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Tli LIFE

OF

N VNAEL

iENEBA^

" \fter this manner soid they," who h^ «een hir nor saw 1

THE LIFE

OF

NATHANAEL GREENE

Major-General in the Army of the Revolution.

BY

GEORGE WASHINGTON GREENE,

AUTHOR OF "historical VIEW OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.'

'li; <}>a.(Tav, ot ixiv ISovTo novevfievov ' ov yap eyiuye 'HtTTjo'' ovSi ISov • Trepi &' dAAwv <f>0UTl yevicrBai.

Iliad iv. 374.

"After this manner said they, who had seen him toiling ; but I ne'er Met him myself, nor saw him : men say he was greater than others."

IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I.

NEW YORK:

G. P. PUTNAM AND SON,

1867.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by

ANXA M. GREENE,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of New York.

University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co.,

CA.MDRIDGE.

TO

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.

My dear Longfellow,

Thirty-nine years ago this month of April, you and I were together at Naples, wandering np and down amid the wonders of that histor- ical city, and, consciously in some things and un- consciously in others, laying up those precious associations which are youth's best preparation for age. We were young then, with life all be- fore us ; and, in the midst of the records of a great past, our thoughts would still turn to our own future. Yet, even in looking forward, they caught the coloring of that past, making things bright to our eyes, which, from a purely American point of view, would have worn a different aspect. From then till now the spell of those days has been upon us.

One day — I shall never forget it — we returned

IV DEDICATION.

at sunset from a long afternoon amid the statues and relics of the Museo Borbonico, Evening was coming on with a sweet promise of the stars ; and our minds and hearts were so full that we could not think of shutting ourselves up in our rooms, or of mingling with the crowd on the Toledo. We wanted to be alone, and yet to feel that there was life all around us. We went up to the flat roof of the house, where, as we walked, we could look down into the crowded street, and out upon the wonderful bay, and across the bay to Ischia and Capri and Sorrento, and over the house-tops and villas and vineyards to Vesuvius. The ominous pillar of smoke hung suspended above the fatal mountain, reminding us of Pliny, its first and noblest victim. A golden vapor crowned the bold joromontory of Sorrento, and we thought of Tasso. Capri was calmly sleep- ing, like a sea-bird upon the waters ; and we seemed to hear the voice of Tacitus from across the gulf of eighteen centuries, telling us that the historian's pen is still powerful to absolve or to condemn long after the imperial sceptre has fallen from the withered hand. There, too, lay the na- tive island of him whose daring mind conceived the fearful vengeance of the Sicilian Vespers. We did not yet know Niccolini ; but his grand

DEDICATION. V

verses had already begun their work of regen- eration in the Italian heart. Virgil's tomb was not far off. The spot consecrated by Sannaz- zaro's ashes was near us. And over all, with a thrill like that of solemn music, fell the splen- dor of the Italian sunset.

We talked and mused by turns, till the twilight deepened and the stars came forth to mingle their mysterious influences with the overmaster- ing magic of the scene. It was then that you unfolded to me your plans of life, and showed me from w^hat " deep cisterns " you had already learned to draw. From that day the office of literature took a new place in my thoughts. I felt its forming power as I had never felt it before, and began to look with a calm resigna- tion upon its trials, and with true appreciation upon its rewards. Thenceforth, little as I have done of what I wished to do, literature has been the inspiration, the guide, and the comfort of my life. And now, in giving to the world the first, perhaps the only, work for which I dare hope a life beyond my own, the memory of those days comes back to me, and tells me that, loving me still in the fulness of your fame as you loved me in the hour of aspiration, you will not be unwilling to see your name united with mine

VI DEDICATION.

upon these pages, which but for your counsel and your sympathy would never have been written.

Ever, my dear Longfellow,

Faithfully and affectionately yours,

GEORGE WASHINGTON GREENE.

East Greenwich, R. I., April 3, 1867.

PKEFACE

1"^HE intention of -writing this work was formed in - early youth, and has been kept constantly in view through the checkered fortunes of maturer years. The plan has often changed under the influence of a wider study of books, and a more extensive observation of men. The purpose has never lost the hold which it first took upon my youthful imagination.

I was born and grew up in the midst of men and women who had known my grandfather as a public and a private man, and seen him in all the various relations of life. In my seventeenth year I became the inmate of the house of one of his dearest friends. General Lafayette. Among all who had known him I found but one opinion both of his greatness and his goodness, of the vigor and depth of his mind, of the warmth and purity of his heart.

In 1846 I wrote, at the request of Mr. Sparks, the Life which forms the tenth volume of the second series of his American Biography. I wrote it at Rome, from the com- mon printed authorities, and, as I expressly stated, not as the result of my studies, but as an earnest of what I some day hoped to do with Greene's letters before me. On my return to the United States I received from my cousin, Phineas Miller Nightingale (second son of General Greene's eldest daughter, Martha Washington) the family papers which had passed into his hands, and began a careful study

VIU PREFACE.

of mj subject in these authentic documents. Every page that I read confirmed my original opinion, and strength- ened my first intention. I resolved that nothing should prevent me from telling the full story of my grandfather's life, and claiming for him the gratitude Avhich is his due from all generations of his countrymen.

The life of General Greene falls by a natural diA-ision into two parts ; the first of which is strictly biographical, the second historical. In the first, his position is that of a subordinate officer, who, whatever influence he may exert, is never the acknowledged source of controlling movements. Events do not revolve around him as their common centre. His actions are parts of the actions of other men. However just his views, he cannot enforce them without the consent of an official superior. How- ever well done all that he does may be, the narrative of it, if confined to that alone, would leave half of the story untold. Such was Greene's public hfe, from 1775 to his appointment to the command of the Southern army in October, 1780.

From that moment his life becomes history, — the history of the Carolinas and Georgia. Military movements origi- nate with him. The restoration of ci%nl government de- pends upon the success of his arms. The resources of the country are draAvn forth and administered by his will. If you would understand events, you must seek the expla- nation of them in his letters and reports. Battles and sieges and marches are parts of the general plan which he conceived, and dependent for their historical importance upon the measure in which they contributed to the ac- complishment of that plan. This fundamental difference

PREFACE. IX

of character requires a corresponding difference of treat- ment.

Therefore, in the first part of this work Greene's thoughts and feehngs, the growth of his mind and the for- mation of his character, compose the picture. The war is the frame in which it is set. Of him I have told all that I could learn ; of the war, only so much as was necessary in order to understand the part which he took therein. Of the story of these five years Washington is the representative hero. The other generals are grouped around him in due subordination. First and nearest to him of all stands Greene, with Washington's "great arm leaning upon him." No one will read these volumes of mine who has not already made himself familiar with the general history of the war, either in the careful pages of Sparks or the charming narra- tive of Irving. No American can feel that he has done his duty to himself or his country who has not read both.

In my first two volumes I have drawn freely from General Greene's correspondence, inserting many letters entire, and giving copious extracts from others. But while I have still made this correspondence the basis of my third volume also, I have used it rather as the mate- rial from which my narrative was to be woven than as a narrative in itself. The psychological study was already complete. The character of the General was already formed before he took the command of the Southern army, as the character of the man was formed before he took command of the Rhode Island army of observation. From what he had already done it was easy to conjecture what he would do. Every report of a new step in the reconquest of the South came to Washington not merely

X PREFACE.

as welcome tidings, but as a fulfilment of expectations. " I think I am sending you a general," he had written, when he aimounced Greene's appointment to a Southern cor- respondent. " This brilliant manoeuvre is another proof of the singular abilities which that officer possesses," he wrote, when the " report of the judicious and successful movement of General Greene, by which he compelled the enemy to abandon their outposts,"* reached him. Therefore, while Greene is kept almost exclusively in view througli the first two volumes, in the" third other characters are brought prominently forward, who hold somewhat of the same relation to him which he held to Washington. The canvas is more crowded, and he, in turn, becomes the central figure of a noble group.

