Nathanael Greene

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donbosco

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Nathanael Greene is not a Tar Heel. I’d be proud and happy to claim him as a Native Son but he’s a Rhode Islander. He was also a Fighting Quaker, though a full understanding of how his relationship with that denomination changed due to his choosing a soldier’s life eludes me for the most part. In 1773 as ill will over acts of Parliament grew and colonists began to contemplate responses Greene was suspended from his Warwick, R.I. Meeting. In 1774 he participated in the creation of a local militia.

What I do understand is that ne’er will one find a more defined while complex and precisely followed faith than that of The Society of Friends. (That sentence alone indicates my own disquieted lack of understanding of this theology - but at least I know that I do not know.)

Greene is also the namesake of Greensboro. (That third ‘e’ has been lost in several of the places named for him for some reason) Greene was a autodidact militarily, learning by reading, yet generally considered the #2 strategist (after Washington) of The War for Independence. He was an original ‘outside the box’ thinker and the nature of his deployment of eager yet unreliable and untrained civilians in the Southern Campaign made the difference against the overall superior and more experienced British Regular army, especially at the Battles of Cowpens and as every Tar Heel learns, Guilford Courthouse. The crippling blows that Greene-led troops laid on British General Lord Cornwallis sent him reeling north where Washington and French allies could orchestrate the clamp down at Yorktown and the ultimate rebel victory and surrender.

There was a good bit of the Guerrilla in Greene in that he understood that Independence was a fight that required a totality of resistance incorporating the lay of the land, the fruits of the field, and a true measure of local hearts and minds. He kept these things at the forefront of his thinking, literally researching each, as he traversed the Carolinas, crafting his strategy to waylay General Cornwallis in the North Carolina backcountry. He brought a certain Yankee ingenuity to Piedmont Carolina at just the right time.

I remember very well being disappointed upon finding out Greene wasn’t a North Carolinian. Like a lot of folks that have migrated in though he taught us a thing or two and ultimately saved the day. We’d all do well to remember that lesson instead of the often seen and heard rejection of so-called outsiders and their ways and ideas.

As a Quaker at heart Greene was anti-slavery and it appears never purchased an enslaved person. He exited the War for Independence deeply in debt due to the application of his own money to supply his troops. Seeing his poverty, South Carolina and Georgia both bestowed upon Greene plantations albeit in highly contested territories off and on under the control of the British. Part of those parcels included enslaved men, women, and children. At the conclusion of the war, his property mainly exhausted in Rhode Island, Greene moved to his Georgia land. Soon after making his way there, on June 19, 1786 he died, reportedly of sunstroke. He was but 43.


#OTD (August 7) in 1742 Nathanael Greene was born in Potowomut, Rhode Island. Raised a Quaker, he chose to fight for Independence from Great Britain and was named the commander of the crucial Southern Campaign by Washington-his success at The Battle of Guilford Courthouse NC ousted the British army of Lord Cornwallis from region. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/august-07
 
GBoro being my hometown, I've been to that monument and battlefield many times over the years.

Back then the Continental Army had men from all over and they traveled as needed to fight, so not surprised he was not from NC. the local militias that formed the armies were of local men, but the officers were from all over.
 
Many don't know that Providence was a major slave market, and it was a really contested issue locally. The Brown family (of Brown U) were divided--one side were heavily invested in the slave trade, and the other side were Quakers. Until about ten years ago, the official name of the state was still Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

I haven't read much about Greene, so I really appreciate the OP, but I can imagine, in the spirit of Roger Williams and his breaking away from Mass Bay Colony to found a new colony, many Rhode Islanders felt like doing the right thing individually was more important than adhering to a strict code of expectations, religious or otherwise.
 
GBoro being my hometown, I've been to that monument and battlefield many times over the years.

Back then the Continental Army had men from all over and they traveled as needed to fight, so not surprised he was not from NC. the local militias that formed the armies were of local men, but the officers were from all over.
This isn't quite accurate. The Continental army, officers and men were from all over, while the local militia was usually just that. Local. The typical idea for battle was for the local militia to swell the ranks, maybe fire a volley or two to disrupt the British and then run away and typically kind of suck at fighting. This was actually by design later in the war and was used successfully at the Battle of cowpens before Guilford courthouse.

And that's only throwing a little shade at the local militia. They did kind of suck at fighting but for the most part, it was the first time any of them had seen battle and they were going up against a bunch of battle hardened Redcoats blasting at them with cannon and charging them with bayonets. That's going to be tough for anybody brand new.

The Continental army really did the bulk of the fighting and they were more permanent from all over. Some of the more notable units at the Battle of Guilford courthouse were the first delaware, the first and second Maryland and the first virginia.
 
Many don't know that Providence was a major slave market, and it was a really contested issue locally. The Brown family (of Brown U) were divided--one side were heavily invested in the slave trade, and the other side were Quakers. Until about ten years ago, the official name of the state was still Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.

I haven't read much about Greene, so I really appreciate the OP, but I can imagine, in the spirit of Roger Williams and his breaking away from Mass Bay Colony to found a new colony, many Rhode Islanders felt like doing the right thing individually was more important than adhering to a strict code of expectations, religious or otherwise.
You always hear Yankees talking about how Southerners were just a backwards slave holding people, but it's much less well known that every single one of the northern states/colonies allowed and practiced slavery at the time of the revolution. Although to their credit, they ended it almost 80 years earlier and without a million Americans dying.
 
This isn't quite accurate. The Continental army, officers and men were from all over, while the local militia was usually just that. Local. The typical idea for battle was for the local militia to swell the ranks, maybe fire a volley or two to disrupt the British and then run away and typically kind of suck at fighting. This was actually by design later in the war and was used successfully at the Battle of cowpens before Guilford courthouse.

And that's only throwing a little shade at the local militia. They did kind of suck at fighting but for the most part, it was the first time any of them had seen battle and they were going up against a bunch of battle hardened Redcoats blasting at them with cannon and charging them with bayonets. That's going to be tough for anybody brand new.

The Continental army really did the bulk of the fighting and they were more permanent from all over. Some of the more notable units at the Battle of Guilford courthouse were the first delaware, the first and second Maryland and the first virginia.


David McCullough does a good job of laying out this reality in his book, 1776.
 
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Ken Burns will be launching his latest epic documentary this fall on The American Revolution. My wife and I had a chance to hear him speak about it along with a 50 min video preview of the series. It will be a fun watch and will delve into some of this. 10 years in the making.
 
Ken Burns will be launching his latest epic documentary this fall on The American Revolution. My wife and I had a chance to hear him speak about it along with a 50 min video preview of the series. It will be a fun watch and will delve into some of this. 10 years in the making.


This interview with Burns is excellent (and about the documentary coming out soon).



 
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