Long, Obstinate, and Bloody - by Lawrence E Babits & Joshua B Howard (Paperback)

About the Book

Long, Obstinate, and Bloody: The Battle of Guilford Courthouse

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"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

"Babits and Howard admirably demonstrate how meticulous research in under-utilized primary sources yields new insights and substantive corrections on long-accepted accounts of the past."--Military History of the West

"Detailed and comprehensive."--McCormick Messenger

"Provides an unprecedented level of research and detail. . . . This account of Guilford Courthouse is a welcome and much-needed addition to the body of Revolutionary War military history, and will be the foundation upon which all future research into this engagement is based."--Journal of Military History

"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

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

"This book will clearly have value to historians trying to understand the critical Southern campaign. And there will be readers--serious military history buffs, battlefield re-enactors--who will treasure the detail."--journalnow.com

"This book will give you a clearer understanding of this battle than you will find anywhere else. . . . Extremely readable. . . . Maps are crystal clear and very well done."--1776mag.com

About the Author

Lawrence E. Babits is professor emeritus of history at East Carolina University.
Joshua B. Howard is an independent scholar.