Long, Obstinate, and Bloody

The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

By Lawrence E. Babits, Joshua B. Howard

320 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 16 illus., 9 maps, appends., notes, bibl., index

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-0988-1
    Published: August 2013
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-8767-7
    Published: March 2009
  • E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-8467-1
    Published: March 2009

Buy this Book

To purchase online via an independent bookstore, visit Bookshop.org

Awards & distinctions

2010 Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Book Award in Battle History

On March 15, 1781, the armies of Nathanael Greene and Lord Charles Cornwallis fought one of the bloodiest and most intense engagements of the American Revolution at Guilford Courthouse in piedmont North Carolina. In Long, Obstinate, and Bloody, the first book-length examination of the Guilford Courthouse engagement, Lawrence E. Babits and Joshua B. Howard piece together what really happened on the wooded plateau in what is today Greensboro, North Carolina, and identify where individuals stood on the battlefield, when they were there, and what they could have seen, thus producing a new bottom-up story of the engagement.

About the Authors

Lawrence E. Babits is professor emeritus of history at East Carolina University.
For more information about Lawrence E. Babits, visit the Author Page.

Joshua B. Howard is an independent scholar.
For more information about Joshua B. Howard, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"The battle's only full-length monograph. . . . Professional history written in an approachable manner."--Library Journal

"The authors have discovered new pieces to the puzzle and have achieved perhaps the best synthesis to date. . . . A masterful job. . . . A major addition to the scholarship, and for students of the American Revolution, particularly the Southern Campaign, it is a must-read."--Journal of America's Military Past

"A fine, professional account. . . . A remarkable story . . . Babits and Howard do an excellent job of summing [the battle] up."--Wilmington Star News

"A read through this work will bring an understanding of the events of the day, how they relate to the larger events of the [Revolutionary War], and a sense of what the world was like at that time."--Southern Pines Pilot

"An extraordinarily detailed narrative. It also fills a gap in literature on the war by showcasing a consequential but comparatively understudied Carolina battle."--Raleigh News & Observer

"Detailed and comprehensive."--McCormick Messenger