The Battle of Guilford Courthouse: an Animated Map

[hotspur2514]

This is awesome!

[hurro67]

LOL Britain actually won this war and battle.

[MercatorsHammer]

@hurro67 Battle, not the war... but I understood your meaning. Hey, with the fascination many people here in the U.S. had over the recent royal wedding you would think Britain had won the war. :)

[hurro67]

@MercatorsHammer Yeah 2 Billion people watched. You may have won that war, but then we burnt your white house down ;) haha. Im just joking about, I love Americans. Britain was by far the most powerful country throughout 17th,18th,19th and half way in to 20th century you must admit, that is a long reign of power!

[jed371]

the british were outnumbered 3 to 1

[imsailing2]

Thanks so much for the wonderful visual of this battle. I have at least 3 Great (x5) Grandfathers who fought in this battle. They were Robert Thompson, who served as a private under General Gates & lived near this battle; John Thomas Caffey, who enlisted in the Maryland Independent Company under Washington & LaFayette. And the 3rd one was Elias Baker, under General Rutherford.

[koolman280]

Can you please tell me what program you used to make this? My dad is a huge civil war buff and is greatly interested in this.

[McGrenzer]

A "soldier sandwich"?!

[wryguy007]

WELL done.....thanks for the video, thanks for the good work...

[steve5123456789]

79 killed in action on the US side, and 93 killed on the British side; not 92.

[steve5123456789]

It was 79.

[MercatorsHammer]

@steve5123456789 79 what? :)

[redsoul888]

Helps understand the battles from our past. Thanks for posting! And great video!

[ashdivay]

Good Job !

[MercatorsHammer]

In my attempt to reply to a comment about my "rushing voice" by "XxGREATxBRITAINxX ", I hit "remove" by mistake. The buttons are not placed very well. A simple answer is, I am a fast talker and not a voice actor. I may look at redoing the voice over with better pacing when I post an HD version of the video sometime later.

[MercatorsHammer]

The movie "The Patriot" was typical Hollywood make-believe history depicting a made-up battle between American and British Crown forces. The battle was a bit of a mash-up of Cowpens and Guilford Courthouse. In short, the movie was wrong on many levels, it is hard to begin. In fact, while the American forces retreated, the battle took such a toll on the British forces that Cornwallis was forced to surrender later.

[MercatorsHammer]

I accidentally removed the following comment from user: dumgum222,

"american lost? Then is the movie right on The Patriot"

YouTube needs to reposition those reply/remove and block user buttons, or at least add a delete confirmation.

[UnitedProviences]

@MercatorsHammer, We lost 92 men in that battle.

[MercatorsHammer]

@UnitedProviences, Thanks for that. I find it amazing how few people died on either side during the battle, still I wonder how long most of the wounded lasted.

[Shaddowflame]

Great work, I laughed so hard when I heard "The British marched through the childtime daycare center."

[painthorseowner]

The brits may have held the field at the end, but it was a costly "victory" as Cornwallis lost a quarter of his effective strength and was forced to modify the plans for his entire campaign.

interesting video though!

[UnitedProviences]

@painthorseowner, The problem is the British didn't I think it was the Americans, the British lost 98 men while the army had 1,900 troops at the start of the battle.

[TThewsyo]

good video but you've ruined the patriot for me

[MercatorsHammer]

Thanks, that made me laugh. :)

[TxTechRox123]

this is complete bullshit.....the VA militia was placed in the center of the line, and like Hannibal of Carthage once used against Rome, folded his militia backwards and countered on the flanks, what is now known as a "pincer" move. It creates two lines firing into the same place opposite each other.

[MercatorsHammer]

Thank you for your comment, I appreciate critical comments, so long as they are cast in a constructive frame. A link or book reference would be nice if you have one.

Complete BS is a bit strong. This was solely a cartographic exercise to introduce people to the battle and the impact of modern development on the site. The troop movements and positions are generalized from historic records, mostly maps drawn at the time or by military historians. I listed some of these in the description.

[MercatorsHammer]

While some maps show the distribution of the VA line on the road, many others have them flanking the road, but straight across, not in a pincer formation.

So far, I have not seen any written or cartographic record indicating a pincer formation for the VA militia. This is not to say I deny its existence. Many maps were poorly drawn during the battle and others were drawn years after from these poorly drawn sketches and memory. The historic record is also prone to the same error in memory.

[stinky1128]

We ran like hell.After Shootin a few

[dejahthoris]

My ancestor died of wounds gotten in this battle. Luckily he had three children already or I would not be here

[MercatorsHammer]

Do you know what unit he was with?

[dejahthoris]

All I know is he was Lewis Speed, and his brother was Capt. James Speed who commanded a company from Mecklenburg County, VA. The Captain was wounded as well but survived.

[2bn442RCT]

This is outstanding!!! 5/5 stars. The today's battlefield animation.

[meanliar]

I wish I had a presentation like this for every single battle I've had to piece together from narratives and static maps. Speed of advance, timeliness of reserve deployment and all sorts of nuance becomes clearer with this rendering - thanks a bunch!

[MercatorsHammer]

Thanks. I have to confess, the speeds of the advance and movements are completely generalized. I simply did not have access to the information at the time. It would be useful to incorporate that info though, I agree. I wanted to include a clock that would tick off certain events as well, but that info was not reliable unfortunately. I pretty much used narratives and static maps. :-)

[thefishofgreen]

whats that

[thefishofgreen]

I live where General Green's 3rd line was

[Kino483]

whers that ion virginia?

[thefishofgreen]

nope all this is in present day Greensboro NC

[Kino483]

u think the american originated from the wlesh british, scottish and all the anglos?

[stinky1128]

Ok So We Ran.....Took a toll im Sure :)

[stinky1128]

Shhh DOnt Tell Any one......Dan Morgan used the Same idea at Cowpens

[kroshkamaster]

Amazing job!

[Drummer7rf]

Great Job!!!

Drummer7rf

Guilford Courthouse NMP Fife & Drums

7th Royal Fusiliers