by Terry Golway
“If I can get supplies”: Ibid.
“I have been anxiously waiting”: Ibid., 8:129-32.
“[On] this our whole operation will depend”: Ibid., 8:12.
Although Sumter assured Greene: Ibid., 8:66.
265 “I ... regard your affairs”: Washington to Greene, Apr. 19, 1781, PGW.
“We are at the end”: Flexner, George Washington in the American Revolution, 409.
Greene told a sympathetic Jefferson: PNG, 8:165-67.
266 The Crown’s men: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 335.
“My greatest dependence”: PNG, 8:118.
Greene inspected Rawdon’s defenses: Ibid., 8:135.
268 One of Greene’s aides: Ibid., 8:159fn.
269 Bitterly, Greene lashed out: Ibid., 9:134-36.
He confessed to Reed: Ibid.
“You write as if you thought”: Ibid., 8:173-74.
To Washington, Greene confessed: Ibid., 8:185-86.
269 “It is true”: Ibid., 8:230-31.
270 “Congress [seems] to have lost sight”: Ibid., 8:225-27.
Feeling very sorry for himself: Ibid., 8:227-29.
271 The general greeted Dudley: Dann, The Revolution Remembered, 224.
“We fight”: PNG, 8:167-68.
272 “I depend upon your pushing matters”: Ibid., 8:249.
“The brilliant repeated successes”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 353.
He told John Rutledge: PNG, 8:256.
273 “The Idea of exterminating the Tories”: Ibid., 8:349-50.
In an open letter: Ibid., 8:349.
274 “[The] fortifications are so strong”: Ibid., 8:299-300.
275 “It is mortifying”: Ibid., 8:419-22.
“Had we not moved this way”: Ibid.
276 “The difficulties which you daily encounter”: Washington to Greene, June 1, 1781, PGW.
“Our army has been frequently beaten”: PNG, 9:41-42.
277 “I hope I have convinced the world”: Ibid.
277 “Your popularity”: Ibid., 8:494-98.
“would require a guard”: Ibid., 9:35-37.
278 Lafayette made it clear: Ibid., 9:172-74.
279 And he stayed in constant touch: Ibid., 8:446.
280 Stewart later noted: Ibid., 9:334.
281 A “most tremendous fire”: Ibid., 9:328-34.
As Greene monitored: Ibid.
284 He stated that . . . he had “left on the field of action”: Ibid.
It was ... “a most bloody battle”: Ibid., 9:358.
A British officer: Conrad, “Nathanael Greene and the Southern Campaigns,” 256.
285 Even before Eutaw Springs: PNG, 9:323.
“How happy I am”: Ibid., 9:429.
Congress . . . awarded him a gold medal”: Ibid., 9:520-21.
286 A congressional resolution: Lee, The Revolutionary War Memoirs of General Henry Lee, 474.
“How you have contrived”: PNG, 9:317-18.
“[Without] an army”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 381.
287 “This failure”: PNG, 9:408-10.
His friend James Varnum: Ibid., 9:501.
“I beg leave”: Ibid., 9:519.
288 “It was a happy fight”:Ibid., 9:507-9.
Chapter Thirteen:
Forging a Nation
289 “Oh, God!”: Commager and Morris, The Spirit of Seventy-six, 1244.
290 “Numbers of brave fellows”: PNG, 9:482-83.
Steuben, writing from Virginia: Ibid., 9:532-34.
The system worked: Ibid., 9:316.
These measures won the attention: Ibid.
“We are in the greatest distress”:Ibid., 9:606-7.
291 Greene asked North Carolina: Ibid., 9:559-61.
Among those advocating for Greene: Ibid., 9:313-15.
“The more I am in the Army”: Ibid., 9:559-601.
293 While patriots had “good reason to be offended”: Ibid., 9:452-54.
Greene recommended: Ibid., 9:456-58.
Although he held little regard: Ibid.
“We Military men:” Ibid.
294 “I am apprehensive”: Ibid., 10:61-62.
Washington was in Philadelphia: Ibid.
When Caty finally left Philadelphia: Ibid., 10:63.