I trust that I shall not be suspected of indulging a puerile vanity, if I claim for Greene's family a different position from that which lias been assigned them by pre- vious historians. To my conception of personal dignity, it is a matter of absolute indifference whether General Greene's ancestors were men of fortune or day-laborers ; whether his father aided the work of his brain by the work of his hands, or passed his life in guiding and con- trolling the work of other men. But, as a Iiistorical fact, I have thought it my duty to say, that, from the first emi- grant downward, the Greenes filled prominent and im- portant positions in public life ; that the branch from which the General sprang was early engaged in manufac- tures and farming, upon a scale which implies the com- mand of wliat must, in those days, have been a large capital ; and that the General's father devoted the chief * Sparks's Washington, Vol. VIII. p. 241.

PREFACE. XI

of his time to the utilization of that capital. In colonial life there is no room for idle men or women, and habits of industry and thrift were laid deep in the founda- tions of the Colony of Rhode Island. It was no espe- cial merit of the Greenes that their industry had been fruitful, but it would have deprived them of all claim to the respect of their contemporaries, if, while all around them labored, they alone had been idle. In a country so full of life and future as ours, where the merit of the father is a pledge instead of an inheritance, and events and actors follow each other with such rapidity that the link between the present and the past seems constantly to be slipping from our grasp, family pride has but a thin and barren soil to grow in. But while blood carries with it no privilege, and to be the grandson of a great man conveys no share in his greatness, there are obliga- tions independent of privilege, and a duty to country and to the truth of history, obedience to which is often mis- taken by the thoughtless for vanity or pride. Here and elsewhere I claim for General Greene the place which his contemporaries gave him. I claim it upon the au- thority of his written words, and of his acts as recorded by those who saw and shared in them. The nature of historical evidence must change before his position can be changed.

In using the manuscript letters from which so large a part of my work is drawn, I have not allowed myself to make any alterations either in grammar or phraseology. General Greene habitually uses " is " for " are," and occa- sionally makes other mistakes, which a stroke of the pen would correct. I have not felt at liberty to attribute to him

XU PREFACE.

a grammatical accuracy which lie did not possess, or to give to his letters the false coloring of strict propriety of con- struction. His language is generally good, his sentences clear, his expression forcible. But the habits of early life were too stronfj in minor details for the associations of later life ; and, admirable as his letters are in the higher qual- ities of composition, — thought distinctly, precisely, and vigorously expressed, — they still betray the deficiencies of his education. In the orthography, though generally correct, I have not hesitated to follow the modern stand- ard.

Besides the papers of General Greene, which of them- selves form a collection of over six thousand documents, I have made free use of the Washington papers in the Department of State at Washington ; of the Gates and Steuben papers in the library of the Historical Society of New York ; of the Heath papers in the library of the Historical Society of Massachusetts ; of some very impor- tant papers in the library of the Philosophical Society of Pennsylvania ; and have had copies from the Sullivan, Reed, Lincoln, Pickering, Glover, Varnum, and Wadsworth papers, through the courtesy of their owners. Among the printed authorities, I have placed great confidence in Gor- don, whose letters to the principal actors in the war show how carefully he performed the historian's first duty, — the search of truth. Of the American Archives it is needless to speak, except to express the regret which not only every student of American history, but every American honora- bly jealous for the good name of his country, must feel that the hands of such a man as Peter Force should have been arbitrarily stayed in a work worthy of the industry

PREFACE. XI 11

of a Muratori, and the critical acumen of a Gibbon. Mr. Sparks's "Washington," and "Correspondence of the Rev- ohition," I have used with constantly increasing respect for the good sense and conscientious love of truth whic'li were leading characteristics of that excellent man. I have also, among modem authorities, consulted with great advantage " The Battles of the United States, by H. B. Dawson," whose habits of minute reference cannot be too highly commended.

The public acknowledgment of the kind offices upon which works like this are so largely dependent is one of the pleasantest duties of the historian. My thanks are espe- cially due to my cousin, Phineas Miller Nightingale, of Cum- berland Island, Georgia, for efficient aid in the collection of materials; to my lifelong fiiend, William H. Richards of New York, for assistance in the laborious task of arranging them ; and to my cousin, Lieutenant-Governor William Greene, of Warwick, R. I., for important papers, and still more important counsel. During my visits to Washington I was allowed by my venerable friend, Peter Force, free access to his library, the most valuable in existence in this department of study ; and what no library could have af- forded,— a free communication of the treasures of tradi- tion and anecdote with which he had stored his memory in the course of a life devoted to the illustration of Amer- ican history. I have already spoken of what I owe to the publications of Mr. Sparks. I owe still more to the deep interest which he took in my labors, — an interest begin- ning when they began, and ending only with his life.

To George H. Moore, Friedrich Kapp, William B. Reed, Charles F. Adams, Henry B. Dawson, Thomas C. Am-

XIV PREFACE.

ory, George Brinley, Benjamin Lincoln, Charles Deane, Richard R. Ward, Peyton Skipwyth, Robert H. Ives, John S. Littell, Octavius Pickering, Henry E. Turner, James H. Eldredge, Daniel H. Greene, Townsend Ward, and the family of the late Thomas Biddle of Philadelphia, I am under great obligations, — to some of them for copies of documents, to some for the loan of books, and to some for aid in the investigation of particular questions. A part of my long labors was cheered by the active sympathy of my kinsman, Samuel Ward Greene. Nor can I ever forget the assistance given me by my friends, Charles Sumner, Charles Butler, and James S. Thayer m my en- deavors to obtain the aid of Congress for the publication of General Greene's correspondence, — an assistance none the less prized for the failure of the object for which it was given. To each and all of these gentlemen I would tender my sincere thanks. Alas that those thanks can no longer reach the ear of another friend, — George Sum- ner, — whose wise counsels and affectionate zeal cheered and strengthened the first years of my labors, but whom death has not permitted to see their close.

It is not without many doubts and misgivings that I part from these companions of laborious years. It is impossible to write words so akin to farewell and not feel a sadness steal over you, like the sadness of him who pauses upon the threshold and looks behind him through eves dimmed by tears, before he turns his face from the familiar home- stead forever. In sickness and in health, in joy and in sorrow, in my native land, with its present crowding re- lentlessly upon the past ; under foreign skies, where the past still controls and gives its own coloring to the pres-

PREFACE. XV

ent, — I have ever cherished the hope of telhng this story of the life of an American of the heroic age of American history. And, now that my task is done and these pages pass from under my control, stronger than every personal feeling is the fear that, through some error or shortcoming of my own, I may have failed to do justice to a great and good man, and incurred thereby the guilt of dimming one of the brightest pages of the annals of my country. If I have failed, it has not been from want of industry to search for the truth, nor of courage to tell it. As my documents have dictated, so have I written. My errors — and in every history there will be errors — are the offspring of in- voluntary ignorance or unconscious misconstruction. Who- ever will point them out to me will do me an office of friendship which I shall be the first to acknowledge, and the last to forget.

G. W. G.

East Greenwich, R. I., October 21, 1867.

CONTENTS.

BOOK FIRST.

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS APPOINTMENT AS COMMANDER OF THE RHODE ISLAND ARMY OF OBSERVATION.

1742-1775.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

Potowomut. — John Greene. — Birth of Nathanael Greene. — The Quaker Preacher and his Family. — Habits and Customs of the Times. — Anecdotes of Nathanael Greene. — Quaker Views of Literature. — Nathanael's First Studies. — Giles and the Holiday Walk. — East Greenwich. — Master Maxwell. — New Studies. — The Winter-Evening Fireside. — The Eight Sons. — Colonial Traditions. — Pocket Money. — The Sail to Newport. — Buying Books. — Dr. Stiles. . . ' . . .3

• CHAPTER II.

Greene's Studies. — New Acquaintances. — Lindley Murray. — Visit to New York. — John Jay. — Inoculation. — Family Lawsuit. — Greene reads Law Books. — Growth of Mind. — Personal Appearance. — Manners and Habits 21

CHAPTER III.

