General nathanael greene american revolution
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Who Served Here?
Nathanael Greene
Charles Wilson Peale, 1783
Nathanael Greene was born August 7, 1742 in Warwick, Rhode Island. The Greene family was among the earliest settlers in Rhode Island and had helped establish the colony in the 1630s. The Greenes were devout Quakers and his ancestor, John Greene Sr., settled in Rhode Island after conflict with the Puritans drove him from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Greene was an avid reader, eventually acquiring a large library. His father purchased a mill in Coventry for Nathanael to manage. He took an active part in community affairs and helped establish the first public school in Coventry. He also added books on military science to his library which he studied diligently.
This passion eventually drew disapproval from the uncompromisingly pacifistic Quaker church. When Greene attended a military parade and showed support for armed rebellion against England, he was expelled from his church. Greene remained a devout Quaker for the rest of his life, and struggled to reconcile Quaker admonitions against warfare under any circumstances with his support for and participation in the War for American Independence.
Portrait of Catherine Littlefield Greene
James Frothingham (attrib), 1809
In 1770, Nathanael was elected to th
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Nathanael Greene
Nathanael Greene’s rise to prominence as one of the most skilled and celebrated generals of the American Revolution appears unlikely based upon his early life. Greene was born to a devout Quaker family in Rhode Island in August of 1742. Greene had a deep interest in education, a characteristic frowned upon by the Society of Friends. In July 1773, the local Quaker meeting dismissed Greene for being caught in a "house of public resort".
As relations between Great Britain and her North American colonies spiraled toward armed conflict, Greene helped establish a local militia unit, the Kentish Guards. A visible limp prevented Greene from joining the Guards. The Rhode Island Assembly, however, commissioned Greene a Brigadier General in the newly formed Army of Observation which marched to Boston following Lexington and Concord.
Greene’s early military career insured that the Continental Congress never regretted its decision to promote him. After the Siege of Boston in 1776, Greene proved to be an able commander when he took command of the city upon the British retreat. However, the young general’s career was not without blemish: during the New York Campaign, he lost Forts Washington and Lee. Although racked by guilt