295 “They . . . disgraced themselves”: Ibid., 9:649.
296 “I have the pleasure”: Ibid., 10:17.
“The natural strength of this country”: Ibid., 10:21-22.
297 Of a population: Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, 883.
Greene proposed that slaves: PNG, 10:21-23.
In a letter to Lighthorse Harry Lee: Ibid., 10:12-13.
The northern states: Ibid., 10:228-29.
298 Although Rutledge was a friend and ally: Conrad, “Nathanael Greene and the Southern Campaigns,” 308.
In the middle: PNG, 10:230fn.
“The northern people”: Ibid.
299 “This Country affords”: Ibid., 11:58.
300 “After almost two years absence”: Ibid., 11:60-61.
Greene blamed this injustice: Ibid.
“I act with decision”: Ibid., 11:100-1.
301 “The general has observed”: Ibid., 11:576.
Although she was not as desperately sick: Ibid., 11:577.
“We are very much indebted”: Ibid., 11:627-28.
302 But, he wrote: Ibid., 11:682-84.
In late September: Ibid., 11:709.
303 “It is with pleasure”: Ibid., 12:419-20.
“Every ear feels”: Ibid., 12:626-27.
304 “We have trod”: I am grateful to Elizabeth Stevens of the RIHS, an assistant editor of the Nathanael Greene Papers, who found this letter and shared it with me.
Chapter Fourteen:
Unfinished Business
308 “He was our boon companion”: Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty, 10.
He told the governor: PNG, 12:379-82.
He told Washington: Greene to Washington, Aug. 29, 1784, PGW.
309 “I tremble at my own situation”: Stegeman and Stegeman, Caty, 115.
309 He told an audience: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 422.
310 He told the Speaker: PNG, 12:478-79.
Greene told Robert Morris: Greene to Morris, Jan. 9, 1784, Nathanael Greene Papers, WCL.
He betrayed no sense: Greene, Life, 3:520.
In March 1784: Mifflin to Indian Commissioners, Mar. 6, 1784, Journals of the Continental Congress, Library of Congress.
311 The society was made up of former officers: Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, 229.
Washington fairly begged Greene: Washington to Greene, Mar. 20, 1784, PGW.
Greene did not let down: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 433.
He informed his lawyer: Greene to Robert Forsyth, Oct. 2, 1784, Nathanael Greene Papers, WCL.
his “honor and reputation”: Washington to Greene, May 20, 1785, PGW.
“The prospect is delightful”: Francis Vinton Greene, General Greene, 311.
312 “It is a busy time”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 441-42.
313 “I am overwhelmed”: Greene to Knox, Mar. 12, 1786, Henry Knox Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society.
314 “My dear General Greene”: Thayer, Nathanael Greene, 445.
314 “Your friend and second” : Francis Vinton Greene, General Greene, 313.
He told Jeremiah Wadsworth: Washington to Wadsworth, Oct. 22,1786, PGW.
“The sudden termination”: Francis Vinton Greene, General Greene, 315-16.
“As I am convinced”: Nathanael Greene papers, RIHS, ms. 985.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Manuscript Collections
Abeel, James. Papers. New Jersey Historical Society, Newark, N.J.
Bancroft Collection. Includes the papers of Francis Marion, Anthony Wayne, and documents relative to Rhode Island. New York Public Library, New York.
Continental Congress. Journals. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Cornwallis, Lord Charles. Papers. University of Vir
ginia, Charlottesville.
Friends minutes, 1751-1806. Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence.
Gates, Horatio. Papers. New-York Historical Society, New York.
Greene, Nathanael. Papers. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence; New York Public Library, New York; and William Clements Library, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Jefferson, Thomas. Papers. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Kentish Guard Papers. Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence.
Knox, Henry. Papers. Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass.
Quartermaster Papers. David Library of the American Revolution, Washington’s Crossing, Pa. Washington, George. Papers. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Published Primary Sources
Bartlett, John R. Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England. 10 vols. Providence, 1856-65.