Potowomut. — The Farm. — The Forge and Mills. — Coventry.

— Whence the Iron for the Forge came. — From Potowomut to Coventry. — The New House. — Greene among his Neigh- bors. — David Howell 29

CHAPTER IV.

Death of Greene's Father. — Greene a Voter. — First Steps in Public Life. — First Political Letter. — In the Assembly. — Gasper. — Takes his Stand. — William Greene of Warwick.

— Henry Marchant. — Progress of the Revolution. — Greene's

b

XVlll CONTENTS.

Opinion of Governor AVard as Delegate to Congress. — Militia Laws Revised. — Kentish Guards. — James M. Varnum. — Christopher Greene. — Letter to Varnum. — Trip to Boston to buy a Musket 39

CHAPTER V.

Inner Life. — Mental Culture. — How and what he studied. — His Library. — Study of Composition. — Letters to S. Ward, Jr. — Quaker Prejudices against Literature. — Glimpses of his Daily Life and Habits. — Forge burned. — A Lottery. — Let- ter to William Greene. — Asthma. — In Love. — Why he loved S. Ward. — S. Ward's Sister. — Progress of the Dis- pute with England. — Greene resolves to take up Arms. — Read out of the Meeting. — Threatened Accusation. — Military Reading. — Rhode Island College. — Courtship and Marriage. — Domestic Life. — Rapid Development of Public Opinion. — Tea burued in Market Scjuare, Providence. — Battle of Lex- ington. — i\Iai'ch of Kentish Guards. — Assembly meets. — Army of Observation. — Mission to Connecticut. — Greene chosen Brigadier-General. — Commission. — Farewell Letter to his Wife 52

BOOK SECOND.

FROM niS APPOINTMENT TO THE COMMAND OF THE RHODE ISLAND ARMY OF OBSERVATION TO HIS APPOINTMENT AS QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL.

1775-1778.

CHAPTER I.

New Phase in Greene's Life. — Condition of Rhode Island Camp. — Effects of his Presence. — Council of War at Cambridge. — Ward's Head-quarters. — Colonial Troops independent of each other. — Greene devotes himself to disciplining his Bri- gade. — Difficulties of the Task. — Drunkenness. — Punish- ments. — Hard Work. — Treated with " Great Respect " by the General Officers. — Bunker Hill. — Active Sie"-e. — Dis- honest Agents. — Arrival of Washington. — Charles Lee. — Greene sends an Address to Washington. — His Satisfaction at Wa.'ihington's Appointment. 87

CONTENTS. XIX

CHAPTER II.

Washington's Arrival tlie Besi;innin<j of a New Period. — His Staff. — Mifflin. —Trumbull. — Reed. — Gates. — Army of the United Colonies. — New Organization. — Three Grand Divis- ions. — Greene on Prospect Hill. — Gradual Extension of the Works. — Death of Adjutant Mumford. — All Eyes fixed on Boston. — Parties to Camp. — The Country calls for a Bat- tle. — Want of Powder. — Waste of Powder. — Preparations for Defence. — Extracts from General Orders. . . .102

CHAPTER III.

Term of Service of the Army most out. — Congress sends a Com- mittee to Camp. — Greene's Impressions of Franklin. — His first Intercourse with Southern Members of Congi-ess. — His Efibrts to do away with Sectional Jealousies. — Lord Sheffield.

— Church's Treason. — Gradual Growth of a Desire for Inde- pendence. — Extracts fi-om Greene's Letters to Governor AVard. — His Idea of the Duty of Congress. — An Army of Seventy Thousand Men. — Feelings of the People. . .116

CHAPTER IV.

Greene's Life, Habits, and Associates in Camp. — Letter to his AVife. — Christopher Greene and Samuel Ward join the Canada Expedition. — Interest awakened by it. — Anxiety caused by the Burning of Falmouth. — By the Progress of Enlistment. — Extracts from Letters. — Ojjinion on giving Bounties. — Mistake of Congress. — Old Troops go. — New Troops come. — Arms retained. — New Year. — The Flag.

— Scanty Supplies. — Small-Pox. — Mrs. Greene in Camp.

— Siege draws to a Close. — Dorchester Heights occupied.

— Preparations for an Attack. — Storm. — Evacuation of Boston 130

CHAPTER V.

Perplexing Conduct of the Enemy. — Fortifications of Bos- ton. — Greene in Command of the City. — Letter to Colonel Nightingale. — Thursday Lecture. — Marching Orders. — Alarm in Rhode Island. — March to New York. — Prepara- tions for Defending the City. — Greene appointed to com- mand Fourth Brigade. — Command on Long Island. — For-

XX CONTENTS.

tifications. — Alarm Signals. — Tories. — John Jay. — Gou- verneur Morris. — Reconnoitring with Knox. — Forts Wash- ington and Independence. — Brigade and Regimental Re- ports , . 149

CHAPTER VI.

Death of Governor Ward. — Correspondence with John Adams.

— Tone and Character of it. — The new Army. — DifBculties in Raising and Organizing it. — Provisions for the Disabled.

— Condition of the Officers. — Principles of Promotion. — Insufficient Pay of Soldiers and Officers. — Exaggerated Ideas of the Strength of the Army. — Rhode Island Declara- tion of Independence. — Letters to Washington. — Alexander Hamilton. — Mrs. Greene at Camp 1 70

CHAPTER VII.

Enemy's Ships begin to arrive at the Hook. — Constant Watch- ing.— Alarms in the Country. — Tories. — Threatened Duel in Greene's Division. — English Fleet at the Narrows. — Ar- rival of the Hessians. — Hitchcock's Regiment. — Militia. — First Marching Orders. — Removal of Cattle and Grain. — Dangerous Illness. — Carried to New York. — Battle of Long Island. 195

CHAPTER VIII.

•

Condition of the Army after the Battle of Long Island. — Greene convalescent. — Letter to Washington. — Council of War. — Unfortunate Decision. — Greene urges the Call of a New Council. — Decision reversed. — Retreat from New York. — Battle of Harlem. — Greene in Command in the Jerseys. — What was thought of him. — His Idea of what should be done. — Preparations for Defence. — His Opinion of Congress. — Letters to Governor Cooke. — Resolves of Congress. — Public Opinion. — Privateering. — Hospitals. — Recommendation of Officers for the New Army. — Charles Leo 208

CHAPTER IX.

Howe in Motion. — Greene to Washington. — Expedition to Statcn Island. — Called to Council at Head-quarters. — Let-

CONTENTS. XXI

ters, and Extracts from Letters. — Foreshadowings of the Quartermaster-General. — Greene's Troops. — The Passage of the Hudson. —Letters to Congress and General Mifflin. 234

CHAPTER X.

Letters to Washington. — Barracks at Fort Independence burnt.

— Letters to Washington. — Letter to Mrs. Greene — John Clark to General Greene. — The Group at Fort Lee. — Har- rison to Greene 247

CHAPTER XI.

Movements of the Enemy. — Magaw on the Alert. — Greene to Washington. — Harrison to Greene. — Washington to Greene.

— Greene to Washington. — Preparations for Defence. — Letters to and from Greene. — Washington at Fort Lee. — Fall of Fort Washington 260

a

CHAPTER XII.

Fall of Fort Lee. — Different Accounts of it. — Retreat through the Jerseys. — Greene's Hopes. — Letters. — Inefficiency of Congress. — Embarrassments of Washington's Position. — Ampler Powers conferred on Washington. — Greene to Gov- ernor Cooke. 276

CHAPTER XIII.

Washington's Confidence in Greene excites Jealousy. — Charles Lee. — Greene's Share in the Jersey Campaign. — Surprise of Trenton. — Letters. — Greene in Favor of following up the Surprise. — The Assanpink. — Princeton. — March to Morris- town 296

CHAPTER XIV.

