Nathaniel Greene was one of the best generals of the Revolutionary War, but he is not well known because he was not very colorful and he was a great strategist who created the conditions for victories that were won by others.

Greene was born in 1742 to a family of Quakers in Rhode Island who owned a successful business, including a sawmill, ironworks, and a flour mill. However, Greene had little patience for the Quaker pacifism and its objection to higher education. He read widely and eventually withdrew from the society. When his local community formed a militia unit, he was shocked that he did not receive a commission even though he had helped form the unit, although the likely reason was that they were embarrassed by the idea of being led by a man with a limp, so he had to accept serving as a private. However, the siege of Boston required a larger unit, and Greene was mysteriously promoted to brigadier general even though there were more experienced officers in Rhode Island and his family did not have powerful connections. Possibly the members of the assembly recognized his leadership qualities and his solid theoretical knowledge of military science.

Greene quickly proved to be a good officer, and won Washington’s confidence. He was one of the few generals who advocated abandoning New York to the British, and he led his troops well during a brief battle at Harlem Heights, but he insisted that Fort Washington could be held, opposing Washington himself, and the fort was taken in a day, with 3,000 rebels captured. His experience made him realize that militia troops could not be relied upon like regular troops, so he became a strong advocate of Continental troops. He did redeem himself during the surprise winter campaign, leading one of the two main columns at Trenton and then helping to rally a broken rearguard during the battle at Princeton. However, his career stalled when he, along with Major-Generals Sullivan and Knox, quarreled with Congress, because a French officer had been given a commission as a major-general that was backdated and made him senior to the three generals. When Greene refused to apologize as John Adams suggested, it ended their friendship.

Greene’s reputation was restored when he led a brigade to block Howe’s flanking attack during the Battle of Brandywine, and then covered the army’s retreat. He then led one of the four columns during the overly complex attack on Germantown and carried out a smooth retreat when the British counterattacked.

Greene was not popular with the faction in congress that wanted to replace Washington with Major-General Horatio Gates, who was the golden boy after the victory at Saratoga, which was one of the reasons why he was forced to accept being appointed Quartermaster General. His success at foraging for the army when it was at Valley Forge during the winter of 1777-1778 proved that he had the necessary organizational skills and moral toughness. He detested the job because he thought it ended any chance of glory but he worked hard and was an effective QG, ensuring that the troops in winter quarters at Morristown in 1778-1779 were much better fed and clothed than during the winter at Valley Forge. He also used his position to get rich, or at least to try to get rich, by making his brother Jacob one of the contractors and gave contracts to his family’s company, which was common for the time. While this may not be the most admirable trait, he was a dedicated general, who never ran away from danger or discomfort. Greene was allowed to command troops two times while he was still QG, once at Monmouth where he led the right wing and his troops beat back Cornwalis’ regulars, and at the Battle of Rhode Island, where he forced Hessian troops to retreat. He resigned as QG on August 3, 1780 after another argument with Congress.

On October 14, Washington appointed him to command what was left of the Southern Department after Gates’ fiasco at Camden. Greene realized that his troops were in no shape to face Cornwalis’ army of British regulars so he decided his only chance was to force Cornwalis to overextend his supply chain, so he sent half of his army under Daniel Morgan to threaten the series of British posts stretching across South Carolina while he took the rest of the troops in North Carolina. His strategy soon bore fruit. Infuriated by Morgan’s raids, Cornwalis sent most of his light forces under Banastre Tarleton to hunt him down. Tarleton had never been beaten but Morgan designed a trap at Cowpens that was tailor-made for Tarleton’s love of the headlong charge and 85% of the British force was dead or captured in the space of an hour on January 17, 1781.

Cornwalis then chased Greene through North Carolina into Virginia, but the rebels won the race because they were able to slog their way on muddy roads faster than the British and because Greene’s scouts had mapped out every possible ford and river crossing. By the end of the race, Greene’s men were being fed in Virginia while Cornwalis’ army was 240 miles away from its nearest supply base and was on the verge of starvation. Despite his men’s pinched bellies, Cornwalis still outfought Greene at Guilford Courthouse on March 15 but it did not change the overall situation. Greene soon received supplies and reinforcements but Cornwalis was unable to replace his losses so he basically abandoned the Carolinas and moved into Virginia.

With Cornwalis out of the picture, it was the happy hunting time in South Carolina and Greene coordinated his forces and the partisans to snap up almost all of the British posts in a whirlwind campaign during April and May. Faced with losing all of South Carolina outside of Charleston, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Stewart, the senior British officer left in the Carolinas, fought Greene at Eutaw Springs on September 8. After an extremely bloody battle that lasted several hours, the British were on the verge of collapse when the rebel soldiers became distracted by rum that they found in the British camp and Greene’s officers barely prevented a rout. However, the British losses were so heavy that Stewart gave up any hope of controlling any territory outside of Charleston.

Although Greene had lost every single battle that he fought during the Southern Campaign, namely Guilford Courthouse, Hobkirk's Hill, Ninety-Six and Eutaw Springs, he con the campaign because he knew that he could afford the losses and the British could not. Therefore, he proved to be an exceptional theater commander, who regained control of almost all of South Carolina in less than a year. 

After the war, Greene was awarded a plantation by Georgia but he remained land rich and money poor. In addition, he was hounded by merchants for the rest of his life because of promissory notes that he had signed while head of the Southern Department to a merchant named John Banks, who later declared bankruptcy. He had no real career after the war because he died from sunstroke on June 19, 1786, aged forty-four. Thomas Sumter had his revenge when Greene’s widow Caty petitioned Congress to indemnify the debts that Greene had incurred during the Southern Campaign and he made a speech attacking her request. There was little doubt that the speech was personally motivated and Caty’s request was granted, which seems the least that Greene deserved.

Further Reading:

The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas-John Buchanan, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997.

The author’s descriptions of the terrain show that he has spent a great deal of time visiting historical sites in the Carolinas, which bring the terrain to life for the reader, although the overly detailed descriptions can be a bit distracting at times. Although it focuses on the Carolinas Campaign (February 1780 to August 1781), the author provides brief but insightful biographical sketches and portraits of all of the major leaders in the South on either side in order to provide more depth. It is not a one stop examination of the Carolinas Campaign since it ends with the battle at Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, hence the name. Buchanan is the rare historian who is an excellent researcher and an entertaining writer, and he has produced an excellent book that sets the standard for other works in the field.

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