by Terry Golway
121 Congress passed a resolution: Greene, Life, 1:336.
“Could I accomplish”: Ibid., 1:337.
“There is not a state”: PNG, 2:10.
122 “I am sensible”: Ibid., 2:29.
In his reply: Ibid., 2:37.
Greene told Adams: Ibid., 2:31.
123 Adams countered: Ibid., 2:40.
Washington explained to Congress: Greene, Life, 1:338-39.
Washington told him: PNG, 2:44-45.
“There is so much deliberation”: Ibid., 2:46-48.
124 Several weeks later: Ibid., 2:87-88.
He was alarmed to find them “insufficient”: Ibid.
When he returned: Ibid., 2:50.
He felt duty-bound: Ibid., 2:54-55.
125 “It is to be regretted”: Ibid., 2:59-60.
126 “What has kept them”: Ibid., 2:60.
“I was almost thunderstruck”: Ibid., 2:66-67.
He tried a little tenderness: Ibid.
127 “O, how my heart”: Ibid., 2:83.
127 “But remember when you write to Mrs. Knox”: Ibid., 2:84.
128 “No free people”: Ibid., 2:98-99.
129 He, too, thought: Ibid., 2:103.
In the same letter: Ibid., 2:98-99.
Once again, Adams was on Greene’s side: Ibid., 2:103.
He told his brother: Ibid., 2:104.
130 “A report is circulating”: Ibid., 2:109.
On July 7, Congress passed: Journals of the Continental Congress, July 7, 1777, Library of Congress.
131 What’s more: McCullough, John Adams, 195.
“I never before took hold of a pen”: PNG, 2:111-14.
132 “Phylistines are upon thee”: Ibid., 2:101.
“I can plainly see”: Ibid., 2:121.
Philadelphia, he wrote: Ibid., 2:140-41.
133 “I am in hopes”: Ibid., 2:149.
Chapter Seven:
The Cries of the People
134 “good health”: PNG, 2:149.
136 Summoning the frustrations: Ibid., 2:162-63.
136 “Here are some of the most distressing scenes”: Ibid., 2:155-56.
“dreaded the appearance”: Ibid., 2:156fn.
137 “I am exceedingly fatigued”: Ibid., 2:155-56.
139 “When I came upon the ground”: Ibid., 2:470-72.
“I expect the next action”: Ibid., 2:162-63.
140 “You, sir”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 196-97.
He denounced Greene: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revoluntion, 226.
141 “My sweet Angel”: PNG, 2:162-63.
“Let us move”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 198.
142 “entertained an exalted opinion”: Ibid.
“The General does want”: Ibid.
he told his generals: Proceedings of a Council of General Officers, Sept. 23, 1777, PGW.
143 “it was prudent”: Proceedings of a Council of General Officers, Sept. 28, 1777, PGW.
144 “be in readiness”: Ibid.
147 “the enemy kept”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 203.
147 General Wayne described the battle: Ibid., 204.
148 Gates, Rush said: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 238.
“Oh, Heaven!”: McCullough, John Adams, 173.
Greene snarled: PNG, 2:259-61.
“[The] foundation”: Ibid., 2:194-96.
149 “If the Southern Militia”: Ibid.
“I have been . . . told”: Ibid., 2:259-61.
150 “Honor and laurels”: Ibid., 2:181.
“[Close] in the Neighbourhood”: Ibid., 2:189-90.
151 “One foot farther”: Ibid., 2:194-96.
“If it is possible”: Ibid., 2:202-3.
In his reply: Ibid., 2:208.
152 “I cannot promise”: Ibid., 2:208-10.
“I shall not be disappointed”: Ibid., 2:224.
“If we retire”: Ibid., 2:225-28.
153 “However desirable”: Ibid., 2:231-36.
Chapter Eight:
Low Intrigue
155 “General Mifflin”: PNG, 2:259-61.
155 Mifflin had complained: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 225.
And the Adams cousins: Greene, Life, 2:33.
He referred to Greene: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 213.
156 When Conway complained: Conway to Gates, Jan. 4, 1777, Horatio Gates Papers, N-YHS.
“My feelings”: Freeman, George Washington, 4:591-92.
157 A certain faction: PNG, 2: 259-71.
He told other officers: PNG, 2:259-61.
“the greatest novice”: Ibid., 2:242-245.
“men of honor”: Ibid., 2:252-53.
“if he fell”: Ibid., 2:249-51.
