After recrossing the Dan, General Nathanael Greene's army, strengthened by increasing reinforcements, pursued Lord Cornwallis's British forces. On March 15, 1781, the two armies met at Guilford Court House near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, where in a slashing 2½-hour battle the British suffered crippling casualties from the American troops. Cornwallis then abandoned North Carolina and later surrendered to George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781.