Friend Greene
At Eutaw Springs the valiant died;
Their limbs with dust are covered o’er.
Weep on, ye springs, your tearful tide;
How many heroes are no more!
..........
Led by thy conquering genius, Greene,
The Britons they compelled to fly;
None distant viewed the fatal plain,
None grieved, in such a cause to die.
From Eutaw Springs, by Philip Freneau
It was at the Siege of Boston. The troops of the Colonies were raw and uncouth. They were camping separately. Washington was inspecting their camps for the first time. He saw that their shelters were made of anything the soldiers could lay hands on, turf, bricks, sail-cloth, boards, or brushwood. Each soldier seemed to live and do as he pleased.
But when Washington reached the camp of the Rhode Island troops, he perceived neat tents pitched, soldiers well drilled and equipped, and under perfect discipline. He was pausing to look around him with pleasure and approval, when a young officer, vigorous and finely built, stepped forward to greet him, his frank manly face beaming with a cordial welcome.
The young man was Nathanael Greene, Commander of the Rhode Island troops. It was he who had trained them, after studying the manœuvres of the British troops in Boston.
Nathanael Greene was born a Friend or Quaker. When a boy, he worked in his father’s forge, and helped on the farm.
He was eager to read. He got together a little library of his own. He studied hard. He liked best to read about military heroes. When he grew older, although he was a Friend, he joined the Rhode Island militia. Later he was appointed Rhode Island’s Commander, and led her troops to Bunker Hill and the Siege of Boston.
Washington liked and trusted him at first sight. Later his confidence became friendship.
At Valley Forge, Nathanael Greene gave up active duty in the field, much to his sorrow and regret, and became Quartermaster-General. He gave up his ambitions, in order to help Washington relieve the sufferings of the troops. As Quartermaster-General, he was soon able to supply them with some blankets, clothes, and food, all of which Congress had failed to deliver.
Later Greene’s reward of faithful service came. Washington appointed him Commander of the Army in the South. It was a post of great danger; but he conducted his military operations with such courage and sagacity that they led on to completed victory for the American arms at Yorktown.
This is what John Fiske says of Nathanael Greene:—
“The intellectual qualities which he showed in his southern campaign were those which have characterized some of the foremost strategists of modern times.... Nor was Greene less notable for the sweetness and purity of his character, than for the scope of his intelligence. From lowly beginnings he had come to be... the most admired and respected citizen of Rhode Island.”