by Terry Golway
Had he lived, Greene very likely would have joined Hamilton in arguing for a strong, centralized government, for he had seen firsthand the weaknesses of the American confederation during the war: the inability of Congress to raise money for nothing less than national independence; the chaotic supply system that varied from state to state; the petty jealousies that poisoned relations between North and South. Washington would probably have chosen him as secretary of war, an honor that went instead to Henry Knox. His name surely would be better known today had he lived to help his peers in the shaping of the great American experiment.
Instead, on June 20, 1786, the body of this self-made, self-taught soldier and leader was brought to Savannah for a state funeral and burial. Flags were ordered to half-mast, and the city shut down as the funeral procession moved slowly through the streets.
Nathanael Greene died deeply in debt, and years would pass before Congress finally forgave the money owed to John Banks’s creditor. Caty personally lobbied Washington, Knox, and other friends to intervene with Congress, but even that action wasn’t enough. Caty eventually lost the South Carolina plantation, Boone Barony, to settle other debts left over from the war years.
In his will, Nathanael Greene spoke of the education he so sorely missed and wished to provide his children. They were the words of an eighteenth-century man who believed in the American idea of merit and hard work, not hereditary privilege.
As I am convinced that the happiness of my children will depend . . . [on] their education, it is my last will and earnest request . . . that they will attend in a particular manner to the improvement of their understanding. As I hope my sons will come forward and take an active part in the affairs of their country, their education should be liberal. My daughters should not be left [behind] . . . but above all things let their morals be attended to.
A few weeks after Greene’s death, Congress, the body that Greene so often criticized for its inaction, formally proclaimed its grief at the passing of a hero, and in fine, moving words, it authorized construction of a suitable monument to him. The statue of Nathanael Greene was unveiled in Washington, D.C., in 1877, nearly a hundred years after his death.
NOTES
A Note on Sources
Nearly thirty years ago, scholars at the Rhode Island Historical Society and the University of North Carolina began publishing the vast and widely scattered correspondence of Major General Nathanael Greene. Twelve volumes have resulted, with one more to come. The bulk of the following citations are from this source–The Papers of Nathanael Greene, abbreviated PNG–and give the relevant volume and page numbers.
Other abbreviations used here are:
N-YHS
New-York Historical Society
NYPL
New York Public Library
PGW
Papers of George Washington, Library of Congress
PLC
Papers of Lord Cornwallis, University of Virginia
RIHS
Rhode Island Historical Society
WCL
William Clements Library, University of Michigan
Chapter One:
The Quaker General
6 “for God’s sake”: Hamilton, The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 2:420-21.
Back home with the Greene family: PNG, 6:323-25.
“Poor Girl”: Ibid., 6:391-92.
If, he told John Mathews: Ibid., 6:335-36.
7 “I commit this important Post”: Ibid., 6:347-49.
“I shall be happy”: Ibid., 6:350-51.
“Our felicity is not perfect”: Ibid., 6:304-6.
“I declare”: Ibid. “O, sweet angel”: Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty, 49.
8 “Who will that person be?”: PNG, 6:380.
“Perhaps I should have gone”: Ibid., 6:385.
9 “It is my wish”: Ibid. He wanted to return home: Ibid., 6:396.
10 He composed a “my dear Angel” letter: Ibid., 6:397-98.
“Though I do not write much”: Ibid., 6:404-6.
11 “Could I leave you happy”: Ibid., 6:415-16.
Chapter Two:
A Downright Democracy
14 “My Father”: PNG, 1:46-50. Nathanael Greene’s descriptions of his father and his childhood are all from this letter to his friend Samuel Ward Jr.
16 He wrote to the earl of Dartmouth: Bartlett, Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, 7:182-84.
In fact, in a survey of five Rhode Island Towns: Lovejoy, Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 16-17.
17 The colony’s charter . . . gave Rhode Island residents: James, The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island, 50.
In reality, England interfered: Lovejoy, Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 75.
The colony’s charter promised: James, The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island, 50.
19 “You dance stiffly”: George Washington Greene, The Life of Major General Nathanael Greene, 1:28. Hereinafter cited as Greene, Life.
