Background
Nathanael was born on August 7, 1742 in Warwick, Rhode Island, United States. Son of Nathanael and Mary (Mott) Greene.
Nathanael was born on August 7, 1742 in Warwick, Rhode Island, United States. Son of Nathanael and Mary (Mott) Greene.
The younger Nathanael Greene early displayed an aptitude for study and a proficiency in mathematics. His reading was guided by Ezra Stiles, afterward president of Yale, Lindley Murray, and possibly Henry Knox, the Boston bookseller. He worked at his father's iron foundry at Potowomut until 1770, when he moved to Coventry to take charge of the family forge there.
In 1765 Greene was admitted as a freeman of Warwick. From 1770 to 1772 and again in 1775 he served as deputy to the General Assembly. Although a vigorous and energetic man, Greene had from early childhood a stiff knee, which rendered him somewhat sensitive and quick to resent insults. In October 1774, when in the face of the impending struggle with Great Britain he helped to organize a militia company, known as the Kentish Guards, he was made to feel the force of his infirmity. His fellows refused to allow him to act as an officer. His character is attested by his willingness to serve in the ranks. Greene and three others pushed on to Boston. On April 22, 1775, in spite of the governor, the Rhode Island Assembly approved the raising of 1, 500 men, and appointed Greene on a committee to consult with Connecticut. In May the Assembly voted to organize three regiments, and appointed the erstwhile private to be brigadier in charge of them. The regiments were promptly raised and by June 3 Greene had them at the camp in Jamaica Plain, where several other regiments were assigned him. On June 22 Greene was chosen a brigadier-general in the Continental Army. He served through the siege of Boston, where he was conspicuous for his talent in gathering and conserving military supplies and for his services in removing intercolonial jealousies. After the evacuation of Boston by the British in March 1776 he was put in command of the army of occupation of that city. On April 1, he took his brigades by way of Providence and New London, and thence by sea, to New York. In May he assumed charge of the defenses of New York, but, although he made plans with great care and skill, the execution of his orders left much to be desired. While the British attack on Long Island in the late summer of 1776 was at its height Greene was seriously ill for three weeks, but after the defeat of the Americans he retired with the rest of the army above New York. After the battles at Harlem, he was given command of the troops in New Jersey, with headquarters at Fort Constitution (Fort Lee). He had been promoted on August 9, 1776, to be a major-general in the Continental Army. On October 12 he conducted an attack on the British camp at Staten Island, but was called back to the general headquarters by Howe's landing on Throgg's (Frog's) Neck. This move and the resulting battle at White Plains seriously threatened Fort Washington, on the Hudson. Washington determined to defend this post, but on November 16 it was stormed and captured by the British, and the evacuation of Fort Lee necessarily followed. On the famous Christmas Eve of 1776, when Washington stunned his foe at Trenton, Greene led the left column, the position of which insured not only the defeat but also the capture of the Hessian detachment. He then withdrew with the army to its winter quarters at Morristown, New Jersey. In March, when Congress was manifesting some discontent with the conduct of the war, Washington, who had already begun to lean heavily upon Greene, sent him to Philadelphia to confer with Congress. He then returned to the army and spent the rest of the spring skirmishing with British outposts in northern New Jersey. When it was expected that Howe would take the British troops north from New York to cooperate with the oncoming army of Burgoyne from Canada, Greene was sent with Knox to examine the passes in the highlands of the Hudson. His skilful disposition of the troops after Brandywine insured the safe withdrawal of the army and saved the artillery. In the subsequent battle of Germantown, he led the left column. In November 1777 Greene was directed to try to hold the forts on the Delaware, but was unable to effect anything so he returned with his troops to the main army, then going into winter quarters at Valley Forge. On February 25, 1778, Greene reluctantly consented to become quartermaster-general, and on March 2 was so appointed by Congress. Greene at once established a system of supply depots so as to draw upon the fertile middle states for forage and upon New England for manufactured goods which came in through the port of Boston. He further insisted upon monthly returns from his deputies. Following the adoption of the new plan by his enemies in Congress on July 15, 1780, Greene flatly declined to continue as quartermaster-general. Congress was so angered that after the acceptance of his resignation on August 3, an effort was made to expel him from the army altogether. This failed, however, despite a fierce turmoil in Congress in which angry words passed. In September 1780, when Washington left headquarters on the Hudson to confer with Rochambeau at Hartford, Greene was left in supreme command of the Continental Army. It was during this absence that the plot of Benedict Arnold came to a head. Greene was the president of the board of general officers who sent the