Best Little Stories from the American Revolution

by C. Brian Kelly

  The “namesake” alluded to, the eldest Greene son, some years later was accidentally drowned in the Savannah River. His mother, they say, never quite recovered her joyful spirits after that shock.

  Despite the war and the separation it forced upon them, she and Nathanael managed to produce a small brood of three daughters and two sons before all was said and done.

  After the war’s end, Catherine Greene and her husband returned to Rhode Island to settle their affairs before moving permanently to the South. The foundry business had failed during their absence, and they sold everything but their books. They moved to Mulberry Grove, the plantation the state of Georgia had given the general for his services in liberating the state from the British.

  General Greene’s early death in 1786 left his younger wife a widow at age thirty, with five children to continue raising, the eldest of them only twelve. She continued to manage the plantation, and ten years later she married Phineas Miller, who had been the children’s tutor.

  Fate would tap our Kitty yet again, this time giving her a footnote in the history books. A young man who was living with the widow Greene and her children while studying law soon turned his energies to another enterprise, with her encouragement. Given a basement room at Mulberry Grove to work on his ideas, young Eli Whitney invented a better cotton gin, even using Kitty’s hairbrush as part of his newfangled machine!

  She spent her last years on Cumberland Island off the Georgia coast and died there in 1814. As fate would have it, just four years later, another of George Washington’s best-known generals, Henry “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, who in 1781 covered Nathanael Greene’s “race to the Dan” across North Carolina to Virginia, would join her in burial on this remote barrier island.

  Appendix: Declaration of Independence

  (Adopted in Congress 4 July 1776)

  The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

  He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

  He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

  He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

  He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

  He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

  He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

  He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

  He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

  He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

  He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

  He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

  He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

  He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

  For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

  For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

  For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

  For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

  For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

  For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

  For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

  For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

  For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

  He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

  He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

  He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

  In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler
of a free people.

  Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

  We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

  New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

  Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

  Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

  Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

  New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

  New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

  Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

  Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

  Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

  Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

  North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

  South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

  Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

  Chronology of Events

  Colonial Grievances Pile Up: February 10, 1763, Treaty of Paris ending the French and Indian War, also known as the Seven Years’ War. Colonials resent king’s proclamation of October 7 the same year forbidding settlement of the trans-Allegheny west. 1764, Stamp Act proposed in Parliament, with colonial agitation resulting.

  February 27, 1765, Parliament decrees Stamp Act will go into effect November 1—twenty-five pages of taxation rules to contend with. May 30, first of Patrick Henry’s defiant Stamp Act Resolves adopted by Virginia House of Burgesses after hot debate marked by his dramatic utterance, “If this be Treason, Make the Most of it!” September 1765, Stamp Act Congress held in New York—twenty-seven delegates from nine colonies represent first united American protest against British actions.

  March 18, 1766, Stamp Act repealed by Parliament, only to be replaced, in 1767, by Townshend Acts imposing new duties upon items such as paper, glass and tea, with even greater colonial agitation and protest resulting. May 1769, Virginia House of Burgesses dissolved by Royal Governor Botetourt after passing defiant resolutions, whereupon the legislators meet in a private home under their own authority and adopt a proposal to boycott British goods and invite sister colonies to join in.

  1770, further colonial restiveness when duty on tea remains in force despite repeal of Townshend Acts. June 9, 1772, burning of British revenue vessel Gaspee in Rhode Island waters stirs new round of intra-colonial communications through committees of correspondence. December 16, 1773, inflammatory Boston Tea Party destroying imported British tea, followed by Parliament’s punitive Intolerable Acts of 1774 closing the port of Boston, moving the customs house to Salem, Massachusetts, and placing British ships in Boston Harbor to enforce British edicts.

  September 1774, first meeting in Philadelphia of the Continental Congress, soon to represent all thirteen colonies; the Second Continental Congress will meet May 10, 1775, after Lexington-Concord and act as the Revolutionary Government until a new government is formed under the Articles of Confederation, to be adopted in 1781.

  Events of the Revolutionary War: Year 1775—April 19, Battles of

  Lexington, Concord, and Menotomy, Massachusetts; Americans begin siege of Boston. May 10, Fort Ticonderoga falls to the Americans. June 17, Battles of Bunker/Breed’s Hill. July 3, George Washington takes command. September–December, campaign against British in Canada, led by Benedict Arnold and Richard Montgomery. December 31, Americans fail to take Quebec, Montgomery killed, Arnold wounded.

