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Rh of colonel, and was taken prisoner in the attack on Quebec, Dec. 31, 1775. On Oct. 22, 1777, while in command of Fort Mercer at Red Bank, on the Delaware, he sustained an attack from a large force of Hessians under Col. Donop, who were repulsed with great slaughter. For these services a sword was voted him by congress, which was presented in 1786 to his son, and a monument commemorative of the battle was erected in the neighborhood of Fort Mercer in 1829. Col. Greene lost his life in an encounter with a superior body of tory dragoons who had surprised his post. He killed several of the enemy with his own hand, but was finally overpowered.

GREENE, George Washington, an American author, born in East Greenwich, R. I., April 8, 1811. He is a grandson of Nathanael Greene, the revolutionary general. He was obliged by ill health to leave Brown university in his junior year in 1827, and resided from that time in Europe, with the exception of a few short visits home, till 1847. From 1837 to 1845 he was United States consul at Rome. Between 1835 and 1850 he published a series of essays in the "North American Review," which were collected in a volume entitled "Historical Studies" (New York, 1850). On his return to the United States he became instructor in modern languages in Brown university, and edited several text books, among which were a new tion of Pütz and Arnold's "Ancient Geography and History" (New York, 1849) and a "History and Geography of the Middle Ages" (1851). He furnished the life of Gen. Greene in Sparks's "American Biography," and afterward published separately a "Life of Nathanael Greene" (2 vols. 8vo, New York, 1867-'8). In 1860 he published a volume of "Biographical Studies;" in 1865 a "Historical View of the American Revolution;" and in 1866 a criticism of the account of Gen. Greene in Bancroft's history. In 1872 he was appointed non-resident professor of American history Cornell university.

GREENE, Nathanael, an American soldier, born Potowhommet, Warwick co., R. I., May 27, 1742, died near Savannah, Ga., June 19, 1786. His father had a farm and a forge, and was a leading preacher among the Quakers. Nathanael was trained to manual labor, but picked up more than ordinary knowledge of history, geometry, law, and moral and political science. In 1770 he was chosen a member of the general assembly for Coventry, whither he had removed to take charge of another forge; and from that time he took an active part in public affairs till the close of the war. He was the first to establish a public school in Coventry, and for engaging in military exercises was expelled from the society of Friends. In 1774 he joined the Kentish guards as a private. In July of the same year he married Catharine Littlefield of Block island, and in May, 1775, was appointed by the general assembly to command as brigadier general the Rhode Island contingent in the army before Boston. He joined his command at Roxbury on June 3, and from that time remained in active service without a day's furlough till the final disbandment of the army in 1783. At Boston his brigade was distinguished by its discipline, and he won the love and confidence of Washington from the beginning of their intercourse. After the evacuation of Boston he was intrusted with the defence of Long Island, but was stricken down by a fever a few days before the battle there. In September, 1776, he was made major general, and appointed to the command in New Jersey. At Trenton he led the division with which Washington marched in person, and with Knox was for following up the advantages of that brilliant surprise by advancing directly upon the other detachments of the enemy. He took an equal part in the battle of Princeton. At the Brandywine he commanded a division, and by a rapid march and successful stand preserved the army from destruction. At Germantown he commanded the left wing which penetrated into the village. On March 2, 1778, he accepted, at the urgent solicitation of Washington and the committee of congress, the office of quartermaster general, stipulating that he should retain his right to command in action. He held this position until August, 1780. At Monmouth, in 1778, he commanded the right wing. He took an active part in the attempt upon Newport, commanding the right wing in the battle of Tiverton heights. On June 23, 1780, he checked with two brigades and a small body of militia the advance of a corps of 5,000 of the enemy, in the brilliant battle of Springfield. He was in command of the army during Gen. Washington's visit to Hartford in September, 1780, when Arnold's conspiracy was discovered, and sat as president of the court of inquiry upon Major André. On Oct. 14 of the same year he was appointed to the command of the southern army, which he found on his arrival, Dec. 2, in a state of utter disorganization and want. On the 20th he advanced to a well-chosen camp on the banks of the Pedee, and began a series of operations which in less than a year stripped the enemy of nearly all their hard-won conquests in the Carolinas and Georgia, and shut them up in Charleston and its immediate neighborhood. The events of this year were the battle of the Cowpens, won by Gen. Morgan at the opening of the campaign; a brilliant retreat from the Catawba to the Dan; the return into North Carolina, in which Gen. Greene maintained his position for two weeks within striking distance of a superior enemy, in such a manner as both to avoid an engagement and cover the roads by which his reënforcements were coming; the battle of Guilford Court House, in which he lost the field, but gained the end for which he fought; the pursuit of Cornwallis to the Deep river; the daring advance into South Carolina; the battle of Hobkirk's hill, a second defeat followed by the results of victory; the