Greene, Nathanael. The Papers of Nathanael Greene. Edited by Richard K. Showman and Dennis M. Conrad. 12 vols. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1976-2002.
Hamilton, Alexander. The Papers of Alexander Hamilton. Edited by Harold Syrett. 26 vols. New York: Columbia University Press, 1961-79.
Kimball, Gertrude Selwyn. The Correspondence of the Colonial Governors of Rhode Island, 1732-1175. 2 vols. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press (reprint), 1969.
Lee, Charles. Papers of Charles Lee. 4 vols. New York: New-York Historical Society, 1872-75.
Morris, Lewis. Letters of Lewis Morris. New York: New-York Historical Society, 1875.
Thompson, Theodora J., ed. The State Records of South Carolina: Journals of the House of Representatives. Columbia,: University of South Carolina Press, 1977.
Secondary Sources
Babits, Lawrence E. A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.
Boatner, Mark M. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 1994.
Bobrick, Benson. Angel in the Whirlwind. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Brookhiser, Richard: Founding Father. New York: Free Press, 1997.
Buchanan, John. The Road to Guilford Courthouse. New York: John Wiley, 1997.
Chidsey, Donald Barr. The Siege of Boston. New York: Crown, 1966.
Commager, Henry Steele, and Richard B. Morris, eds. The Spirit of Seventy-six. Edison, N.J.: Castle Books, 2002 (reprint).
Dann, John C, ed. The Revolution Remembered. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.
Edgar, Walter. Partisans and Redcoats. New York: William Morrow, 2001.
Fleming, Thomas: The Forgotten Victory: The Battle for New Jersey, 1780. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader’s Digest Press, 1973.
Flexner, James Thomas. George Washington in the American Revolution. Boston: Little, Brown, 1967.
Fischer, David Hackett. Washington’s Crossing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Freeman, Douglas Southall. George Washington: A Biography. 1 vols. New York: Scribner, 1948-57.
Gaustad, Edwin S. Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America. Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1999.
Greene, Francis Vinton. General Greene. Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1970 (reprint).
Greene, George Washington. The Life of Major General Nathanael Greene. 3 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1890.
Greenman, Jeremiah. Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1978.
Gutstein, Morris A. To Bigotry No Sanction. New York: Bloch, 1958.
Harvey, Robert. A Few Bloody Noses. Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2002.
James, Sydney V. The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 2000.
Ketchum, Richard M. Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1974.
———. The Winter Soldiers. New York: Henry Holt, 1973.
Knollenberg, Bernhard. Origin of the American Revolution. New York: Macmillan, 1960.
Langguth, A.J. Patriots. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
Leckie, Robert. George Washington’s War: The Saga of the American Revolution. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992.
Lee, Henry. The Revolutionary War Memoirs of General Henry Lee. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998 (reprint).
Lovejoy, David S. Rhode Island Politics and the American Revolution. Providence, R.I.: Brown University Press, 1958.
McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.
Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.
Morrill, Dan L. Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution. Mount Pleasant, S.C.: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America, 1993.
Schecter, Barnet. The Battle for New York. New York: Walker, 2002.
Scheer, George F., and Hugh F. Rankin. Rebels and Redcoats. Cleveland: World, 1967.
Simister, Florence Parker. The Fire’s Center: Rhode Island in the Revolutionary Era, 1763-1790. Providence: Rhode Island Bicentennial Foundation, 1979.
Stegeman, John F., and Janet A. Stegeman. Caty: A Biography of Catherine Littlefield Greene. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1977.
Symonds, Craig L. A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution. Baltimore, Md.: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company of America, 1986.
Thane, Elswyth. The Fighting Quaker: Nathanael Greene. Mattituck, N.Y.: Aeonian Press, 1972.
Thayer, Theodore. Nathanael Greene: Strategist of the American Revolution. New York: Twayne, 1960.
Van Doren, Carl, ed. The Portable Swift. New York: Penguin, 1948.
Wood, W.J. Battles of the Revolutionary War. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995.
Wright, Robert K., Jr. The Continental Army. Washington, D.C: Center of Military History, United States Army, 2000.