Effect of Success on the Country and the Army. — Position of the Army. — Recreations of Winter Quarters. — Washington's Anxiety. — Greene shares it. — State Rights. — Death of Col- onel Hitchcock. — Greene's Regret for the Loss of Mercer. — Greene in want of a Horse. — Expects Active Work. — Dif- ficulties in Raising the New Army. — Correspondence with Governor Cooke. — Defends Washington. — Letters and Ex-

XXll CONTENTS.

tracts. — Change Produced on the Character of the War by the Declaration of Independence. — Bounties. — Inoculation.

— Delays caused by a Weak Government 308

CHAPTER XV.

Improved State of Public Feeling. — Successful E.xpeditions and their Effect. — Hamiltoa's Entrance into Washington's ' Family. — Correspondence with John Adams resumed. — Washington's Opinion of the Policy of Congress in the Case of General Lee. — Growth of Hostility in Congress towards Washington. — Greene sent to Philadelphia. — Appears be- fore Congress. — Committee appointed to confer with him. — Letters. — Life in Philadelphia. — Returns to Camp. . . 331

CHAPTER XVI.

Greene's Return to Camp. — Birth of his Second Daughter. — Governor Livingston's Family. — Letter to Mrs. Greene. — Anxiety about Rhode Island. — Correspondence with Arnold.

— Spring. — Army not yet raised. -^ Letter to J. Adams. — Doubts and Conjectures about the Enemy's Plans. — At- tempt to surprise General Lincoln. — American Retaliation.

— Plans, Positions, Reports, and Conjectures. — Greene sent with Knox to examine the Passes of the Hudson. — Reports and Letters to Washington. — Return to Morristown. — Let- ters to his Wife 355

CHAPTER XVII.

Scanty Numbers of the New Army. — Greene's Division. — Wee- don. — Muhlenber<j. — Exchanges a Regiment with Sullivan.

— New Aid. — Washington's Position. — Howe's Plan. — Lee's Treason. — Conjectures and Perplexity of the Ameri- cans. — Preparations for the Campaign. — Howe's Manoeuvres.

— Americans Advance on Brunswick. — Howe foiled. — Dis- asters in the North. — Greene expects to be sent North. — Washington unwilling to part with him. — Veil partly lifted.

— March to the Delaware 380

CHAPTER XVIII.

Greene, Sullivan, and Knox on the Point of resigning. — Their Conduct misrepresented. — Defects of the Civil Government

CONTENTS. XXlll

of the Revolution. — Change in the Relations between Con- gress and the Country. — Relations of Congress to the State Governments. — To the Army. — Opposition and Collisions.

— Question of Promotion. — Letters to John Adams. — For- eign Officers. — Du Coudray. — Conditional Tender of Res- ignation.— Congress very angry. — Resolutions. — Interrup- tion of Greene's Correspondence with John Adams. — Letter

to President of Congress 402

CHAPTER XIX.

American Army on the Banks of the Delaware. — Perplexed by Howe's Movements. — Different Opinions about them. — Uneasiness caused by the Evacuation of Ticonderoga. — Glimpse of Inner Life. — Schuyler and New England Offi- cers. — Letters and Extracts. — Council of War. — Lafay- ette. — Army on the Point of Moving Northward. — Howe in Chesapeake Bay. — American Army marches Southward.

— March through Philadelphia. — Washington Reconnoitring.

— Camp at Red Clay Creek. — Greene condemns the Posi- tion. — Henry Lee. — Army at Chad's Ford. — Battle of the Brandywine . . 428

CHAPTER XX.

American Army not discouraged by their Defeat. — March to Germantown, — Sullivan unjustly blamed. — Weedon dis- satisfied. — Greene and Washington. — Preparations for ad- vancing towards the Enemy. — Advance to Warren's Tavern.

— Battle prevented by a Storm. — Greene's Choice of a Position. — Marches and Countermarches. — Howe deceives

the Americans, and crosses the Schuylkill. .... 454

CHAPTER XXI.

Howe in Philadelphia. — Straitened for Provisions. — Wash- ington's Preparations for the Defence of the Delaware. — Council of War oppose a Battle. — Further Intelligence. — Battle decided upon. — Advance of the Army and Battle of Germantown. 470

CHAPTER XXII.

Beginning of the Cabal against Washington. — Forts on the Delaware. — Christopher Greene. — Operations on both Sides

XXIV CONTENTS.

of the Delaware. — Attack of Ked Bank. — Defeat and Death of Donop. — Rejoicings of the Americans. — Colonel Greene thanked by Congress and congratulated by "Washing- ton and General Greene. — Washington anxious to attack the British. — Movements for the Support of Fort Mifflin.

— Attack and Fall of Fort Mifflin 482

CHAPTER XXIII.

Howe resolved to have the Left Bank of the Delaware. — Corn- wallis sent to secure it. — Greene sent to oppose him. — Reasons for disliking the Service. — Conway's Letter to Gates. — Ought Red Bank to be held ? — Greene on the March. — Letter to his Wife. — Crosses the Delaware. — Let- ter to Yarnum. — To Washington. — Fort Mercer evacuated.

— Greene's Prospects not bright. — Glover's Brigade. — Colo- nel Comstock. — Council at Head-quarters on attacking Philadelphia. — Letters to and from Washington. — Greene rejoins the main Army. — Contemporary Opinion of his Con- duct.— Marshall's Opinion 510

CHAPTER XXIV.

Winter March to Valley Forge. — The Valley. — Hut Build- ing! — The Encampment. — Position condemned by De Kalb and Varnum. — Alarm from the Enemy. — Distress of the Army for Food. — Letters. — Discontent. — Congressional Committee. — Greene sent to collect Supplies. — Letters to Washington 536

CHAPTER XXV.

Momentary Relief of the Army. — Greene's daily Duties. — Social Life in Camp. — Lafayette, Steuben, Duponceau, De Kalb, Fleury, &c. — Appearance of the Encampment. — AVhat Men talked about. — Rhode Island's Negro Regiment. — Steu- ben's Arrival and first Steps in Disciplining the Army. . . 564

LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE,

BOOK FIRST.

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS APPOINTMENT AS COM- MANDER OF THE RHODE ISLAND ARMY OF OBSERVATION.

1742-1775.

BOOK FIRST.

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS APPOINTMENT AS COMMANDER OF THE RHODE ISLAND ARMY OF OBSERVATION.

1742-1775.

CHAPTER I.

Potowomut. — John Greene. — Birtli of Natlianael Greene. — The Quaker Preacher and his Family. — Habits and Customs of the Times. — Anecdotes of Nathanael Greene. — Quaker Views of Literature. — Nathanael's First Studies. — Giles and the Holiday Walk. — East Greenwich. — Master Maxwell. — New Studies. — The Winter-Evening Fireside. — The Eight Sons. — Colonial Tradi- tions. — Pocket Money. — The Sail to Newport — Buying Books. — Dr. Stiles.

/~\N the western shore of Narraganset Bay, and ^-^ midway almost between the northern and southern extremities of the State of Rhode Island, lies a tract of land still known by its Indian name of Potowomut, or place of all the fires.^ It is a peninsula of unequal width, though about two miles wide in its broadest part, and bounded on the south by a fresh-water river, navigable for small craft for about two miles from its mouth, and called, like the land on its left bank, by its original name of Potowomut. At the head of navigation of this little stream, and where it ceases to feel the influence of the tide from the

1 Works of Job Durfee, p. 162.

4 LIFE OF NATH-\NAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

bay, the smaller streamlets that form it are gath- ered mto a pond, — once, apparently, a mere hol- low between two small hills, in which part of the water remained while part made its way over the lower rim of the valley to the channel of the river. The banks of these smaller streams are still covered with brushwood and trees. There are trees on the eastern bank of the pond also, — oaks for the most part, and, though not thick set, yet enough so to show that the whole tract must have been well wooded in 1654, when Randal Houlden and Ezekiel Hollyman bought it for themselves and their fellow-to^vnsmen of Warwick, of Taccomanan and his sons Awasho- tiist and Wawanockashaw, for fifteen pounds in wampumpeage and "ye valine of one coate of such clothe as ye Indians doe now commonly use to weare, annually as a gratuitv." ^

