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American Revolution Trail Proposal For Carolinas Highlights Triad Sites

Major General Nathanael Greene of the Continental Army in Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. Image courtesy of Vance Noles/WFDD FILE

A trail that plans to recognize the Carolinas' pivotal role in the American Revolution would run through the heart of the Triad. 

A bill in the U.S. House would create a trail to preserve historic sites from the Revolutionary War. It would run through the Triad area from the Alamance Battleground to the Old Wilkes Jail. The Guilford Courthouse National Military Park and Old Salem would also be included. 

From there, the trail heads into the mountains and hooks down to South Carolina for sites like Kings Mountain and Charleston Harbor.

In a study for the plan, the National Park Service points out that the British came to the Carolinas with hopes of breaking a stalemate against American Rebels. The strategy was to liberate the Loyalists, re-establish royal authority, and advance north.

That didn't go as planned. During the campaign, the British suffered severe troop losses. General Charles Cornwallis surrendered seven months after the Battle of Guilford Courthouse.

South Carolina leaders have pushed for the corridor plan for years, but now have key bipartisan support from House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

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