General Nathanael Greene’s Rise to the Commander of the Southern Army

General Nathanael Greene’s Rise to the Commander of the Southern Army

Jeremy Penick

History 4010: Colonial/Revolutionary Periods

Dr. Dollar

November 30, 2016

Nathanael Greene was a normal colonist who was born and raised in Rhode Island to a Quaker preacher and by trade was an anchor smith. With his Quaker raising, he did not receive higher education until his late teens. His father did not approve of his son’s thirst for knowledge, however he did not deny it because his son had acquired a man’s stature in society due to his travels to Newport. Also, Nathanael always managed his time well with reading and working at the mill and forge, therefore not giving his father a reason to have stopped him. Before the idea of revolution entered the colonist’s minds, he had acquired an extensive library with over 200 books on works including history, government, philosophy, literature, law, religion, science, mathematics, navigation, and the rules of trade. He added books about war written by Jonathan Swift, Marshal Saxe, and Marshal Turenne. Every book he read prior to enlisting into the Rhode Island Army helped him become what Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1822, “Second to no one in enterprise, in resource, in sound judgement, promptitude of decision, and every other military talent.”^[1] 

Nathanael was part of a group that got together to form a volunteer militia in Rhode Island which they called the Kentish Guards. Nathanael’s initial plans for the Kentish Guards, one of the best volunteer organizations in New England, was to hire a drillmaster. He chose to hire William Johnson, a British Army deserter, to train the Guardsmen three times a week. Johnson agreed to drill them as if they were raw recruits for the British Army themselves including the marching beat of “The English Duty.”^[2] Surprisingly, Nathanael Greene was not given a commission in the Kentish Guard only because he had a limp in one leg due to either his work in the forge or an injury during childhood. Greene thought about resigning but would continue to give his support in hopes that one of his friends would not resign from a position of Captain. He chose to stay in the Guard as a Private even though it stung his pride.

What was crazy upon itself was the fact that Private Greene was promoted to brigadier general to command Rhode Island’s freshly made Army of Observation after The Rhode Island Assembly voted to raise a brigade of three regiments consisting of 1,500 soldiers. Almost immediately Brigadier General Greene started the work of getting his new army of soldiers prepared for anything that the British could possibly throw at them by having them properly drilled and equipped. Greene spent £20,000, that the assembly had set aside for him, on buying everything an army needs to exist and function properly.^[3] Before his troops marched off to Cambridge, Greene made sure each soldier was given a month’s pay, a knapsack, and a blanket.^[4] Upon his arrival to Cambridge, Greene was escorted to the headquarters of General Ward and he asked to serve under him. General Ward accepted his offer and placed him under the command of General Thomas who oversaw the right wing. Under General Thomas Greene’s army was in the most exposed and important sector of the American lines during the Siege of Boston.^[5] The Rhode Island Army stood out like a sore thumb since their camp had the exact taste of the English.^[6] 

Greene was not with his army when the Battle of Bunker Hill began since he was conferring with the Committee of Safety about shortages of supplies to his army. However as soon as he heard word of the battle he rode all night to his camp. He arrived as the British managed to take Bunker Hill. After learning of the battle, General Greene considered the battle as an American victory because of the number of British casualties versus American casualties. The British casualties consisted of 828 wounded and 226 killed along with several officers killed, meanwhile the American losses were less than 500.^[7] 

Forty-three-year-old George Washington was appointed commander in chief and formally took command of the American army Monday, July 3, 1775 in Cambridge. Next Congress appointed four major generals and eight brigadier generals which granted Nathanael Greene yet another promotion into the Continental Army.^[8] The eleven-month siege ended shortly after the Continental Army was created with the British leaving Boston without being harassed and dropping anchor just shy of the American cannon’s range while they were evacuating the city. General Washington put General Greene in charge of Boston while taking count of all the supplies that the British left in the city. After the ten-day evacuation the British headed out to sea and sailed to Halifax to wait for their reinforcements. Even though Greene’s part in the Siege of Boston was nothing glorious, his value was recognized by all including General Washington. General Washington had enough confidence in Greene that he had placed him in two rather prominent roles later in the war.^[9] 

Even with such praise and recognition that General Greene was a brilliant general did not mean he never made mistakes. One of his largest mistakes was that of persuading General Washington that he and Colonel Magaw could hold Fort Washington without failure. To Greene’s utter dismay Fort Washington fell with a loss of 2,800 American men and several officers captured. ^[10] Greene expressed his feelings of the after math in a letter to his dearest friend, Henry Knox, “I feel mad, vexed, sick, and sorry, …”^[11] Two years later, Greene wrote why he believed the fort fell in the manner that it did, “There was men enough there to have defended themselves against all the British army, had they not been struck with a panic, but being most of them irregular troops, they lost all their confidence when the danger began to grow pressing, and so fell a prey to their fears.”^[12] After the fall of Fort Washington, General Washington lost some faith in General Greene. Greene was appointed Quartermaster General of Washington’s Army in 1778.^[13] However, his hard work as the Continental Army’s Quartermaster, he regained Washington’s trust to where he was appointed control of the Southern Army.