Pocket Bios' S2E5： Nathanael Greene

Please become a Patron in order to keep Pacify free and subscribe for more Pacify videos. Nathaniel Green was born on August 7, 1942, on Ford's Farm at Pocahontas in the township of Warren, Rhode Island, British America. He was the second son of a prosperous Quaker merchant and farmer. Due to religious beliefs, Green's father discouraged book learning as well as dancing and other activities. Nonetheless, Nathaniel convinced his father to hire a tutor, and he studied mathematics, the classics, law, and various works of the Age of Enlightenment. At some point during his childhood, Green gained a slight limp that would remain with him for the rest of his life. In 1770, Green moved to Coventry, Rhode Island to take charge of a family-owned foundry, and he built a house in Coventry called Spell Hall. Later in the year, Green and his brothers inherited the family's business after their father's death. In July 1774, Green married the 19-year-old Catherine Littlefield. Green and Catherine's first child was born in 1776, and they had six more children between 1777 and 1786. After the French and Indian War ended, the British Parliament began imposing new policies designed to raise revenue from British North America. After British official William Duncan seized a vessel owned by Green and his brothers, Green filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against the Dutch government for damages. Green became increasingly alienated from the British government. In 1774, after passage of the revenue-raising measures like colonialism, provided as an intolerable act, Green helped organize a local militia known as the Kentistrat. Because of his limp, Green was not selected as an officer of this militia. The American Revolutionary War broke out with the April 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord. In early May, the Legislature of Rhode Island established the Rhode Island Army of Observation and appointed Nathaniel Green to command it. The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army and appointed George Washington to command all of Boston. In addition to Washington, Congress appointed 16 generals, and Green was appointed as a Brigadier General in the Continental Army. The Siege of Boston continued until March 1776 when British forces evacuated the city. After the end of the siege, Green briefly served as the commander of the military forces in Boston, but he rejoined Washington's army in April 1776. General Washington established his headquarters in Manhattan, and Green was tasked with preparing for the invasion of the nearby Rhode Island. While he focused on building up fortifications in Brooklyn, Green befriended General Henry Knox and struck up a correspondence with John Adams. He was also, along with several other individuals, promoted to Major General by an act of conduct. Because of a severe fever, he did not take part in the Battle of Rhode Island. During the withdrawal from Manhattan, Green saw combat for the first time in the Battle of Harlem Heights. After the Battle of Harlem Heights, Washington placed Green in command of the New Jersey Fort of Constitution and the New York Fort of Washington, giving him both sides of the Hudson River. Shortly after the Battle of Fort Washington, a British force under General Cornwallis captured Fort Constitution and the Continental Army began a retreat across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. Green commanded part of Washington's army in the December 1776 Battle of Princess and the January 1777 Battle of Princes, both of which were victories for the Continental Army. In March 1778, Green reluctantly accepted the position of Quartermaster General, making him responsible for procuring supplies for the Continental Army. As Quartermaster General, Green continued to attend Washington's Councils of War, an unusual arrangement for a staff officer. After France joined the war in early 1778, the British Army in Philadelphia was removed from New York. Along with MAD, Anthony Wayne, and the Martinis de Lafayette, Green re-commanded an attack on the British force while it retreated across New Jersey from New York. Major General Green commanded a division in the subsequent Battle of Monmouth, which, after hours of fighting, ended in a brawl. In July 1778, Washington granted Green temporary leave as Quartermaster General so that he could take part in an attack on British forces stationed in his home state of Rhode Island. Green fought in the subsequent Battle of Rhode Island, an inconclusive battle that ended with a British retreat from the American position. After the battle, the American force under General Sullivan left Rhode Island, while Green returned to his duties as Quartermaster General. By October 1780, the Continental Army had suffered devastating defeat in the South under the command of General Lincoln and his elite, leaving the state at a major disadvantage in the Southern Theater of War. On October 14, 1780, General Washington, acting on the authorization of Congress, appointed Major General Green as the commander of the Southern Department of the Continental Army. Green would face a 6,000-man British army led by General John Walsh and Cavalry Commander Banashti Talaqan, as well as meeting his loyalist militias that worked with the British. Green settled on a strategy of guerrilla warfare rather than pitched battles in order to prevent the events of the British invasion of North Carolina and Virginia. Among Green's key supporters in the Southern Campaign were his second-in-command, Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Cavalry Commander Henry Lee, the Marquis de Lafayette, Daniel Morgan, and Francis Marion. Upon arriving in Charlotte on a carillon in December 1780, Green went against conventional military strategy by dividing his forces. In the January 1780 Battle of Taupin, Morgan led Continental troops to a major victory that resulted in the near-total destruction of Charlottetown's forces. Green linked up with Morgan and retreated into North Carolina, purposely forcing Cornwalls away from the British supply lines. On February 9th, Green decided to continue to retreat north, heading toward the Dan River at the North Carolina-Virginia border. Unwilling to travel even further from the supply lines, General Cornwalls led his army south to Hillsboro, North Carolina. On February 22nd, Green's forces crossed back over the Dan River to challenge Cornwalls in North Carolina. After crossing back into North Carolina, Green harassed Cornwalls' army. In early March, he received reinforcements from North Carolina and Virginia, doubling the size of his force to approximately 4,000 men. On March 14th, he led his army to Guilford Courthouse and began preparing for an attack by Cornwalls. After skirmishes on the morning of March 15th, Mayweather's force launched a full attack in the afternoon, beginning the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. With his army's left flank collapsed, Green ordered a retreat, bringing the battle to an end. Although the Battle of Guilford Courthouse ended with an American retreat, the British suffered substantially greater losses. To Green's surprise, in late April, Cornwalls' force began a march north from Yorktown, Virginia. Rather than follow Cornwalls, Green headed south, where he challenged British Commander General Francis Logan for control of South Carolina and Georgia. On April 20th, he began a siege of Camden, South Carolina, and established a camp at a nearby ridge known as Top Turf Hill. By the end of June, the British took little more than a thin strip of coastal land from Charleston to Havana. After wrestling through much of July and August, the Continental Army resumed operations and seized the British force on September 8th at the Battle of Utah Springs. The battle ended with the Continental's retreat, but the British suffered more substantial losses. After the battle, the British force continued to Charleston, leaving confused South Carolina in full control of the Continental forces. Nonetheless, the British still controlled New York City, New York, Havana, Georgia, and Charleston, North Carolina, and Green still contended with loyalist militias who sought to destabilize Continental control. No major military action occurred from June 8th, and the British evacuated Havana, Georgia, and Charleston, North Carolina, until the end of the year. Congress officially declared the end of the war in April 1783, and Green resigned his commission in late 1783. After resigning his commission, and standing up in the presence of Newport, Carolina, facing his large amount of debt, he relocated to the South to focus on plantations he had been awarded during the war, and he made his home at the Mulberry Grove Plantation outside of Savannah, Georgia. Green fell ill on June 12th, 1786, and he died at Mulberry Grove on June 13th, 1786. At the age of 43, for over a century, his remains were anchored at the Grand Vault in Colonial Park, Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah. On November 14th, 1915, his remains were moved to the monument in Johnson Square, Savannah, Georgia.