20 “I lament”: PNG, 1:46-50.
21 Often, according to George Washington Greene: Greene, Life, 1:14.
22 “Which one?”: Ibid., 1:20.
23 “All government without the consent of the governed”: van Doren, The Portable Swift, 193.
24 Parliament ordered: Knollenberg, Origins of the American Revolution, 142.
A Rhode Island merchant soon reported: Ibid., 181.
The document emphasized the importance of molasses: Simister, The Fire’s Center, 14-15.
25 When the Squirrel’s commander: Lovejoy, Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 36.
26 Furthermore, he wrote: Bartlett, Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, 6:422-23.
A special supplement: Newport Mercury, Oct. 28, 1765.
27 Ward played the role: Ibid., Nov. 18, 1765.
Governor Ward informed London: Lovejoy, Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 120.
28 Greene very likely wrote the petition: PNG, 1:9-10.
29 In his letters: Nathanael Greene’s reading habits are discussed at length in Greene, Life, 1:22-39.
30 “To pursue Virtue”: PNG, 1:23-25.
31 “Study to be wise”: Ibid., 1:26-28.
Chapter Three:
The Making of a Rebel
33 Rhode Island authorities: Bancroft Collection, documents relative to Rhode Island, NYPL.
He complained: Simister, The Fire’s Center, 44.
The merchant vessel Fortune: PNG, 1:33.
“If you do not go into the cabin”: Greene, Life, 1:29-30.
34 In a letter to his friend Sammy Ward: Ibid., 26-27.
35 One prominent Rhode Islander: Lovejoy, Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution, 158.
“I am . . . informed”: Simister, The Fire’s Center, 43.
“I do not receive instructions”: Ibid., 44.
36 “I am the sheriff”: Langguth, Patriots, 167.
One of the raiders: Greene, Life, 1:34.
“I have long feared”: Langguth, Patriots, 169.
In the meantime: Bancroft Collection, documents relative to Rhode Island, NYPL.
37 “I was surrounded”: PNG, 1:38-43.
“If Coventry ever was tolerable”: Ibid., 1:44-46.
38 The royal commission: Eyewitness accounts of the burning of the Gaspee are compiled in Bartlett, Records of the Colony of Rhode Island, 7:68-77 and 182-85.
“I should be tempted”: PNG, 1:51-53.
He told Sammy Ward: Ibid.
39 The minister’s talk: PNG, 1:61.
“Priests and Levites”: Ibid., 1:57-58.
The official record: Friends’ minutes, 1751-1806, RIHS.
40 In two letters: PNG, 1:26-28; 51-53.
41 John Sherwood: Kimball, The Correspondence of the Colonial Governors of Rhode Island, 2:438.
In keeping with custom: Bancroft Collection, documents relative to Rhode Island, NYPL.
A correspondent: Newport Mercury, Mar. 21,1774.
42 Britain’s po
litical leaders: PNG, 1:64-65.
One observer described her: Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty, 10.
43 The ceremony was small: PNG, 1:64.
44 Greene’s was among eighty signatures: Ibid., 1:67-68.
Tradition has it: This story is told in nineteenth-century biographies by William Johnson and George Washington Greene, with no firsthand evidence.
With their red coats: Kentish Guard Papers, RIHS.
45 He immediately wrote: PNG, 1:75-76.
46 The bloodshed: Ibid., 1:79fn. Greene’s commission: Ibid., 1:78-79.
Chapter Four:
An Uncommon Degree of Zeal
48 They heard: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 92.
After news of the skirmishes: Ketchum, The Winter Soldiers, 49.
49 “The rebels”: Harvey, A Few Bloody Noses, 160.
50 Greene told Thomas: PNG, 1:80.
51 Murray was accused: Ibid., 2:96.
In his orders: Ibid., 1:84. A soldier from Connecticut: Ibid., 1:85.
52 His superiors testified: Greene, Life, 1:92.
52 “Let us in”: Chidsey, The Siege of Boston, 64.
Appropriating money: PNG, 1:82.
