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American Revolution

General Nathanael Greene, Unlike Any Other

Anything But Greene...
This is the statue commemorating General Nathanael Green at the Guildford Courthouse National Battlefield.

Anything but Greene

Nathanael Green is one of those men that never made the top-tier in the history classes. Having died shortly after the war he never had the chance to take part in the founding or the early years of the republic. Still, he had such a huge impact in the execution of the war, and in his battles with Congress that we owe him a huge debt. He certainly was a Washington acolyte and Washington would always consider Greene one of his best. Even so far as to say that if anything ever happened to him, Greene would be his choice to replace him.

After the fall of Charleston in 1780 and the total defeat of General Gates at Camden later that year, the South looked lost and Washington knew of only one man who could save revolution in that region and he sent him with his prayers and little else.

The Natural

Greene was a natural at war. From the start he had a grasp of strategy that few in the fledgling Continental Army had and this served him well in the South. One example is his desire to know as much about the terrain as possible in the theater. Upon arriving in the region he immediately dispatched men to learn every river, every crossing, every trail and almost every tree and rock to the point where some locals even commented that he knew the area as if he had grown up there.

This knowledge would be invaluable to him during the “Race to the Dan” and would allow the army to stay in one piece.  Green dove into the aspects of the guerrilla war in the theater and used it to his advantage, understand when a small strike could gain the same effect as a major battle, but he also knew when the rules could be broken, such as dividing his army when needed.

The Artist

When it comes to operational artistry Greene again showed a natural ability. The main forces in the south fought more of a war of maneuver.  Whether it was Greene staying one step ahead of Cornwallis, or Cornwallis trying to catch Green. Both armies stayed constantly on the move.

It could almost be looked at like boxing; Green was against a stronger foe with more reach. He had to keep the army moving. Dancing as it were. Striking blows when he could and being careful to not get caught. Cornwallis knew that all he had to do was pin Greene down to a general engagement. Then the knockout would come. He was constantly outclassed and out maneuvered by Greene. In the classic underdog context, even when the battle was engaged at Guilford Courthouse, the British only won on points, held the field, but had to be helped out of the ring as Greene took the moral victory. In Greene’s own words, “”We fight, get beaten, rise, and fight again.”

The Bane of Cornwallis

So tenacious was Greene that General Cornwallis opted to move his army to Virginia, rather than face Green again. Eventually he would end up under siege in Yorktown and the war was won. Greene continued to fight in South Carolina. Constantly driving the British from the back country. Eventually only Charleston remained under their control. All of this without having won a single battle himself.

American Revolution

The Trees of Guilford Courthouse

Guilford Courthouse

The Trees of Guilford Courthouse

On March 18th, 1781 British General Cornwallis led his army against the Americans led by General Greene into battle at Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina. This was the largest battle fought between the two sides in the Southern Campaign and proved to be one of the most important battles of the American Revolution.

Which is weird because it was not an American victory. The British “won” the day and held the field, but Cornwallis‘s army was so devastated that he decided to stop chasing Greene and pull back to the Wilmington on the North Carolina coast for reinforcements and supply. Once there he decided it would be best to take the fight into Virginia. That decision led him to a little place called Yorktown, and we know how that ended.

One of the striking things about this battle is the ground over which it was fought. Most of the time when you picture battles of the Revolution you probably still think of them as old-fashioned.  “Two sides line up in an open field and shot at each other from real close”. Of course at the time many of the battles were fought like that. Even Guilford Courthouse started that way, but a large portion of the battle occurred in a forest. This made it difficult to form lines and concentrate fire. Inside this battle within a battle a bloody melee became the order of the day.

The View of the Field

The picture above is from the site of the battle at Guilford Courthouse which still maintains a very close feel to how it was back in 1781. Placed among the trees are several silhouettes that show you  it may have looked like during the height of battle. You have to imagine the plumes of smoke that would have obscured your vision as much as the trees..

 

American Revolution

A Little Bit Of Common Sense Goes A Long Way

Common Sense

Common Sense

Above is an actual copy of the pamphlet Common Sense written by Thomas Paine in 1776 that is on display at Guilford Courthouse. Now, in history class you have all heard about Common Sense and that it helped the cause of the American Revolution. But how?

Tensions between the Colonies and Great Britain had grown more and more tense, starting with the end of the Seven Years War in 1763 and finally culminating in the first shots being fired in April of 1775 when the revolution went from political to all out war.

With initial rush of adrenaline that followed the opening shots and Lexington and Concord, the movement became a torrent of support. Volunteers came to fight, farmers gave up the crops to feed the troops and formed the Continental Army.  Soon the British became bottled up in Boston. The siege began and went on into winter.

Once the war started however the rebels in the American Colonies had a fundamental issue that they all had to face how were they going to stand up to the greatest empires on the planet? How were they going to rally the people of the colonies to the cause? To win they needed the support of the people and they had to be able to explain to them what they were risking and why they were fighting.

Thomas Paine

Then came Thomas Paine and Common Sense. Up until this point the arguments for revolution had come from lawyers and doctors, academics and aristocrats. Paine however spoke to the people in common language. He showed them the stakes and what they might gain from the struggle. He put the revolution in terms that everyone could understand.

When published the people read Common Sense in taverns and at public gatherings. Washington had it read to all his troops. People purchased the pamphlet at an unmatched rate, even today. The colonies had a population of almost 3 million and almost 100,000 copies sold. To this day no other publication in the history of the country has reached that ratio. With the new understanding, the revolution found its footing and the people settled in for the long fight.

Paine donated all his royalties from the publication to the Continental Army.  He then joined and became a chronicler of the cause. Later, after the horrible defeat in New York he would go on to write An American Crisis, once again saving the cause with his pen.

I encourage everyone to read it. You can get here from Project Gutenberg for free Click Here.