Washington's General

ALSO BY TERRY GOLWAY

So Others Might Live

The Irish in America

For the Cause of Liberty

Irish Rebel

Full of Grace

WASHINGTON'S GENERAL

WASHINGTON'S GENERAL

Nathaneal Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution

Terry Golway

Henry Holt and Company, LLC
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New York. New York 10011

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is a registered trademark of
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Copyright © 2005 by Terry Golway
All rights reserved.
Distributed in Canada by H. B. Fenn and Company Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
    Golway, Terry. 1955
            Washington's general: Nathanael Greene and the triumph of the
        American Revolution / Terry Golway.—1st ed.
                 p. cm.
        “A John Macrae book.”
        Includes bibliographical references and index.
        ISBN-13: 978-0-8050-7066-8
        ISBN-10: 0-8050-7066-4
       1. Greene, Nathanael, 1742-1786. 2. Generals—United States—Biography.
   3. United States. Continental Army—Biography. 4. United States—History—Revolution,
   1775-1783—Campaigns. I. Title.

   E207.G9G65 2005
   973.3'3'092 dc22
   [B]                                                                             2004052259

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First Edition 2005

Designed by Paula Russell Szafranski Map art © 2004 David Cain

Frontispiece:
Nathanael Greene,
by Charles Willson Peale, from life, 1783, courtesy of Independence National Historical Park

Printed in the United States of America

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

For John Wright and Rita Kerrigan

  
1.      
The Quaker General

  
2.      
A Downright Democracy

  
3.      
The Making of a Rebel

  
4.      
An Uncommon Degree of Zeal

  
5.      
The Dark Part of Night

  
6.      
Victory or Death

  
7.      
The Cries of the People

  
8.      
Low Intrigue

  
9.      
“It Wounds My Feelings”

10.      
“0, This War!”

11.      
'The Prospect Is Dismal”

12.      
Victory

13.      
Forging a Nation

14.      
Unfinished Business

            
Notes

            
Bibliography

            
Acknowledgments

            
Index

Even in an army filled with inexperienced officers and citizen soldiers, Nathanael Greene was an unlikely warrior. He walked with a slight limp, possibly the result of a childhood accident. He was reared in Rhode Island as a Quaker, the son of a devout family that loathed war. His formal education ended once he learned to read and write. His first taste of war came during the siege of Boston in 1775—and he already was a general.

How and why Nathanael Greene, merchant, ironmaster, and only lately a fervent patriot, came to command Rhode Island's little army in 1775 remains one of the great mysteries of the American Revolution. Many others in that rebellious colony had more experience and training, including some friends of his. Until he donned the epaulets of a general officer, he was a private in a local militia called the Kentish Guards. His presence in the ranks was notable, but not for any evident leadership skills. Rather, he stood out because of his limp. His comrades and friends were mortified as Greene spoiled the splendid, uniform look of
their parades on the village green of East Greenwich, near his home in Coventry.

It's possible that Greene's overnight promotion from private to general was a tribute to his family's political connections, which were considerable. Or perhaps the Rhode Island legislators who commissioned him were impressed with the force of his personality, which was formidable. Whatever the case, Nathanael Greene became general of the Rhode Island Army of Observation in May 1775 before he ever heard the roar of a cannonade, experienced the shock of an enemy assault, or tried to pierce the fog of war.

The appointment had consequences for the army and for the nation that Rhode Island's lawmakers could not have imagined. Had he not been given command of his home colony's troops, he very likely would not have become the Continental army's youngest brigadier general. And if he were not a brigadier, he would not have come to George Washington's attention so early in the war, if ever.

Perhaps. But then again, Nathanael Greene was a young man determined to make a name for himself. He had not left behind a successful business and a charming bride to become just another officer in a ragtag army. Greene was a fervent patriot, but he was an ambitious man, too. Insecure and sensitive to criticism, and yet not a modest man, he longed for fame and yearned for fortune. The war offered a chance at both, and he seized the opportunity. By July 1776, this thirty-three-year-old military neophyte was one of George Washington's most important advisers. Barely a year removed from civilian life, Greene was given the task of defending New York City during the summer of 1776 as a huge British task force prepared to invade Long Island and crush the Revolution in its infancy. That appointment, at so critical a time for the fledgling nation and its army, was a testament to Greene's leadership abilities and his self-taught grasp of military tactics and strategy. It also was a reflection of Washington's trust in this young man he barely knew. And his place in the army's leadership demonstrated that the years he spent schooling himself in the art of war, furtively reading military classics by Julius Caesar
and Frederick the Great in violation of his family's pacifism, were well spent.

In becoming one of the Continental army's greatest soldiers, Nathanael Greene personified the power and potential of the new American idea–especially its rejection of the Old World's aristocratic governments and equally aristocratic military commanders, and its embrace of merit and virtue as society's ultimate arbiters. While the Greenes of Rhode Island were not without political influence, Nathanael Greene was hardly the sort of man who might hold an impressive title in the British army, as did his future antagonist, the well-educated, wellborn Lord Charles Cornwallis. Indeed, during Greene's long service from the war's beginning to its triumphant and unlikely end, this self-taught amateur fought many bitter battles against two symbols of the Old World: Cornwallis, a professional soldier, and Baron Wilhelm von Knyphausen, a commander of mercenaries who knew no loyalty other than to war. These opponents, who fought Greene in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas, represented all that the American Revolution opposed: inherited power, unearned titles, and imperial militarism. Nathanael Greene spoke for the New World notions of a citizen soldiery and a merit-based society.

While his appointment as Rhode Island's general remains a puzzle, his rise in the Continental army is not. His grasp of military strategy, his competence, his organizational skills, and his persistence in defeat led Congress to promote him quickly from brigadier to major general. Washington's appreciation for Greene's talents was such that on at least two occasions, fellow officers and politicians described Greene as the commander in chief's favorite officer, as the man Washington had designated to succeed him if he were killed or captured. There is no documentary evidence to suggest that Washington had such a succession in mind, but he did hear the gossip about his relationship with Greene, and he never denied it.