  Year 1776—February 27, Patriot victory at Moore’s Creek Bridge, North Carolina. March 17, British abandon Boston. June 28, beginning of Sir Henry Clinton’s futile assault on Charleston Harbor and Sullivan’s Island. July 4, Declaration of Independence adopted by the Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia. August 27, American defeat in Battle of Long Island, followed by American withdrawal from Brooklyn to Manhattan Island. September 15, British land at Kip’s Bay, Manhattan Island. October 11, Benedict Arnold’s heroics in losing Battle of Valcour Island, Lake Champlain. November, Americans lose Forts Lee and Washington on New Jersey and New York shores of the Hudson River. December 13, General Charles Lee captured by British. December 26, stunning American victory at Trenton, New Jersey.

  Year 1777—For Patriots, good news also at Princeton, January 3. Summer, British invade upper New York from Canada, capture Ticonderoga, battle Americans at Bennington, Vermont, and Oriskany and Fort Stanwix, New York. July 9–10, British General Richard Prescott captured in his bed in Rhode Island, with expectations of an exchange for Charles Lee. August 25, Sir William Howe’s army, formerly based in New York, poised to strike at Philadelphia after landing at Head of Elk, Maryland. September 11, Washington outflanked at Brandywine Creek. September 17 and October 7, British General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne loses two-step Battle of Saratoga, New York, and surrenders his invading army. At Saratoga, too, more heroics by Benedict Arnold and another wound to his bad leg. September 16, Howe takes over American capital of Philadelphia. October 4, Americans stymied at Germantown, Pennsylvania. December 17, Americans retire to Valley Forge for the winter.

  Year 1778—February 6, French decide to support the American cause, and on May 6, shortly after the news finally reaches America, the Continental Army celebrates at Valley Forge with great excitement. June 16–18, British abandon Philadelphia to the Americans again. June 16, much restored and better trained, Continental Army marches out of Valley Forge for renewed campaigning, soon pursuing the British as they march toward New York. June 19, Benedict Arnold, permanently lamed by his most recent leg wound, in effect becomes military governor of Philadelphia. June 28, Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, marked by dismissal of General Charles Lee from field of battle. August, American land forces and French fleet frustrated in effort to dislodge British from Newport, Rhode Island, due in part to lack of coordination. December 19, British take Savannah, Georgia.

  Year 1779—February 24, in the “Northwest Country” George Rogers Clark crosses impossible terrain to seize Vincennes. July–August, Americans experience small disaster at Penobscot Bay, Maine, but achieve morale-boosting victories at Stony Point, New York, and Paulus Hook, New Jersey. September 23, John Paul Jones makes his mark with the triumph of his Bonhomme Richard over the British frigate Serapis off the English coast. October 9, French and Americans d
riven off in attempt to recapture Savannah. Heroic Polish Count Kasimir Pulaski fatally wounded. December 1, George Washington and the vanguard of his Continental Army arrive at winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey, for what will become known as the worst winter of the eighteenth century.

  Year 1780—January 14, American “Lord Stirling’s” abortive raid by sled against British at Staten Island. January 26, Benedict Arnold court-martial finds him guilty on two minor charges of abusing command position at Philadelphia, recommends mild penalty—Arnold, already spying for the British, is outraged. April 28, Landing in Boston, Lafayette returns from France with news the French will be sending an army to help the Americans. Turncoat Benedict Arnold secretly passes on this intelligence to the British. March 14, Spanish seize Mobile in West Florida. May 12, Charleston finally falls to the British, followed by Battle of the Waxhaws, also in South Carolina, on May 29, an American rout. July 11, the French army under Count Rochambeau debarks at Newport, Rhode Island, recently evacuated by the British. August 16, American disaster at Camden, South Carolina, Lord Cornwallis over Horatio Gates. Nathanael Greene now will take over the war in the South for George Washington. September 25, Benedict Arnold goes over to the British after the capture of his contact, Major John André. October 5, André executed as spy. October 7, Battle of King’s Mountain, South Carolina, victory for the American “over-the-mountain” men. December 30, Benedict Arnold leads British forces into Virginia.

  Year 1781—January 1, mutiny among Pennsylvania Continentals. January 4, Benedict Arnold captures Richmond, Virginia’s capital. January 17, decisive American victory at Cowpens, South Carolina, Daniel Morgan over Banastre Tarleton. February 3, Nathanael Greene lures Lord Cornwallis into weeks-long “race to the Dan” (the Dan River on the Virginia-Carolina border) as part of Greene’s overall campaign strategy of harassing and weakening the main British force in the South without risking all in a single, face-to-face battle. Plunging back into North Carolina, however, Greene does directly take on Cornwallis at Guilford Courthouse (today’s Greensboro, North Carolina) on March 15, technically a victory for the British—but they are weakened further by their losses. March 18, his supplies and even foodstuffs exhausted, Cornwallis sets off for British riverside base at Wilmington, North Carolina, leaving his wounded behind.