One of these inhabitants of Warwick was John Greene, surgeon, a native of Salisbury in Eng- land, who, coming over "in the next company after Roger Williams,"^ with his wife and five children, had followed Williams to Providence and Gorton to Shawomet, thus becoming an origi- nal proprietor in both places. The purchase of Potowomut had brought it within the jiu'isdiction of Warwick, although separated from it by the full width of Shawomet or Greenwich Bay ; and here,

1 Bartlctt, Records of the Colony Family, compiled by General Greene, of Rhode Island and Providence Plan- I am told by a member of the family, tations, Vol. I. p. 131, note. though the indorsement says by Gen-

2 MS. Genealogy of the Greene cral Greene's father.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. O

in the old homestead, Nathanael Greene, fifth in descent from the original emigrant, " was born the twenty-seventh day of fifth month, 1742, about one or two o'clock in the afternoon of the third day of the week." ^ His father, Nathanael, the second of that name in the family, was a Quaker preacher, eminent, tradition says, for his vigorous enforce- ment of evangelical truth, but equally well known among his neighbors as a large landed proprietor, and the owner of a grist-mill, a flour-inill, a saw- mill, and a forge, which he kept in constant and profitable operation. Eight sons, two of them by his first wife, Phoebe Greene, the other six by his second wife, Mary Mott, were trained from their boyhood to work in the fields, the mills, and the forge; to walk their two miles to the meeting- house in all weathers; and having learnt to read in George Fox's " Instructions for right Spelling and plain Directions for Reading and Writing true English,"^ and mastered the curious collection of miscellaneous information which it contains, were expected to find ample food for their literary curi- osity during the rest of their lives in the " Holy Scriptures, Barclay's Apology, Fox, Townsend, and a few others of the same tenor and date." ^

The habits of the country were primitively sim-

1 Greene, Gen. ut sup. As the of this curious little volume to ray new style is mentioned in one of the friend Charles Deane, Esq., of Cam- later entries this must have been bridge, Mass.

O. S., and consequently the 6th of ^ General Greene's own words in June. a letter to S. Ward, Jr., Oct. 9,

2 I am indebted for my knowledge 1772.

6 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

pie, those of tlio Quakers rigorously so. Carriages were little used, the father of a family riding to meeting with his wife on a pillion behind him, and sometimes with a younger child on a cushion be- fore ; the rest of the family, servants and all, fol- lowing after on foot. It was a proof that Nathanael Greene was well to do in the world that he was the owner of a chair. The boys would work hard all day, and walk half a dozen miles for a visit or a frolic in the evening. The table was abundantly supplied with nutritious food, meat forming a part of every meal, and cider from their own orchards being the principal drink. By the rules of the Quakers every boy was trained to some handicraft, and by the habits of the country all worked with their own hands. But thrift was also a habit of the countrj", and the foundations of that industrial pros- perity which has won for Rhode Island so high a place among her sister States were already laid in the laborious habits and judicious enterprise of her Colonial da vs.

As the laro-est town contained but little over five thousand inhabitants, there was no very material difference between town and country life. The meetings of the General Assembly, and sessions of the court, which were held alternately in the prin- cipal towns, were the great civil gatherings of the people. And as the day for them approached, inn- keepers were seen bustling about with an air of busy importance; — the larder was stocked anew, the huge oven filled to overflowing with apple-pies

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 7

and pumpkin-pies, the cider-barrel tapped and tast- ed ; the old drudge-horse wearied with journeys to the mills for the rye and Indian meal that were to furnish the morning and evenmg board with the oblong johnny-cake and the cone-shaped brown bread, and the dinner-table with the luscious suet- pudding and the spherical dumpling, that borrowed such a flavor from the rich meat gravy. Bedroom windows were opened, and the long unused bed aired. All along the highways and cross-paths from the neighboring towns and villages, you would see travellers journeying resolutely forward through rain or dust, some on foot, some on horseback, some alone, some gathered in friendly groups. The man with " a case in court " was readily known by his half important, half anxious air ; the idler, by his story and jest ; and between those who came for business and those who came for curiosity, the quiet streets would buzz and hum with life.

For the Quakers, the great gathering times were the yearly, quarterly, and monthly meetings, when every Quaker door was thrown ojDcn, and every seat at table and in the meeting-house filled. Na- thanael Greene's house, family tradition tells us, was always well filled on these occasions, and the good cheer that he set before his guests seasoned with good counsel to the young, and pleasant inter- change of thought and experience with the old. Tradition adds, too, that there were moments when the grave Quaker brow relaxed, and a merry jest or tale, provoking a merry laugh, was heard from

8 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

Quaker lips. However this may be, these meet- ings were not without their effect upon the imagi- nations of the younger members of the family, as a change in the daily routine, returning at stated intervals and looked forward to from a distance ; and upon the character, as bringing them into closer contact with thoughtful men and women in their most thoughtful mood. It was a part of the Qua- ker's moral and social training, and not to be for- gotten in the study of a life more than half of which was passed under Quaker influences.

Recreation came with tlie duties of rural life, and partly under the guise of competition,-^ — to cut the broadest sw^ath, tm^n the deepest furrow, get the most work out of the oxen without straining them, lift the heaviest weight, and shape the new- mo^vii hay into the neatest and firmest stack. Then, for the young Greenes, there was a swim in the clear cool river at the close of a sultry day ; a half-hour on the smooth ice of the well-sheltered pond by winter starlight or moonlight, or before the tardy sun called them to their morning task ; and, most prized of all, the merry huskings ^ in Oc- tober evenings, which even the dread of the relent- less rod could not always keep from running into a dance, — that greatest of abommations to the eyes of a Quaker.

Several anecdotes of Nathanael Greene's boyhood have been preserved, which, if not very remarkable,

1 Those scenes so well described ia " The corn-husks rustle and the corn- Barlow's " Hasty Pudding," where cobs crack."

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 9

have at least the merit of being perfectly authen- tic. An early playmate of his, whom I remember well, used to talk with great pride of his old com- panion's feats of strength. Dancing he was par- ticularly fond of, and, being a general favorite, he was always sure to be told beforehand whenever a husking was to end in a dance. Nor, as his broth- ers used to relate, was the pleasure any the less coveted for the rigor of the prohibition or the cer- tainty of the chastisement. His father kept regu- lar hours, and, long before the first set in a modern ball would be started, his orderly family was sup- posed to be abed and asleep. Then it was that the truant would slip softly from his pillow, put on his clothes, silently raise the window, and let himself cautiously down upon the soft grass of the yard. I have forgotten how he got back again, but for this too he found a way ; and if on any of those autumn nights his watchful parent had made an inspection of the household not too close upon mid- night, he would have found the windows shut and all his sons in their places. Thus more than one merry evening was gained, and the future strategist had got almost to look upon himself as secure from detection, when, returning one night from a distant excursion, what should he see by the clear starlight but his father, — horsewhip in hand, pacing with ominous patience to and fro beneath the tell-tale window. It was very clear that, if any Scripture text was the subject of the venerable preacher's meditations at that inauspicious moment, it must

10 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

have been Solomon's warning to those who spare the rod. It evidently was not to be spared on this occasion ; but might it not be deprived of its sting ? Thus far the culprit had not been seen. Close b}', on the other side of the house, there was a bundle of shingles. With a quickness of thought that stood him well in stead on many a worthier occa- sion, he stole softly round the comer, stuffed as many shingles under his coat as he needed to form an impervious corselet, then, coming forward with well-feigned terror, submitted to his chastisement ; not forffettinof' that vehement Ohs ! and Ahs ! were an essential part of the comedy.

