Pyle's Defeat

The stone monument near Burlington, North Carolina, commemorates the clash known as Pyle’s Defeat, fought on February 25, 1781. In the weeks following the Battle of Cowpens, British commander Charles Cornwallis marched his army north, shadowed by Patriot forces under Gen. Nathanael Greene. To disrupt Loyalist recruitment in the region, Greene dispatched Gen. Andrew Pickens and Lt. Col. Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee. While on this mission, they encountered Col. John Pyle and nearly 400 Loyalists, many mistaking Lee’s green-coated legion for British dragoons. When the ruse collapsed, fighting erupted at close range. Nearly 100 Loyalists were killed, with many more wounded or dispersed, delivering a devastating setback to the Loyalist cause.

Though the action was controversial—Patriots framed it as both a military necessity and revenge for earlier British atrocities, while the British decried it as a massacre—the encounter had significant consequences. Pyle’s Defeat crippled Loyalist morale and recruitment in the Carolina backcountry, helping set the stage for the pivotal Patriot victory at Guilford Courthouse three weeks later. Today, a modest stone marker with a bronze plaque stands at the intersection of Old Trail Road and Anthony Road, inviting reflection on how the Revolution in the South often took the form of a bitter civil war between neighbors.