158 Clark told Greene: Ibid.
Lucy Knox . . . observed: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 223.
The shuttling of his children: PNG, 2:349-51.
159 “In the middle”: Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty, 54.
Greene told Washington: PNG, 2:241-42.
160 “The Quarter Master General”: Ibid., 2:259-61.
160 “No meat!”: Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 291.
161 “the situation of the Camp”: PNG, 2:280.
“Cattle and Sheep”: Ibid., 2:281.
162 “[The] Inhabitants cry out”: Ibid., 2:285.
“by way of Example”: Ibid.
“the least neglect”: Ibid., 2:283.
His instructions: Ibid.
163 Confronted with evidence: Ibid., 2:286-87.
“I sent on to Camp”: Ibid., 2:288-89.
164 “The troops are getting naked”: Ibid., 2:293-94.
165 As he later told Washington: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 227.
He told Knox: PNG, 2:307.
“All of you”: Ibid., 2:376. Besides, the job: Ibid., 2:293-94.
166 He confessed: Ibid., 2:326.
167 “Money becomes more”: Ibid., 2:227.
“I have spent”: Ibid., 2:300-4.
168 “General Conway is”: Ibid., 2:422-23.
170 Greene and his two capable deputies: Ibid., 2:324-25.
171 “In forming your magazines”: Ibid., 2:327-38.
171 A “large Sum of Money”: Ibid., 2:330-31.
172 Nathanael promised: Ibid., 2:404-5.
“To git our goods”: Ibid., 2:401-2.
“family secrets”: Ibid., 2:349-50.
“I am At A Loos”: Ibid., 2:338-42.
173 “I Fear Billy”: Ibid.
174 “Mrs. Knox”: Ibid., 2:443-44.
“It has been”: Ibid., 2:470-73.
175 “I must confess”: Ibid., 2:446-47.
176 “Delightful”: Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, 722.
177 “We have suffered”: PNG, 2:449-52.
Chapter Nine:
“It Wounds My Feelings”
178 “It would be agreeable”: PNG, 2:317.
180 “You express”: Ibid., 2:459-60.
When several days had passed Ibid., 2:461-63.
181 “Your Excellency has made me”: Ibid.
182 “I can, and do assure you”: Ibid., 2:464.
183 “[In] justice”: Washington to Congress, Aug. 3, 1778, PGW.
184 “You are the most happy man”: PNG, 2:466-67.
“I am ... as busy”: Ibid., 2:478.
185 The Frenchman was eager: Ibid., 2:477fn.
A victory in Rhode Island: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 325.
187 “I am sorry”: Greene, Life, 2:114-15.
188 “This movement”: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 718-19.
Greene, too, was furious: PNG, 2:491-92.
“The Garrison is important”: Ibid., 2:480-82.
189 The fleet’s retreat: Ibid., 2:487-89.
American arms . . . would prevail: Ibid., 2:490fn.
190 Greene was “sensible”: Ibid., 2:491fn.
Washington, who readily agreed: Ibid., 2:505-6.
> “I beg you”: Ibid.
Choose three hundred experienced troops: Ibid., 2:493-96.
191 “We . . . put the enemy”: Ibid., 2:499-502.
192 “To behold our fellows”: Ibid., 2:506.
He wrote another discreet letter: Ibid., 2:526.
192 The Americans were relieved: Ibid., 2:530.
It was exhausting: Ibid., 2:523.
“My appointment is flattering”: Ibid., 2:529-30.
193 “all the tender feelings”: Ibid., 1:303-4.
“I am [persuaded]”: Ibid., 2:529-30.
When he heard complaints: Ibid., 2:546-47.
194 “This is a [malevolent] age”: Ibid., 2:539-40.
A transfer: Ibid., 2:529-30.
195 He desperately wanted her to come: Ibid., 3:66.
“this pleasure”: Ibid.
“I [dined] yesterday”: Ibid.
196 “He is a fine, hardy fellow”: Ibid., 3:122-23.
“His Excellency”: Ibid., 3:353-54.
It hurt him: Ibid., 4:321-24.
197 He told John Hancock: Ibid., 3:121-22.
“They are [always] beginning”: Ibid., 3:235.
“We had the most splendid entertainments”: Ibid.
“dined at one table”: Ibid., 3:233.
198 “To scourge the Indians”: Ibid., 3:144-45.
He had predicted: Ibid., 2:546-54.
199 “I have desired Congress”: Ibid., 3:425-28.