He would have been happy: Ibid., 1:82-83.
53 He found that many captains: Ibid., 1:85.
54 “My task is hard”: Ibid., 1:93. Despite the discipline: Ibid. While the Rhode Islanders remained: Ibid., 1:94.
While most of the troops: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 153.
Other American generals: PNG, 1:93.
In a letter to Jacob: Ibid.
55 A shocked Howe wrote: Wright Jr., The Continental Army, 20.
He dispatched an urgent message: PNG, 1:86.
56 To his brother Jacob: Ibid., 1:92.
58 “I hope we shall be taught”: Ibid., 1:99.
59 “Familiarity between the officers and men”: Washington to Congress, Sept. 22,1775, PGW.
A disgusted Greene: PNG, 1:95.
60 In a far too candid letter: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 161.
60 The southerners were themselves puzzled: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 71.
Washington “had not had time”: PNG, 1:163-65.
61 “His Excellency”: Ibid., 1:135.
62 True, Adams wrote: Langguth, Patriots, 309.
“Our troops are now very sickly”: PNG, 1:105-6.
“Void [their] Exerment”: Ibid., 1:108.
63 “Provisions bad”: Ibid., 1:105-6.
“The fears and apprehensions”: Ibid., 1:111-12.
64 “The Author is found”: Ibid., 1:127.
65 “So far as regards the Preservation of the Army from cold”: Washington to Congress, Sept. 21, 1775, PGW.
66 Then, Greene would contend: PNG, 1:194.
67 Henry Knox: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 67.
In October 1775: PNG, 1:140.
68 “I would make it Treason”: Ibid., 1:140-41.
“This is no time”: Ibid., 1:171.
68 He urged Ward and Congress: Ibid., 1:177.
69 Of Franklin, Greene wrote: Ibid., 1:135-36.
70 “I fear the Colony”: Ibid., 1:160.
He told his brother Jacob: Ibid., 1:158.
71 If they did: Moses Brown’s diary, RIHS; also published in Rhode Island History, vol. 15, no. 4, October 1956.
“Our suffering”: PNG, 1:173.
Only now were the Americans learning: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 253-54.
72 “We never have been so weak”: PNG, 1:174.
His general orders: General orders, Jan. 1, 1776, PGW.
73 “We have just experienced”: PNG, 1:178.
“It is no time”: Ibid.
74 “[Playing cards] brings on a Habit of Drinking”: Ibid., 1:180.
“I am as yellow as saffron”: Ibid., 1:193.
76 “draw Beer for the Troops”: Ibid., 1:208.
Chapter Five:
The Dark Part of Night
77 New York, he wrote: PNG, 1:177.
78 “If any should be base enough”: Ibid., 1:205.
He forbade his soldiers: Ibid.
79 Greene dutifully dispatched word to his troops: Ibid., 1:206.
Greene’s troops: Ibid., 1:208.
80 Even if the British: Lee to Washington, Feb. 19, 1776, Lee, Papers of Charles Lee, 1:308-10.
After all, he noted: Lee to Washington, Mar. 3, 1776, ibid., 1:343-44.
81 They should do so “softly”: PNG, 1:220.
Local residents complained: Ibid., 1:212.
“Complaints Having Been made”: Ibid., 1:215.
Greene was not one: Ibid., 1:212.
82 Knox condemned: Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 143.
“Tis nobly done”: PNG, 1:213.
84 Henry Knox told Lucy: Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty, 34.
85 Greene said that Adams’s policy: PNG, 1:225.
Adams replied: Ibid., 1:239.
“As I have no desire”: Ibid., 1:216.
At one point, Greene accused Adams, and Congress: Ibid., 1:256.
86 “I spied”: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 95.
87 “Vegetables . . . would be much more wholesome”: PNG, 1:252.
“all Filth”: Ibid., 1:267-68.
Washington said he hoped: Freeman, George Washington, 4:133.
88 He told Adams: PNG, 1:255-56.
“[It] is impossible”: Ibid., 1:263.
89 Greene’s complaints: Ibid., 1:264.
Still, the British waited: Langguth, Patriots, 377.
