Guilford at 250: Guilford Courthouse National Military Park

Over the course of our 250 years, Guilford County witnessed three major turning points in American history: The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement. Our connection with the Revolutionary War is memorialized at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. The conflict was the largest battle of the Southern Campaign, and it altered the British plans for regaining the southern colonies. One of the earliest examples of the preservation movement in North Carolina, the preserved battlefield provides three important touchstones as part of its narrative. First, it serves as an example of the historical military conflict that was part of the American Revolution. Second, it provides insight into the historic preservation movement in North Carolina in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as one of the State’s most significant commemorative landscapes. Third, it connects us with our social history at the time of the battle in 1781.

Park Guide Rebecca Barefoot will discuss all three of these functions of the National Military Park as part of our Guilford at 250 series on Thursday, April 15th. Rebecca connects visitors to the park’s history through battlefield tours, explorations of the Hoskins Farm, and the museum. She is responsible for the management of the park’s museum and library, as well as digital outreach through social media. She is currently enrolled in the Historic Preservation Certificate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She enjoys researching vernacular examples of 18th century architecture to reveal everyday lives of average persons in the Colonial Era.

Click the zoom link below and enter passcode: GSO250

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