“I am sorry”: Ibid., 3:428-29.
200 “[It] would be for your advantage”: Ibid., 4:130-31.
“Mrs. Greene is on her way Home”: Ibid., 4:165-67.
The march to a new camp: Ibid., 4:125.
Chapter Ten:
“O, This War!”
203 “[It] is my wish”: PNG, 3:403.
204 The patriot-merchant Robert Morris: Morris to Deane, June 9, 1777, Barnabas Deane Papers, N-YHS.
205 did he not have “the same right”: PNG, 4:265.
206 “The military reason”: Ibid., 4:358-60.
“Many times I was almost ready”: Ibid., 4:321-24.
207 “How tenderly would I nurse you”: Ibid.
“I therefore laid down my pen”: Ibid., 4:342-45.
“Methinks you can”: Ibid.
“I strongly recommend”: Ibid.
“I wish to hear”: Ibid.
208 “I am exceeding unhappy”: Ibid., 4:464-65.
210 “Some people in this neighbourhood”: Ibid., 5:179.
211 In a petition: Nathanael Greene Papers, series 3, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.
Greene sensed that yet another crisis: PNG, 5:187-88.
“We are at this time”: Ibid., 5:181-83.
212 He concluded that the law was against him: Ibid., 5:192-93.
“I regret that the Inhabitants”: Ibid., 5:197-98.
On December 19: Ibid., 5:187-88.
213 “They receive us with coldness”: Ibid., 5:209-10.
“Our Army is without Meat or Bread”: Ibid., 5:230-31.
“The Army is upon the eve of disbanding”: Ibid., 5:243-44.
214 If the roads were not clogged: Ibid., 5:236.
“Such weather as we have had”: Ibid., 5:252-53.
215 He proposed Clinton: Ibid., 5:257-59.
216 Not surprisingly, Greene’s friend and aide Charles Pettit: Ibid., 5:339-41.
He sent a teasing letter: Ibid., 5:367.
“The business of my Department”: Ibid., 5:429-30.
216 “Their conduct”: Ibid.
He told Washington: Ibid., 5:471.
He mentioned to Greene: Ibid., 5:479-80.
217 With a nod to his friend Thomas Paine: Ibid., 5:491-92.
His presence in the capital: Ibid., 5:503-4.
During a private debate: Ibid., 5:594fn.
“I feel my self . . . soured”: Ibid., 5:532-33.
218 “I have been among the great at Philadelphia”: Ibid., 5:520-21.
“Truth and righteousness”: Ibid., 5:517-18.
219 “Our distress”: Ibid., 5:582-83.
“Let go of my hand”: Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty, 76.
220 Greene confided to the governor of Rhode Island: PNG, 5:582-83.
221 “Society,” he explained to Caty: Ibid., 6:14.
223 The spy, Greene observed: Ibid., 6:31.
“Their object:” Ibid.
“The Enemy are out”: Ibid., 6:32.
224 “The Militia to our aid”: Ibid., 6:33.
“Being thus advantageously posted”: Ibid., 6:37.
224 In his general orders: Ibid., 6:41.
225 He warned Congress: Washington to Joseph Jones, May 31, 1780, PGW.
In a letter dated July 26: PNG, 6:155-57.
226 Joseph Jones, a member of Congress: Ibid., 6:154fn.
Henry Laurens asked: Ibid.
Wearily, the commander in chief: Thayer, Nathannel Greene, 276.
227 “The . . . plunder”: PNG, 6:233-34.
“There is so much wickedness and villiany”: Ibid., 6:212-13.
“We are starving”: Ibid., 6:268.
228 “In my absence”: Ibid., 6:289-90.
“I will venture”: Ibid., 6:304-5.
At nine o’clock: Greene’s orderly book, July 30-Oct. 8, 1780, NYPL.
229 “Arnold has fled to the Enemy”: PNG, 6:312.
The discovery of Arnold’s treason: Ibid., 6:319-20.
He broke the news: Ibid., 6:314.
On October 1, the tribunal found: Greene’s orderly book, July 30-Oct. 8, 1780, NYPL.
230 André, he said: Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind, 419.
“I think I am giving you a general”: Washington to Mathews, Oct. 23, 1780, PGW.
Chapter Eleven:
“The Prospect Is Dismal”
232 “I see but little prospect”: PNG, 6:447-49.
“I [entirely] approve”: Ibid., 6:469-71.
