Nathanael Greene in DC's Stanton Park

David Shaw here with another off-the-record story. You want to learn more about Washington DC? Come visit my site offtherecordtours.com. Let's go. I'm here on Capitol Hill in Washington DC in Stanton Park. Stanton Park's named after Edwin Stanton, but you won't find a statue of him here, but you will find one of Nathaniel Green. Green was from a prosperous Quaker family in Rhode Island, and he is probably one of the most under-recognized figures from the revolutionary period. Green was an avid learner, but his interest in military affairs resulted in his expulsion from his Quaker meeting. Green was an overachiever. He joins the Continental Army as a private, and in less than a year, he's promoted to general. Green served under Washington in New England. He endured Valley Forge and served for a time as quartermaster. Washington was so impressed with Green, he made it known that if something were to befall him, he wanted Green to take his place as commander. Washington ordered Green to take over command of the Southern Army. There he used unconventional tactics to wear down the British. He divided his army and took the British on a wild goose chase through the South as they tried to catch him. Green knew the kind of war he was fighting. He said, we fight, we get beat, and we rise again to fight. Green's tactics in the South inflicted serious losses on the numerically superior British Army. Eventually, they leave the field. All across the South, you'll find counties named for Green. Green is broke at the end of the war. He used his own money to feed and supply his troops, and an unscrupulous middleman did not use the government funds he was given to pay the vendor, leaving Green on the hook for the entire bill. Because of these financial difficulties, he moves to the South after the war to try his hand on a plantation given to him by the state of Georgia. While he did speak against slavery earlier in his life, he did enslave people on his plantation. Green dies of sunstroke at age 43. Had he lived, his talent probably would have taken him to the same level as Alexander Hamilton. Green's wife, Katie, has an interesting story in her own right. Catherine Littlefield was born into a wealthy Rhode Island family. When war breaks out, Katie doesn't wait at home for her husband. She joins him in the field as much as possible, and legend has it that she was quite the flirt, and the troops loved her. She was not pleased about moving to the South, and the death of Nathaniel could have broken a lesser person, but Katie keeps the plantation going, and befriends a man named Eli Whitney, who, allegedly with Katie's help, invented the cotton gin on her plantation. Adjoining Stanton Park is the modest apartment of a man who would be president, and that and many other stories are part of my Hidden on the Hill tour. If you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes, please write them below, and don't forget to subscribe. Well, I hope you enjoyed that off-the-record story. If you want to learn more about Washington, D.C., things seen and unseen, arrange your tour of your nation's capital at offtherecordtours.com. Until then, I'm David Shaw.