Better things, however, were mingled with this love of forbidden pleasure. Literary culture was not in favor with the Quakers. " I was educated a Quaker," he writes in 1772, looking back with something like bitterness of heart upon this period of his life, " and amongst the most superstitious sort. My father was a man of great piety, had an excellent understandinor. and was governed in his conduct by humanity and kind benevolence, but his mind was overshadowed with prejudice against literary accomplishments." Still, reading was ne- cessary as a means of reading the Bible, and writ- ing and ciphering as a means of doing business accuratelv. And therefore, in the lonor winter evenings, an itinerant teacher was employed to teach the boys to read, write, and cipher. This was all that Nathanael Greene knew at the age of fourteen ; nor did the little book-shelf in the sitting-

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 11

room corner contain anything to awaken a desire of knowino- more.

One day, however, in a winter ramble, chance threw into his path a young man of the name of Giles, a collegian on a vacation \asit to East Greenwich, who, talking to him about college and college studies, and arousing the curiosity that had hitherto slept so calmly but was never to sleep again, glides into history for a moment and then vanishes forever. Nathanael Greene returned from that day's walk another boy, — returned to the forge and the farm and the mill, to his station at the anvil and his seat by the hopper ; but not to the content of being foremost at his daily work, and leader in the morning and evening sports of his companions. As he looked upon the running stream, the growing grain, the mysterious light and motion of the stars, — even as he watched the re- volving wheel, and the reddening iron, or shaped with his ponderous hammer the anchor which was to fasten its pointed fluke into the oozy bottom of some distant sea, — questions and doubts and long- ings came crowding upon his mind, and he had neither book nor friend to answer them. The day of unquestioning faith was passed. Henceforth, to believe, he must first understand.

It must have been an anxious moment in the father's life when this son, so fuU of promise, came to him and asked him for better means of study. All his life-long distrust of learning must have risen up in his mind at the appeal, and hardened him

12 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

against it. But though a prejudiced man, he was a just man. His boy had done his duty in the forge and the mill, and was it not the father's duty to grant his request ? In the end it proved a first step in his own disenfranchisement ; for a few years later he went further still, and studied Locke's Essay on the Understanding, making him- self master of its most abstruse discussions.

Two miles from Potowomut, on a green hillside that slopes gently downward to a retired little inlet of Narraganset Bay, stands East Greenwich, then, as now, a quiet rural village, with large elms throwing their fraternal branches over its principal street, and compact wooden houses scattered loosely over its surface, each with its little garden in the rear. Here was a court-house, here was a Baptist meeting- house, and just beyond the hill-top, in a little valley through which the Masquachugh flows with a slen- der current and a pleasant murmur to mingle with the waters of Greenwich Cove, stood the plain wooden building in which Nathanael Greene the elder was wont, when his thoughts waxed fervent within him, to pour them forth in words that sank deep into the hearts of his hearers. And here, too, lived a teacher by the name of Maxwell, — Master Maxwell, the old men of my boyhood still called him, who had brought with him much learning from the schools and colleges of his native Scot- land. Under his guidance young Greene began Latin and geometr}', and, talking with him, felt the longings which his conversation with Giles had

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 13

awakened grow more definite and distinct. How far his Latin was carried, it is no longer possible to determine. His brother Christopher used to tell of his going up into a little room over the kitchen to study his lessons without interruption. Dupon- ceau told Longfellow and me in 1835, that in a long evening which he passed with General Greene and Baron Steuben, on their journey southward in 1780, " Greene turned the conversation upon the Latin poets, with whom he seemed perfectly famil- iar."^ But I find no other testimony upon the subject. There are no quotations from Latin au- thors in his letters, except one in English from Seneca's epistles, which he may have read in a translation. His Horace, which he is known to have read constantly, was Smart's two little duo- decimos with the English facing the text, well known and duly prized by the school-boys of two generations ago ; and the Caesar that he purchased in 1774 was Duncan's translation without the text. The extent of his Latin studies is very doubtful.

But about his Euclid there is no doubt. He had bought the volume with his own earnings, a solid octavo stoutly bound in dark sheep-skin, and he de- voted himself to the study of it with the ardor of a vigorous mind in its first taste of positive science. It became his comj^anion at the forge and in the

1 I have also a letter from him — still unfortunately in manuscript,

upon the subject, and he afterwards I am indebted for my knowledge of

repeated the same anecdote in his it to my friend Friederich Kapp, the

memoirs, — a very interesting work, historian of Steuben and De Kalb.

14 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

mill, and in my boyhood his brothers still loved to point out the seat by the forge where he would stud}' it while the iron was heating, and tell with proud complacency, how, when his turn called him to the gristrmill, he would often forget himself in his book lono; after the last kernel had been shaken from the hopper.

Summer brought no relaxation in his daily la- bors, but the long winter evenings were all his own, and well did he turn them to account. No part of New England life was more characteristic, or has left a deeper impression than these evenings by the winter fireside.^ The huge chimney was all ablaze with the crackling wood fire ; and if the tallow candles gave a dim light, the fire-light on the walls and the brigrht coals on the hearth lent a cheerful glow to the room, that seldom failed to awaken a kindred glow in the heart. In the snug corner, sheltered from the draft of win- dow or door, sat the mother with her knitting- needles ; or on Saturday evenings, her darning- needle flashing swiftly to and fro in her skilful fingers. It was thus that the warm yarn stocking and the stout mitten grew steadily day by day, without encroaching upon the other duties of the industrious housewife. Right over against her, in his straight-backed wooden-seated chair, sat the father. His day's work is done, — you need not ask him whether well or ill, for the day's history is

1 I gladly record my indebtedness "Snow-Bound," — beautiful poetry to Whittier's tlmrming picture in and true history.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 15

written on liis face, and the evening's history may be easily read beforehand in the contracted or the open brow. Sometimes, when he has been kept out in the cold longer than usual, you will see a mug on the hot ashes, just within reach of the heat from the coals. It is filled Avith cider from his own press, and before he drinks it a little ginger will be mixed with it to give it a warmer glow, and a hot iron stirred in it to make it froth and bubble. Close round the " resplendent brass " of the andirons, you would often see a sputtering row of apples ; and often too the quick sharp blow of the hammer would tell that the rich shagbark had not failed in the October woods. Happy was the fireside whose circle was filled with sons and daughters ready to lighten the task of father and mother and confirm their hopes.

There was no daughter at Nathanael Greene's fireside, the only one he had ever had, Phebe, who, though the child of his second wife, bore the name of the first, not living to complete her first year. But eight sons formed a goodly circle. Benjamin and Thomas were children of his first wife, his cousin, Phebe Greene. The other six, of Mary Mott, his second wife. Mary Rodman, who took the wife's seat on "the 28th day of the 11th month, 1754," was childless, but quickly learnt to look upon her husband's children as her own.

Of these six, the eldest was named Jacob, first of that name in the family record. We shall meet him by and by as commissar}^ of purchases, when his

16 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

brother became Quartermaster-General. We meet him also in the State Legislature, of which he was several times a member. When his brother joined the army, he took his place at Coventry, where he lived to the dav of his sudden death in 1805. Phebe came next, and then Nathanael. William followed, the only bachelor of the six. I remem- ber him well in his feeble old age, as the first out- side of our own roof to whom we went with our "Merry Christmas," always finding a large Christ- mas cake in wait for our coming. Elihu was the fifth, an old man when I knew him, but a cheery, hale old man, still active at the forge, still ready to raise the dam gate, and take his seat by the hopper, and, what we boys prized most of all, ever gentle and patient and kind. His wafe had long been dead, but he had never taken to himself a second, unwilling, perhaps, to give to another the place that had once been filled by a grand-niece of Franklin. But strongest, heartiest, and halest of all, in my boyish days, was the fifth son, Christo- pher, straight and firm, with the broad forehead and decided mouth of his brother the General, and a voice that even in old ao-e rancir out as clear and shrill as a bugle-call. Kind at heart though quick of temper, he too was an active, busy man to the last. It was but two days before his death that he followed me to the door to shake hands with me a second time, and the very day before it he rode his favorite filly to Greenwich. With Elihu he lived on the old homestead, and carried on the old

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 17

business. The little sloop that conveyed their anchors to Providence and Newport was named the "Two Brothers," in commemoration of their fraternal love, and it is still remembered with pride that in their long partnership they never thought of a settlement of accounts. A son of Christopher yet holds the old homestead, which thus far has never passed out of the name. In one thing the two brothers differed, — for while Elihu remained a widower, Christopher married twice, and each time a daughter of Governor Samuel Ward. The last and youngest child was Perry, different in many respects from his brothers, our traditions say, but of fine talents and engaging address.