233 If the British defeated Greene: Lee, The Revolutionary War Memoirs of General Henry Lee, 247.
234 “I believe the views”: PNG, 6:488-89.
“Congress can furnish no money”: Ibid., 6:447-48.
235 “[If] there is not public spirit enough”: Ibid.
Cornwallis told his superiors: Morrill, Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution, 112.
“They promise me”: PNG, 6:478-79.
236 “Our prospects with respect to supplies”: Ibid., 6:485-87.
237 “I cannot contemplate”: Ibid., 6:488-89.
237 “My only consolation”: Ibid.
238 Greene dispatched men: Ibid., 6:512-14.
239 “Your Services in the lower Part of South Carolina”: Ibid., 6:519-22.
In describing the “condition of this army”: Ibid., 6:542-45.
He sent the governor a blistering letter: Ibid., 6:530-31.
240 “[While the] subject you write upon”: Ibid., 6:596-97.
Within a few months: Ibid., 7:5-6.
Greene told Samuel Huntington: Ibid., 7:7-10.
“The Gentleman”: Ibid., 6:516.
242 They were too weak: Ibid., 7:18-19.
“There is not a single fruit-tree”: Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty, 85.
“If you will entrust your letters”: Ibid.
“I will not be so impolite”: Ibid., 87-88.
243 “I am posted”: PNG, 7:16.
Falling back on his youthful study: Ibid., 7:22.
“When I left”: Ibid., 7:17-18.
244 “attempt any thing”: Cornwallis to Rawdon, Dec. 28, 1780, PLC.
244 He would later write: Bobrick, Angel in the Whirlwind, 428.
He assured Cornwallis: Rawdon to Cornwallis, Jan. 11,1781,PLC.
245 “Amidst the complicated dangers”: Freeman, George Washington, 5:261.
In fact, Cornwallis encouraged his subordinate: Cornwallis to Tarleton, Jan. 2, 1781, PLC.
“Col. Tarlton is said to be on his way”: PNG, 7:106.
246 “Just hold up your heads”: Morrill, Southern Campaigns
of the American Revolution, 127-28.
247 “The Troops I had the Honor to command”: PNG, 7:152-55.
Greene told his friend James Varnum: Ibid., 7:187-88.
248 “Then he is ours!”: Leckie, George Washington’s War, 606.
He was alarmed: PNG, 7:192.
“The people have been so harrassed”: Ibid., 7:225-26.
249 “Neither will you”: Leckie, George Washington’s War, 606.
“What! Alone, general?”: Ibid., 608. Thayer’s comments on this anecdote are in his biography of Nathanael Greene, 313.
250 “His pen never rested”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 314.
“badly armed”: PNG, 7:261-62.
251 “[It] was determined”: Ibid.
“We have no provisions”: Ibid., 7:267-69.
252 “All our troops are over”: Leckie, George Washington’s War, 611.
“To have effected a retreat”: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 1160.
Tarleton would later write: Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 440.
“ill-suited to enter”: Conrad, “Nathanael Greene and the Southern Campaigns,” 140.
253. Cornwallis explained to London: PNG, 7:416.
In Late February: Ibid., 369-70.
But, Henry Lee later recalled: Lee, The Revolutionary War Memoirs of General Henry Lee, 264.
254 “I have been obliged”: PNG, 7:419-20.
He kept Washington informed: Ibid., 7:422-23.
254 “Good heavens, Colonel”: Greene, Life, 3:186-87.
“violent inflamation:” PNG, 7:395.
255 Not surprisingly, he told Lee: Ibid.
As Greene told Jefferson: Ibid., 7:419-20.
“I expect Lord Cornwallis”: Ibid., 7:324-25.
257 “Three rounds”: Scheer and Rankin, Rebels and Redcoats, 445-46.
260 “Our Men”: PNG, 7:433-35.
“Like Peter the Great”: Lewis Jr. to Lewis Sr., Dec. 29, 1780, Morris, Letters of Lewis Morris.
“Another such victory”: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 1160.
“some consolation”: PNG, 7:446.
“I had not the honor”: Ibid., 7:446-47.
“I was born”: Ibid., 7:469-70.
261 “It is my intention”: Ibid., 7:461.
“In this critical and distressing situation”: Ibid., 7:481.
262 “I am quite tired”: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 1168.
Chapter Twelve:
Victory
264 “Don’t be surprised”: PNG, 8:xi.
Greene told Baron von Steuben: Ibid., 8:22-23.
