Carl Sandburg met Nathanael Greene when he read The Boys of 76 written by Charles C. Coffin. When he went to bed at night Carl wrapped himself in his blanket and dreamed of General Greeneoutwitting General Cornwallis and his troops in the southern campaign of the Revolutionary War.

When Nathanael Greene became a general at the age of thirty-three he was the youngest officer of that rank in the Continental Army. He had a quick mind, uncommon determination and was a born leader with total commitment to the cause of the American Colonies.

He was born in 1742 to Nathanael Greene and his second wife Mary Mott, in Warwick, Rhode Island about sixty miles south of Boston. The elder Greene was a prominent Quaker and businessman employing many workers. Because of his father’s Quaker beliefs the son didn’t receive an extensive education. He did read the Bible and developed his ideals and habits from these readings.

As a young man he formed a militia, the Kentish Guards, in 1774, and began to study military books which he purchased from a Boston bookseller, Henry Knox. Our county is named for the same Henry Knox. Greene was also elected to the General Assembly of Rhode Island for several terms.

In 1775 Greene was appointed a brigadier general by the Continental Congress. He was given command of Boston after the British evacuated in 1776. A year later he became a major general and was subordinate only to General Washington during campaigns in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

From 1778 to 1780 Greene served a Quartermaster General for the Continental Army during some of the darkest days of the American Revolution American.

In 1780 General Greene was given command of all American troops from Delaware to Georgia. The British led by General Cornwallis had captured the coastal cities of Charleston and Savannah. Previous American commanders had been unable to stop the British from advancing inland in the southern theater of the war.

Greene was well aware he didn’t have sufficient manpower ter challenge the British. His tactics were to fight and fade away. When the time and place were right he and his men would fight and win. Young Carl Sandburg relished the stories about the successful battles at King’s Mountain, Cowpens and Guildford Courthouse.

After the end of the war General Greene helped Georgia reestablish its civil government. The states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia gave General Greene land grants. He lived on one of the plantations given to him near Savannah. He sold the other land grants in order to buy food for his former comrades.

General Greene died at his Mulberry Grove Plantation on June 19, 1786. He was buried in Johnson Square, Savannah, Georgia. There are many cities, counties and parks across the country named for Nathanael Greene. As recently as 2015 a statue of General Greene was dedicated in Valley Forge National Military Park in Pennsylvania.