Guilford Courthouse

Today, April 3, 2014, my history class from Liberty University toured Guilford Courthouse with Lawrence Babits, the esteemed historian of the American Revolution. It was such an honor to explore this battle with Dr. Babits.

  

 

Lawrence Babits explaining details about the battle

His knowledge and passion for the subject was noticeable in the way he described every detail of the battle. It was a great learning experience because it showed me the value of dedication and hard work. After a lecture on the topic and importance of Guilford Courthouse to the Southern Theater of the Revolutionary War, we toured the battlefield with Dr. Babits.

He explained the strategic way the Patriots positioned themselves in three lines and how the British advanced through the lines. Despite the fact that the Battle of Guilford Courthouse was a British victory, it was strategic for the American cause because it weakened the British resolve. After the bloody fighting at Guilford Courthouse, the British were starving, tired, and numerically weakened, which eventually led them to capitulate at Yorktown.

As he explained in painstaking detail the events of the battle, he corrected many of the misconceptions and myths propagated by the National Park Services. Even though many times I felt lost in the details of what Dr. Babits said, I felt very privileged to listen to such a dedicated scholar. At one point, he made the class line up and start marching in an area that was dense with underbrush, our line quickly dissembled to which Dr. Babits commented was the problem the British faced at Guilford Courthouse.


Underbrush

This was an effective exercise because I could relate to the obstacles the British experienced. Through the experience of learning from Dr. Babits example, as a Christian historian, I was challenged to find the truth and let the facts speak for themselves and to be honest in my research.