Nathanael Greene Quotes

Nathanael Greene was a major general of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War . He emerged from the war with a reputation as commanding General George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer, and is known for his successful command in the Southern theater of the war.

Born in Warwick, Rhode Island, Greene was elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly and ran his family's foundry. He came to oppose British rule in Rhode Island and formed a militia in 1774. The Second Continental Congress appointed Greene to the rank of brigadier general in the Continental Army in 1775, and promoted Greene to major general in 1776. He served as Washington's subordinate in the New York and New Jersey campaign and the Philadelphia campaign, and was the Continental Army's Quartermaster General from 1778 to 1780.

In December 1780, Greene was appointed to command the Continental Army in the southern theater of the Revolutionary War, replacing General Horatio Gates. He engaged in a successful campaign to harass the British forces under General Charles Cornwallis, limiting British control of the South to the coastal areas. After the war, he declined appointment as Secretary of War under the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union central government and received land grants from the several Southern states. He died at age 43 at his Mulberry Grove Plantation in Chatham County, Georgia in 1786. Many places in the United States are named after Greene.

✵ 27. July 1742 – 19. June 1786
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Nathanael Greene Quotes

“Your Excellency's favor of the 21st came to hand the evening of the 25th.”

Nathanael Greene

Letter to George Washington (August 1778)

“The outguards report nothing worthy your Excellency's notice this morning.”

Nathanael Greene

Letter to George Washington (July 1776)

“I am determined to defend my rights and maintain my freedom or sell my life in the attempt.”

Nathanael Greene

As quoted in Conflict of conviction: a reappraisal of Quaker involvement in the American Revolution (1990), by William C. Kashatus, p. 45

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