unfortunate André to the gallows, and he took over the command of the post at West Point, vacated by Arnold. After the crushing defeat at Camden, South Carolina, however, Congress suspended Gates from his command until a court of inquiry could be held into his conduct, and begged the commander-in-chief to choose a successor. Washington promptly chose Greene (Oct. 14, 1780) and the latter set out for his greatest campaign. It was clear to Washington and Greene that Gates's disaster had been largely due to his failure adequately to provide and safeguard his supplies. Greene therefore stopped in Philadelphia for nine days, en route to his new command. The extent of his work in those few days is astonishing. A medical department and engineers, supplies, artillery, clothing, horses, and every detail of equipment, were provided for by him. On December 2 he joined Gates at Charlotte, to complete the reorganization of the shattered army. In December 1780 he moved his small army to Hicks Creek on the Pedee. He then outwitted Cornwallis by dividing his force. During the bewilderment of the British commander, one division of the patriots under Morgan gained a brilliant and profitable victory over the redoubtable Tarleton at Cowpens (January 17, 1781). The enraged Cornwallis determined to put an end to Greene, burned his baggage, and started out to find and punish the impudent commander. Greene then gave a classic example of the American military policy in the Revolution, which was to retreat as far as the British would pursue, and when the enemy, drawn far from his base, was obliged to return, to turn also and follow him. The British gained a Pyrrhic victory on March 15, 1781, but Greene was able to draw off his troops ten miles and was ready to begin again. On April 6 he started around to the west of Cornwallis, forcing the British to retire to the southeast. Greene, instead of following them, made a rapid march to the south and by the 20th he had his army once more in front of Camden, South Carolina. From this post the British commander, Lord Rawdon, made a violent sortie, and at Hobkirk's Hill (April 26, 1781) the British gained another expensive and useless victory. Greene again withdrew his troops a few miles to the north, and after reforming them started once more for Camden. Rawdon did not wait for him, but fled with his troops to join Cornwallis and the patriot army entered Camden in triumph. At the end of this phase of the campaign, despite two apparent defeats, the Americans held precisely the post they sought. Greene then sent out detachments which cut off and captured the British posts at Fort Granby, Fort Watson, and Fort Motte. Lee was detached with an expedition which went to Georgia and recaptured Augusta. In May, Greene besieged the important British post at Ninety-Six, South Carolina, but as this was relieved by Rawdon on June 19 he was obliged to raise the siege. Again it was a Pyrrhic victory for the British, as Rawdon was at once obliged to retreat with the rescued garrison and Greene occupied the post. He then withdrew his army for the month of July 1781 to the hills of the Santee, to avoid the summer fevers. On August 22 he set his army in motion once more, headed for the one remaining British outpost at Eutaw Springs, South Carolina. On September 8 he caught the British under Stuart at that place and inflicted a severe defeat upon them, so that Stuart fled with the remnant of his force toward the British base at Charleston. Greene retired to the hills, refreshed his army, and started for that city. In December the British had been cleared out of practically every position in South Carolina save Charleston, which the army under Greene was besieging. Meantime, Cornwallis had surrendered his army at Yorktown and the war was practically over. Greene was obliged, however, to exert heroic measures to keep his army together before Charleston for another year, as the British did not evacuate that town until December 14, 1782. The South Carolina legislature met at last and voted Greene 10, 000 guineas, most of which he had to expend on his own army. He was also obliged to pledge much of his personal fortune, and he became involved with a contractor, John Banks, whose paper he had to indorse personally to keep the army from starvation. His warning to the muddling Continental Congress brought no more response than did Washington's similar letters from Newburgh. In 1783 he started north to revisit his Rhode Island home and repair the wreck of his fortunes. He met Washington at Trenton and together they visited Congress at Princeton. After a visit to Coventry, Rhode Island, he again returned to the South, where the bankruptcy of Banks involved Greene in debts he could not pay. He therefore sold his South Carolina estates, and moved to a plantation in Georgia which had been voted him by the grateful people of that state. He went back and forth between Georgia and Rhode Island every year for the remainder of his life. In 1785 he established himself near Savannah at Mulberry Grove, the confiscated estate of the Loyalist lieutenant-governor, John Graham. He died there on June 19, 1786, and was buried in the cemetery of Christ Episcopal Church, Savannah. In 1902 his remains were removed from the cemetery and reinterred beneath the Greene monument in Johnson Square, Savannah.
Nathanael Greene was married to Catharine Littlefield. Children: George Washington, Martha Washington, Cornelia Lott, Nathanael Ray, Louisa Catherine.