“The fair nymphs”: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 413-14.
90 “Great humanity should be exercised”: PNG, 1:283.
They would soon “feel my Resentment”: Ibid., 1:287-88.
Soon after writing to Washington: Ibid., 1:288.
Within two days: Livingston to Washington, Aug. 17, 1776, PGW.
91 Greene sought to reassure his commander: Blodget to Washington, Aug. 18, 1776, ibid.
92 “Gracious God!”: PNG, 1:291-92.
92 “I give it”: Ibid., 1:294-96.
93 “This in my judgment”: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 119.
94 Their performance so embarrassed Washington: PNG, 1:300.
95 As Greene noted: Ibid.
96 Washington’s secretary wrote: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 112.
“Providence, or some good honest fellow”: Langguth, Patriots, 397.
“I apprehend the several retreats”: PNG, 1:303-4.
“The policy of Congress”: Ibid.
97 There was, he wrote, “a great change”: Tretler, “The Making of a Revolutionary,” 249.
“exhibit a Spectacle”: PNG, 1:311-12.
98 “Here is a gentleman”: Dann, The Revolution Remembered, 118-19.
100 Although he had told Greene: PNG, 1:339-40.
“If we cannot prevent vessels passing up”: Ibid., 1:342-43.
“I cannot conceive”: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 147.
100 Still, Washington hesitated: Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 200.
Lee boldly asserted: PNG, 1:341.
“I cannot help”: Lee to Reed, Nov. 16, 1776, Lee, Papers of Charles Lee, 2:283-84.
101 They found themselves: PNG, 1:352.
102 In it, he did not spare Greene: Washington to Congress, Nov. 16, 1776, PGW.
“Oh, General”: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 152.
103 He claimed that other officers accused Greene: Lee to Washington, Nov. 19, 1776, Lee, Papers of Charles Lee, 2:286-88.
“I feel mad”: PNG, 1:321-22.
“what is said”: Ibid.
104 Washington later estimated: Washington to Congress, Nov. 19,1776, PGW.
105 “We retreated to Hackensack”: PNG, 1:362.
“Our people”: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 496-97.
the American army
“is broken”: Ibid.
“Entre nous”: Langguth, Patriots, 404
106 “These are the times”: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 505.
106 “Fortune seems to frown”: PNG, 1:368-69.
a painting of a rising sun: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 131. The anecdote is not verified by any firsthand testimony.
Chapter Six:
Victory or Death
108 “I hope to give the Enimy”: PNG, 1:375.
109 he noted with “satisfaction”: Ibid., 1:376.
The general, Greene told Caty: Ibid., 1:368.
Showing off his self-taught erudition: Ibid., 1:372.
110 “one of the severest” storms: Ibid., 2:4.
112 “This is an important period”: Ibid., 1:377.
113 “Should we get possession of the Jerseys”: Ibid.
One soldier recalled: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 519.
“My brave fellows”: Ibid.
“God Almighty”: PNG, 2:4.
114 “This is the greatest evidence”: Ibid.
“[We] have great reason”: Ibid., 2:3.
115 “Push on, boys”: Greene, Life, 1:298.
115 “It appeared to me”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 148.
116 “This line of conduct”: PNG, 1:374-75.
“The day ... is our own”: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 185.
117 “Great credit is due”: PNG, 2:3-4.
“The achievements of Washington and his little band”: Leckie, George Washington’s War, 333.
118 “I am exceeding happy”: PNG, 2:7.
He was installed in the home: Greene, Life, 1:306.
“I am unhappy”: PNG, 2:6-7.
119 Furious civilians: Ibid., 2:4-5.
There, he told Washington: Ibid., 2:24-25.
120 In mid-February: Ibid., 2:26-27.
A loyalist judge: Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 222.
“This ... is the State of the War”: PNG, 2:56-57.
According to a letter: Craig to Wayne, Feb. 16, 1777, Bancroft Collection, Wayne Papers, NYPL.
121 “not so much for the annoyance of the Enemy”: PNG, 2:56-57.