The city was named for Major General Nathanael Greene, commander of the American forces at the Battle of Guilford Court House on March 15, 1781. The Americans lost that battle but the Pyrrhic victory slowed Cornwallis' British forces enough to allow the Americans to prepare to defeat them at the Battle of Yorktown, where the British were forced to surrender on October 19, 1781, after a 20-day siege, thus ending the American Revolution. Historian David McCullough considers Nathanael Greene to be "the best general" in the American military during the Revolution, including George Washington.
The city played an important role in politics at the end of the Civil War. During the closing days of the conflict, the Confederate Cabinet had evacuated the Confederate Capital, Richmond, Virginia on their way south. The group reassembled in Greensboro on April 11, and for five days, Greensboro served as the temporary capital of the Confederacy. At nearly the same time, Governor Zebulon B. Vance fled the capital of North Carolina in anticipation of the arrival of Union General Sherman. During the brief period beginning on April 16, 1865, the capital of North Carolina was temporarily maintained in Greensboro. Governor Vance proclaimed the North Carolina Surrender Declaration on April 28, 1865. Later, Vance turned himself over to Union officials in the parlor of Blandwood Mansion. In the words of historian Blackwell Robinson, "Greensboro witnessed not only the demise of the Confederacy but also that of the old civil government of the state" of North Carolina.
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