Nathanael Greene was the Commanding General of the 1781 Continental Army’s Southern Command, and was a key participant during the battle at Guilford Courthouse…located in what is now Greensboro, North Carolina. Greene was an iron-master by trade, self-taught in the art of war, and at Guilford Courthouse was up against one of Britain’s best and most respected generals…Charles, Earl Cornwallis. He was only 38 when the battle took place. The British held that day, but they were so severely battered they never fully recovered…eventually losing the war a few years later.

I had never before visited the battlefield when I made this image of Green sitting astride his horse. I positioned myself to show the massive size of the statue, approximately twenty feet high. Details in the sculpture are amazing. The monument was unveiled in 1915.