Unpublished Dissertations
Conrad, Dennis M. “Nathanael Greene and the Southern Campaigns, 1780-1783.” Duke University, 1979.
Tretler, David A. “The Making of a Revolutionary: General Nathanael Greene, 1742-1779.” Rice University, 1986.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Rhode Island Historical Society and the University of North Carolina Press began publishing the papers of Nathanael Greene in 1976. The project is ongoing. When the thirteenth and final volume is published, scholars of the Revolutionary period will have at their fingertips one of the era’s finest collections of primary documents. Without the work of the scholars and historians who collected Greene’s manuscripts from dozens of libraries, this biography could not have been written.
Thanks, too, to the staffs at the following institutions: the American Philosophical Society, the David Library of the American Revolution, Guilford Courthouse Military Park, Independence National Historical Park, Monmouth Battlefield State Park, Morristown National Historical Park, the New-York Historical Society, the New York Public Library, the New Jersey Historical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and Washington’s Crossing State Park.
Members of the Greene family, especially Thomas Casey Greene, welcomed me to the annual celebration of the general’s birthday in Rhode Island in 2003. It was heartwarming to see their reverence for their distinguished ancestor. On that occasion, Elizabeth Stevens of the Rhode Island Historical Society shared with me her discovery of the general’s final orders to his army before leaving the South in 1783.
Thanks, too, to Mike McLaughlin, Tom Fleming, and Richard Brookhiser for their help and encouragement.
As always, Arthur Carter, publisher of the New York Observer, and Peter Kaplan, the Observer’s editor, merit my gratitude and admiration.
Jack Macrae, my editor, is a wonderful storyteller and a serious scholar–his contribution to this book cannot be measured. His assistant, Supurna Banerjee, managed to create order out of chaos. Kenn Russell and copy editor Vicki Haire were a pleasure to work with.
My debt to John Wright can never be repaid. Likewise, my wife, Eileen Duggan, and our children, Kate and Conor.
INDEX
Abeel, James, 210
abolitionists, 298
Adams, Abigail, 61
Adams, John, 61-62, 130, 148, 155, 311
Continental army and, 55
Greene’s relationship and correspondence with, 84-85, 87, 88, 122-23, 128-29, 131, 135
Adams, Samuel, 36, 123, 155, 311
Adlum, John, 97, 98
Admiralty Courts, British, 26, 33
Alexander, William, see Stirling, Lord (William Alexander)
André, Captain John, 229, 230
Angell, Colonel Israel, 224
Apology for the True Christian Divinity, An (Barclay), 21
Aquidneck Island, 186
Armstrong, General John, 144
Arnold, Benedict, 5, 6, 65, 109, 132, 212, 227-28
attempted betrayal of West Point, 123, 225, 233, 282-30
British troops under command of, 244, 245, 263, 279
denied promotion to major general, 123
Saratoga and, 148
Arnold, Jacob, 210-11
Arnold, Thomas, 43
Augusta, Georgia, 274, 275
Balsto Iron Works, 203
Baltimore, Maryland, 305
Bancroft, George, 130
Banks, John, 308-309, 311, 313, 315
Barclay, Robert, 21
Barnabas Deane & Company, 203, 308
Basking Ridge, New Jersey, 105, 119, 121
Bell’s Mill, North Carolina, 254
Bernard, Francis, 50
Biddle, Colonel Nicholas, 162, 163, 171
blacks:
in the Continental army, 296-98, 300
all-black regiment from Rhode Island, 60, 185-86, 191, 296
slavery, Greene and, 309-10
Blackstone, Sir William, 23, 29
Blanchard, Claude, 242
Bon Homme Richard, 208
Boone, Thomas, 309, 310
Boone Barony (Greene’s South Carolina plantation), 298-99, 309-10, 315
Boston, 40-42
Boston Port Act, 40-41, 42
Gage’s tightening grip over, 44, 45
siege of, 1, 3, 47, 49, 52, 62-63, 64, 67, 70-71, 72-73, 78, 95
end of, 75-76
plans to end, 65-67, 74, 75, 134
Boston Tea Party, 40-41