But they were all boys still, and with life all before them, in the days of which I am now telling; and, hopeful as the father must have felt when he cast his eyes round upon them, his hopes can hardly have gone beyond the promise which they gave of growing up to walk in his footsteps as thrifty and useful members of society. No visions of Guilford and Eutaw came to disturb his tranquil anticipa- tions of a peaceful life and peaceful death for all.

It was around these firesides that Colonial history w^as first formed, father repeating it to son till fam- ily tradition grew into narrative. John Greene's story was an eventful one, — the story of exile and persecution for conscience' sake. It must have had a touch of the stern Puritan days in it, though he was not a Puritan. Like Roger Williams, he claimed " soul liberty," and was driven from Massachusetts.

18 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

Like his friend Gorton, he claimed the fullest exer- cise of that liberty, and joined with him in the purchase and settlement of Warwick. He was one of the twelve who were summoned to submit themselves to a Massachusetts tribunal, and only escaped, by timely flight, the siege, condemnation, and imprisonment which fell so heavily npon his companions.^ Like, them, too, his convictions won peace for him at last, and he was repeatedly chosen by his fellow-citizens to offices of honor and trust. Nor was he indifferent to his profession. There is still a manuscript volume in existence, in which, anticipating Buchan, he endeavors to bring the de- scription and treatment of disease within the com- prehension of every father and mother. The old Quaker's heart must have glowed as he told the story of this first emigrant, for in the religious in- dependence which Gorton taught there was a sug- gestive resemblance to the independence of forms which George Fox taught. From that day civil honors were found in each generation of the Greenes, each having its Secretary, or Deputy, or Governor.

And now too, in these very years, 1753- 1755, the name of Washington first began to be heard at Colonial firesides ; his journey through the wilder- ness ; his gallant stand with a handful of followers at the " Great Meadows " ; his almost miraculous

1 Greene's connection with Gorton one of his chief proselytes, gave Gor-

is expressly stated in " Some Notices ton half of his divided lands at Paw-

of Samuel Gorton, &c.," edited by tuxet." (p. 35.) See aho Stnpies's

Mr. Charles Deane. " John Greene, edition of " Siraplicitie's Defence."

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 19

preservation on the fatal field of the Monongahela. Much as the rigid Quaker detested war, these things touched the Colonists too nearly not to find a greedy ear in every circle. How did young Greene feel when he first heard the name of his future leader and friend ?

One part of these leisure hours, says a family tradition, was still devoted to work ; not, indeed, his regular work, but to the making of toy anchors and other toys of iron, grinding oft' the callous skin from his hands that he might hold the tiny things more easily. These were his own, and to these he looked for pocket-money, for he could hardly ex- pect his father to buy him books. His only real holiday was when the sloop took her load of an- chors to Newport, for then he could sell his little venture, and add, with the proceeds, a new book to his library. For the Newport of those days was the great city of the Colony, and it was not without something like an expanding of his conceptions that, as the little sloop rounded Long Wharf, he caught his first glimpse of ships that, but a few weeks before, had been lying at a wharf in London or Bristol ; that, as he walked up Church Lane, he saw the steeple of Trinity rising high over Berke- ley's organ, and farther on the Corinthian portico of the Kedwood Library opening upon more books than it seemed possible to read in a lifetime. One of these excursions proved a turning point in his progress.

He had sold his wares, and hurried oft*, money in

20 LIFE OF NATHAN.iEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

hand, to the bookstore, an eager, impetuous boy in spite of his broad-brimmed hat and peaceful drab, neither of them, perhaps, altogether free from the traces of the mill.

*' I want to buy a book." " What book ? " asked the bookseller, stopping short in his conversation with an earnest-faced young man in the dress of a clergyman, and looking, it may be, somewhat quiz- zingly at his new customer. The clergyman turned to look also, and saw so much to please him in the open countenance and bright eye of the blushing boy, that he took him kindly by the hand, and ques- tioned him intelligently about his reading. It was more than a book that young Greene got that day, for he got himself a friend, — one who had read many books, and knew the human heart, and loved knowledge in all her manifold forms. Not many years afterwards that clergyman became the head of Yale College, and, as President Stiles, labored sedulously to the close of a long life in moulding the hearts and minds of ingenuous youth. But of the hundreds who went out into the world with his mark upon them, there was not one who laid his lessons more fruitfully to heart than the Quaker boy whom he first taught what books to buy. Nor among the many good deeds that he did, and wise counsels that he gave, was there one more fraught with important consequences to the free- dom and prosperity of his country than the work of spontaneous kindness which he performed that day.

CHAPTER II.

Greene's Studies. — New Acquaintances. — Lindley Murray. — Visit to New York. — John Jay. — Inoculation. — Family Lawsuit. — Greene reads Law Books. — Growth of Mind. — Personal Appear- ance. — Manners and Habits.

ri^HE first fruit of Stiles's friendship was a knowl- -■- edge of Locke on the Understanding, — ^the text-book of every Englishman of that day who undertook to study the laws of mental action. It came to Greene just when he was prepared for it by the eager gropings of his own mind ; and, following close upon Euclid, gave additional force to those lessons of rigorous demonstration and con- nected reasoning which are the best fruits of a careful study of the great geometer. It opened also a new and wider field of inquiry, and pre- pared him for entering with keener relish upon the investigation of moral and political truth. Watts's Logic was another of the works to which he was deeply indebted at this period ; and good old Rol- lin, still preserving in his diffuseness the pure spirit of classic antiquity, was his first guide in history and polite literature. In English, Swift became his model, particularly the Drapier's Letters, al- though I do not find any proof that he ever thought of applying to the study of them that

22 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

happy method by which FrankHn learnt to infuse into his own style so much of the graceful simpli- city and idiomatic elegance of his chosdh master, Addison.^

Thus his mind grew apace. Books became his favorite companions ; knowledge for her own sake his highest ambition. But no thought of a change of occupation seems ever to have disturbed the serenity of his daily task. He was born to the plough and anvil, and that share in public life which most Colonists took and some member of his family had always taken, and was content to remain where fortune had placed him. His only complaint was, " I feel the mists of ignorance to surround me " ; and all that he asked of his books, that they should help him to break through these mists. .

The acquaintance of Dr. Stiles brought him in- to contact with men of cultivation, giving him glimpses of a refinement towards which he felt himself irresistibly attracted, and showing him how much sweeter the intercourse of friends be- comes when elevated by the love of letters. Another new acquaintance, formed, like the first, in one of his trips to Newport, but nearer to him in age, and, like himself, a Quaker by birth and edu- cation, was Lindley Murray, — the future gramma- rian of three generations of ungrateful school-boys. From him Greene learnt much that he could hardly have learnt to the same advantao-e from an older person ; discussing the books that he had read as

1 See Sparks's Franklin, Vol. I. p. 18.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 2

o

boy talks with boy, and looking up to him with that blending of faith and emulation which only boys, and girls can feel. Grammar, however, if we are to judge by the apparent unconsciousness with which Greene makes a plural noun the nominative of a singular verb, can hardly have yet taken the place in the rriind of his friend which it was soon to take and to hold through life. Murray's present ambition was to become a lawyer, and his good fortune led him to study law in the same office with John Jay. May not Greene, in some of his visits to him in New York, have met in his society, as a young lawyer just welcoming his first brief, the man whom a few years later he was to address from camp as President of the Congress from which he held his commission ?

