Nathanael Greene is the subject of one of the statues from Rhode Island that is in the National Statuary Hall collection that resides in the U.S. Capitol.
Born in 1742, Nathanael Greene was a descendent of early settlers of the colony of Rhode Island. Although he was born a Quaker, he was unable to follow its pacifist tradition. He felt the battle for independence was one he could not stay out of.
In 1774, Greene helped organize a local militia, chartered as the Kentish Guards. Soon after the battles of Lexington and Concord, he went to Boston to offer his services. He was made the commander of 1,600 men from Rhode Island with the rank of Major-General.
He met General George Washington, when Washington arrived to command the armies around Boston in July of 1775. A friendship was formed, and Greene would remain a trusted confidant of George Washington for life. Some historians believe General Greene’s loyalty to General Washington may well have affected the outcome of the Revolutionary War.
During the early days of the war for freedom, many men did not want to fight too far away from where they lived. Nathanael Greene agreed to fight wherever General Washington felt he was needed.
When the Continental Army was wintering at Valley Forge and supplies were severely lacking, Greene accepted the appointment by General Washington as Quartermaster-General, even though he wanted to continue contributing to the cause on the battlefield. He realized the dire importance of supplying the men with resources to battle, so he took on the mission assigned him by General Washington without complaint and was again a necessary asset to his friend General Washington.
General Nathanael Greene was appointed the commander at West Point by General Washington, which put him in the position to preside over the court which condemned Major John André to death on September 29, 1780 during the Benedict Arnold situation.
In December of 1780, General George Washington was given the duty of appointing a replacement general in the southern theater. Things had not been going well, Washington did not hesitate and chose General Nathanael Greene. The choice led to success in the war for freedom.
After the war, Nathanael Greene twice refused the post of Secretary of War, and settled in 1785 on his Georgia estate at Mulberry Grove.
Sadly, he did not live to see his good friend George Washington become the first president of the nation he battled so long and hard to free. Nathanael Greene died in June of 1786, at the age of 43, when he fell ill after a visit to a friend’s rice fields in Savannah.
Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read more in her series Statues: The People They Salute visit The Table of Contents and the Facebook Page. (I’ll be adding to the Substack Table of Contents as I transfer the Blog Posts. Please subscribe to this Substack 😊🇺🇸🤓)
I continue to be amazed at the courage and dedication our first Americans were to form and create our country. They are true examples of putting country first.