and women demanded that the promise of america not be discarded. but instead realized by being or five in practice, they held america to its promise, and by doing so, they put their lives at risk, suffered ridicule and bodily harm, and yet, in history, they were vindicated. we are gathered today in honor of those civil rights activist who suffered violence while standing for peace. we honor them for holding our nation to the highest ideal assuring that you existence of liberty and justice for all. and making this country keep to its promise, that all men and women are created equal. i yield back.

>> you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend, on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. all weekend long american history tv is featuring greensboro, north carolina. greensboro is home to where civil rights activist started the sit in movements, inspiring nonviolent protest throughout the south. our time warner cable partners worked with our staff, and we recently traveled to greensboro to discover the city's rich history. learn more about greensboro all weekend here on american history tv. >> we are in greensboro, north carolina at the military park, standing on the battlefield. during the revolutionary war the british had moved their campaign to the southern department and had captured georgia and south carolina and

tried to what they called restore the party, which meant they would conquer the land, and that is how they ended up here in the middle of north carolina. it was march of 1871. general nathanael greene was pitted against the british army, and cornwallis was making his march through north carolina by conquering the land and so forth, and general greene wanted to stop that. nathanael greene was george washington's most trusted general, and he was sent south. he was sent by general washington to come south and save the southern army, because the southern army has lost two major battles and lost many many men and there were very few soldiers left, so general washington sent general greene

south with the idea to try to stop cornwallis. cornwallis was the commander of the british army in the southern area, and here at guilford courthouse he commanded the british army, and they were made up of veteran british soldiers. in the southern campaign, this was the first battle in which cornwallis and green had met each other on the battlefield and both of the generals were of different mindsets. cornwallis had a mindset of move forward and hit hard and continue hit and continually march, and general greene had a mindset of hit and back up and retreat, hit and back up and retreat, but by the time this battle came, general greene had raised an army to almost twice the size of the british army, so

he felt pretty good about his odd. well, first general cornwallis was in can't in the present day high point about nine miles from here, and general greene found out he was camped there, and general greene brought the soldiers and militia here at guilford courthouse and set his lines of defense to wait for cornwallis to come. general greene had thought about attacking general cornwallis while he was on the march, but that ended in disaster at the battle of tandem in august of 1780 so with all of the militia he had, he decided to make a stand here at guilford courthouse. in the meantime, general cornwallis you had this mindset he was going to smash the continental army took out from the present day high point or deep river and marched from

there to here at guilford courthouse. he did not have any intelligence, general cornwallis, that is. and by intelligence, i mean the scouts were not out finding out about what general greene's disposition was, how is army was laid out or what his numbers were, so he marched the whole way in the morning of march 15 from deep river to hear at guilford courthouse. general greene decided he was going to establish the free lines of defense what we call today a defense in depth and he was going to put his north carolina militia on the first line, about 1000's, and that he was going to put about 1000 virginia militia soldiers on the first line, and then the third was going to be his strongest troops, the continental soldiers. this is a map, a copy of a map,

drawn by a british engineer following the battle of guilford courthouse, depicting the battle of guilford courthouse, and what we have is the reddish troops coming onto the field at the bottom and then we have the first, second, and third american lines, and the first line was made up of north carolina militia, and then the open court feels, and the second line was made up of virginia militia, and they are within the woods, the heavyweights, and then the third line was made up of the continental, and they face the open field, and the british moved forward and attacked the first line, and then the first line pulled back from the battle and ran away, for the most part, and then the british moved on to the second line, and the second line made a stance and there were british

moving forward, and it was the 23rd regiment, the 71st regiment and they had a pretty heavy firefight at the second line, and then they pulled back and then the british moved up to the third line to attack the continentals on the third line. the american army was posted on this line, and the two cannons with the flanks of the americans, and the british came from that direction there, and they came across the deal, and they attacked the americans, charged up the hill. the second regiment kind of lead. the first regiment got into and hand combat with the british

and while they were doing that the american calvary came in and slipped on the british and rode through the british line, and the american calvary saw cornwallis and his staff near the british artillery, so the american calvary charged forward going after general cornwallis, trying to capture him, and right at that time, cornwallis reached the british artillery, and the british artillery fired and stop the advance of the american calvary. then the american officer in command of the american troops decided it was a knock and went to the north end of the battlefield on retreat. the british army then emerged

with the reserve companies, and they push the americans off the field. the british took the field, so technically they won the victory, so if you take the field, you win the victory, but the difference is that it costs the british 25% of their army, and they could not get more soldiers, because they would have to come from new york or charleston, and they were too far away to support cornwallis, so although he lost 25% of his army, over 526 men, then he was unable to put those armies back in the field. general greene, on the other hand, although he lost field the kind of won the battle because when he retreated with his army intact, that he got more militia to come back into his army so by the end of the

battle, general greene was back up to almost 4000 men again with the militia that he had, and cornwallis did not have any men to come to his aid, so cornwallis had to retreat, and he first went to wilmington, north carolina, and he had to make the asian as to where to go. if he went back to charleston, it would look like defeat. if he came back into the field without extra men, he would not be able to find greene again, so cornwallis decided to go to virginia, and he took command of the british army in virginia and then ultimately, he wound up at yorktown, surrendering to the forces of the continental army. general general green would still retain command and the southern army and he would march as a conqueror into charleston, south carolina.

the city of greensboro is named for nathanael greene. we have this wonderful statue behind me of general green on the horse at the time of the revolutionary war. general green was one of the major heroes of the revolutionary war. and his conduct in the war wa s exemplary. he was able to put men into the field and keep them in the field, and to the militia saw that general greene was not going to sacrifice their lives needlessly. so following the war green had not only the respect of the generals and the politicians but he had the respect of all the common militia soldiers that were involved in the war. general greene stopped what would have been a total british victory in the south. general greene was the one man that