Location: US 29 at Hicone Rd., north of Greensboro
County: Guilford
Original Date Cast: 1952
On March 6, 1781, elements of Lord Charles Cornwallis’s army clashed with light troops of Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene’s Southern Army commanded by Col. Otho Holland Williams at Adam Weitzell’s Mill on Reedy Creek. Maj. General Greene crossed the Dan River back into North Carolina in the third week of February. He dispatched Colonel Williams with the Maryland and Delaware Continentals, Lt. Col. “Light Horse Harry” Lee’s Legion, 3rd Continental Dragoons, and several hundred Virginia riflemen to locate and harass the British Army. Lord Cornwallis similarly dispatched a light corps consisting of one thousand infantry and cavalry of the 23rd, 33rd, and 71st Regiments, Jaegers, British Legion, and the Royal Artillery jointly led by Lt. Col. James Webster and Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton. Their goal was to catch and destroy the Patriot detachment.
The British located Colonel Williams’s position on March 4, after a successful engagement at Clapp’s Mill. The British recognized that Colonel Williams was separated from Maj. General Greene’s army by the waters of Reedy Fork Creek. If the British positioned their forces between the Patriots and the ford at Weitzell’s Mill, they could effectively eliminate a large portion of Maj. General Greene’s force.
At 3 A.M. on March 6, under the cover of a thick fog, Lt. Colonels Webster and Tarleton advanced toward Colonel Williams’s position, approximately ten miles south of Weitzel’s Mill. Alert Patriot sentries spotted the enemy, giving Colonel Williams a chance to retreat. The retreat turned into a race for Weitzel’s Mill. Colonel Williams dispatched several small patrols to harass and delay the British. However, the British moved so fast the patrols were ineffective. While their paths were almost parallel, the Patriots were just a little faster. As the two forces approached the mill, Lee’s Legion and the Virginia riflemen provided covering fire, allowing the Continentals to cross the creek first.
Having crossed the ford, Colonel Williams decided to make a defensive stand. The Continentals provided the main line of defense while the riflemen and dragoons crossed and protected the flanks. The first British assault across the creek failed, but a second, personally led by Lt. Col. Webster, forced the Americans to retreat. In his memoirs, Lt. Colonel Lee stated that the Virginia riflemen, who could “hit an apple on a ramrod at 150 yards,” fired multiple times at Webster at only thirty paces [25 yards] without killing him. The riflemen fired from cover inside a schoolhouse. Even at that close range, and safe from enemy fire, every shot missed.
While Lt. Colonel Webster led the 33rd Regiment across the creek, Lt Colonel Tarleton brought up artillery and positioned it on a high elevation overlooking the Patriot position. The Jaegers and Light Infantry moved to the southwest and threatened the Patriots’ right flank. The 23rd and 71st Regiments pushed north and gained the Patriot’s left flank. Col. Williams' force was outflanked on both sides. The British moved so quickly, the Patriots were forced to flee. Both sides claimed they killed and wounded over one hundred of the enemy. In reality, the fighting left approximately thirty killed and wounded on each side.
In the aftermath, many Patriot militiamen and riflemen felt they had been used as cannon fodder to save the Continentals. They were not wrong. Colonel Williams followed explicit instructions to protect the Continentals at all costs. The militia began deserting the army in droves. Maj. General Greene lost most of the Virginia riflemen, and all the South Carolina and Georgia militia under Brig. General Andrew Pickens in the days after the engagement. The Battle of Weitzel’s Mill cost the Patriots significant numbers of experienced men.
Nine days later, Colonel Williams and Lt. Colonel Webster met again on the field at Guilford Courthouse. In the decisive final moments of the battle, Colonel Williams’s Delaware and Maryland Continentals and Lt. Colonel Webster’s 33rd Regiment of Foot engaged in hand-to-hand combat before the American forces withdrew. Lt. Colonel Webster received severe wounds to both his thigh and chest from which he died two weeks later. Colonel Williams survived the battle and the war and served as a naval customs officer in Baltimore until he died in 1794.
There has been considerable debate over the correct spelling of the mill owner’s name. Although Lt. Colonel Lee gave the name as Wetzell, all other sources refer to the family as Weitzell or Weitzel. The name was later Anglicized to Whitesell. Henry Weitzell, Adam’s son, commanded the company of Guilford County militia during the Revolution, and owned the mill after the war.
References:
William S. Powell, ed., Encyclopedia of North Carolina History (2006)
William H. Hoyt, ed., Papers of Archibald D. Murphey, II, 289-294
Henry Lee, Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States (1827)
Walter Clark, ed., State Records of North Carolina, XVII, 1000-1001
Bert Dunkerly, “Prelude to Guilford Courthouse: Weitzel’s Mill.” Emerging Revolutionary War. (2022) Prelude to Guilford Courthouse: Weitzel’s Mill – Emerging Revolutionary War Era.
John Buchanan, The Road to Guilford Courthouse (1997)