GREENE, NATHANAEL 786), American gen eral, son of a Quaker farmer and smith, was born at Potowomut, in the township of Warwick, R.I., on Aug. 7 (not, as has been stated, June 6) , 1742. At Coventry, R.I., where he went in 177o, he was the first to urge the establishment of a public school. In the same year he was chosen a member of the legislature of Rhode Island, to which he was re-elected in 177i, 1772 and '775. He sympathized strongly with the Whigs and in 1774 joined the local militia. At this time he began to study the art of war. His zeal in attending to military duty led to his expulsion from the Society of Friends.
In 1775, in command of the contingent raised by Rhode Island, he joined the American forces at Cambridge, and on June 22 was appointed a brigadier by Congress. To him Washington assigned the command of the city of Boston after it was evacuated by Howe in March 17 76. On Aug. 9, 17 7 6 he was promoted to be one of the four new major generals and was put in command of the Continental troops on Long Island, but severe illness prevented his taking part in the battle of Long Island. Greene was placed in command of Ft. Lee, and on Oct. 25 succeeded Gen. Israel Put nam in command of Ft. Washington. Greene ordered Col. Magaw, who was in immediate command, to defend the place until he should hear from him again, and reinforced it to meet Gen. Howe's attack. Nevertheless, the blame for the losses of Fts. Washington and Lee was put upon Greene, but without his losing the confi dence of Washington, who assumed the responsibility. At Trenton Greene commanded one of the two American columns; he com manded the reserve at Brandywine, and was prominent in the bat tle of Germantown, though his troops arrived late.
At the request of Washington, on March 2, 1778, he accepted the office of quartermaster general (succeeding Thomas Mifflin), and succeeded with it as well as anyone could under the circum stances, meanwhile continuing to command troops in the field. In August he resigned the office of quartermaster general, after a struggle with Congress over the interference in Army Administra tion by the Treasury board. On Oct. 4 he succeeded Gates as com mander-in-chief of the Southern army, and took command at Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 2. The army was weak and badly equipped and was opposed by a superior force under Cornwallis. Greene decided to divide his own troops, thus forcing the division of the British as well. This strategy led to Gen. Daniel Morgan's victory of Cowpens, S.C., Jan. 17, 1781, and to the battle at Guil ford Court House, N.C., March 15, in which after having weak ened the British troops by continued movements, Greene was de feated indeed, but only at such cost to the victor that Tarleton called it "the pledge of ultimate defeat " Three days after this battle Cornwallis withdrew toward Wilmington. Greene allowed Cornwallis to march north to Virginia and then turned swiftly to the reconquest of the inner country of South Carolina. This, in spite of a reverse sustained at Lord Rawdon's hands at Hobkirk's Hill (April 25) he achieved by the end of June, the British retiring to the coast. Greene then gave his forces a six weeks' rest, and on Sept 8, with 2,600 men, engaged the British under Lieut. Col. James Stuart at Eutaw Springs; the battle, although tactically drawn, so weakened the British that they withdrew to Charleston, where Greene penned them during the remaining months of the war. Greene's Southern campaign showed remark able strategic features that remind one of those of Turenne, the commander whom he had taken as his model in his studies before the war. He excelled in dividing, eluding and tiring his opponent by long marches, and in actual conflict forcing him to pay for a temporary advantage a price that he could not afford.
South Carolina and Georgia voted Greene liberal grants of lands and money. On the Georgia estate, Mulberry Grove, 14m. above Savannah, he settled in 1785, after twice refusing (1781 and 1784) the post of secretary of war, and there he died of sunstroke on June 19, 1786.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. See the Life of Nathanael Greene (1867-71), by his Bibliography. See the Life of Nathanael Greene (1867-71), by his grandson, George W. Greene, and the biography (1893), by Brig. Gen. F. V. Greene, in the "Great Commanders Series." His letters are in the University of Michigan library.