Of these visits to New York, however, only one positive record remains. The small-pox was still the scourge of all classes, in spite of inoculation, which thousands either rejected as useless, or con- demned as rebellion asrainst the will of God. Massachusetts had rejected it on its first introduc- tion, and it was only by the refusal of the Council to confirm the vote of the Representatives, that the courageous Boylston was enabled to continue the practice of it. The Rhode Island Assembly rejected it as late as 1772, in spite of the exertions of its most intelliarent members. Findino; the dis- ease in New York, Greene had himself inoculated, and, passing through it without any other perma- nent mark than a slight blemish in the right eye,

24 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

which in no way impaired the distinctness of his sight, won for himself a sense of personal security which nothing else could have given, and the im- portance of which made itself felt in the very first year of the war. We shall find him one of the earliest and most constant advocates of the inocu- lation of the army.

About this time [1760] the death of his two half-brothers brought a lawsuit into the family. The principles which it involved were so intricate, that it was sent to England by appeal. And here, too, we catch a glimpse of another distinctive trait of Greene's character ; for being intrusted by his father with the management of the case as far as the collecting of evidence and conferences with lawyers were concerned, he procured himself a Jacob's Law Dictionary and made himself master of its contents. A few years later Blackstone also was welcomed to his shelves with as pure a joy as Gibbon felt when, at nearly the same age, and not far from the same time, he " exchanged a bank-note of twenty pounds for the twenty volumes of the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions." ^ An- other consequence of the lawsuit, and for his fu- ture career by no means the least important, was the acquaintance that he formed with members of the bench and the bar, whom he soon began to as- sociate with upon the footing of one who has some- thing to teach, as well as a great deal to learn.

And thus he grew up to manhood, laying deeper

1 Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, (4to ed.,) Vol. I. p. 84.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN.iEL GREENE. 25

foundations than he knew of; a cheerful, vigorous, thoughtful young man, foremost in all the labors of the forge, the farm, and the mill ; foremost also in feats of strength and skill ; fond of the society of females, who " never felt lonely where he was, for he always knew how to entertain them " ;^ fond of the society of cultivated men ; a great lover of books; a curious inquirer into the reasons and causes of things ; a subtile scrutinizer of men and their actions ; a thoughtful observer of Nature, and keenly alive to her genial influences ; fonder of listening than of talking, where there was anything to be learned ; with no ambition beyond the pos- session of a comfortable home, and fortune enough to enable him to buy books and command a few leisure hours to read them in ; a man, in short, to puzzle the staid elders who sat on the high seats in the meeting-house, and even to make his pious father sometimes doubt the fulfilment of the proph- ecy with which astrology-loving Dr. Spencer had announced his birth as of one that was to be " a great man in Israel."

His health was good, and both by constitution and habit he was capable of bearing exposure and fatigue. A few years later the asthma came to harass him with sleepless nights. Though not over five feet ten in height, he was strongly built, with broad shoulders, a full chest, and vigorous limbs. In his right knee there was a slight stiff- ness, enough, it would seem, by the manner in

^ Words used by an old lady who knew Greene to Mr. Rousmanier.

26 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREE>T;. [1742-1775.

which it is mentioned, to be seen in his gait, but not enough to prevent him from running, and jump- ing, and wrestHng with the strongest and most active of his companions.^ His face was a well- filled oval, with all the features clearly defined, though none of them, except, perhaps, the fore- head, large enough to arrest the attention at a first glance. As you looked more closely you would be struck by the prominence of the lower part of the brow, that part just over the eyes, where phrenolo- gists place the organ of locality. The eyes them- selves were of a clear, liquid blue, which kindled under excitement to an intense and flashino; liu-ht.^ His nose was rather Grecian than Eoman, and such as the sculptor of a strong, manly face loves to chisel, the outline clear from the root downward, and the nostrils slightly expanding into an ex- pression of prompt and vigorous decision. The mouth, too, with its deep-set corners and full lips, told of quick, firm utterances and a strong will ; but it told of tenderness also, and the power of keen enjoyment. The chin, full, rounded, and double, told the same story, giving a dash of every- day humanity to an expression which, if derived from the eyes alone, would have been an expression of pure intellect. For as you look at the eyes they seem to be lambent Avith a combined light,

1 See Stone's Howlanfl, p. 40. whose name will often recur in these

2 Lest the reader should tax me pages, and whose statements no one with exafrgeration, I hasten to add who knew him would venture to call that this peculiarity was told me by in question.

my uncle, Colonel Samuel Ward,

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 27

partly from within and partly from without, as of a soul alternately questioning itself and the world that surrounds it. But as you look at the mouth you detect, under the possibility of stern compres- sion, the possibility of joyous sensation and lively sallies of humor. Indeed, this humor formed one of the most vivid recollections of those who had known him in the intimacy of domestic life ; and his brothers, to the day of their death, could never mention Tristram Shandy without dilating upon the exquisite comicality of his impersonation of Dr. Slop.

His bearing was that of dignified self-possession, rather than of ease and grace. Indeed, the grace which the intercourse of polished society gives, he had no means of learning ; and still less the grace of the dancing-school ; for his dancing, well as he loved it, was such as country boys and girls learn from some older companion or chance teacher, and practise with more vigor than skill. " You dance stiffly," said a partner to him once, rallying him upon the halt in his right leg. " Very true," he replied, " but you see that I dance strong." But going into the world with a consciousness of many disadvantages to overcome, he became a close ob- server, never failing to turn to account every op- portunity of making an acquisition or correcting a defect.

His temper was naturally impetuous, for he was of a bilious, nervous temperament, but it was brought under early control, and he bore among

28 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

his companions the reputation of a genial man, thoiif?h a firm and resolute one. Deliberate in forming his opinions where circumstances admitted of deUberation, he was never imduly tenacious of them, nor arrogant in enforcing them, but always ready to listen to objections, and yield to them if well founded.

It is not an easy thing to go back to the boy- hood of a great man, and distinguish the steps by which he grew up in mind and character. And even of those who knew him best there are few who are not ready to fancy that they had already discovered in his youth the indications of all that he became in manhood. Still the intellectual tastes, the resolute perseverance, and the system- atic industry which characterized Greene's public life were undoubtedly formed long before he be- came a public man ; and the administrative car pacity which he displayed in the Quartermaster- General's department was but the extension to a larger field of the sound judgment and rigorous method with which he conducted the humbler in- terests of the Hirms and forges of Potowomut and Coventry.

CHAPTER III.

Potowomut. — Tbe Farm. — The Forge and Mills. — Coventry. — Whence the Iron for the Forge came. — From Potowomut to Coven- try. — The New House. — Greene among his Neighbors. — David Howell.

THE soil of Potowomut was light and thin, yielding enough for the family table, but adding little to the family purse. This, however, was not the elder Greene's only farm, for he had made large investments in land in different parts of the State, and was as deeply interested in agri- culture as in manufactures. But the agriculture of those days was, even in its best forms, little better than a mere routine ; the son still holding tenaciously to the methods of the grandfather, as they came down to him unchanged in the lessons of his father. If books were consulted at all, English literature in young Greene's boyhood had nothing better than the " Book of Husbandry " and Tuji- per's " Five Hundred Points," and a few others of almost equal antiquity. Elliot's " Field Husbandry in New England " was not pubhshed till 1760 ; Arthur Young had not yet begun the observations and reports which stimulated Washington's agri- cultural instincts so keenly ; and many years were yet to pass before chemistry, analyzing soils and

30 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

plants and manures, should reveal the prolific law of the constant circulation of matter and force. And thus in agriculture the elder Greene had but little to teach his sons beyond what he had learnt from his father.

But the forge and mills gave very different returns ; and when we remember how England looked askance upon the manufacturing industry of the Colonies, these early efforts of Rhode Island industry acquire something of the importance of general history. Jabez Greene, grandson of the first John Greene, was the original settler of Poto- w^omut, and Thomas Hill was an original partner in the mills. As early, however, as 1740, two years before the birth of the third Nathanael, the whole property passed into the hands of the Greenes. Meanwhile this branch of the family had become Quakers, and the peaceful doctrines of George Fox, and the peaceful industries of the forge and the mill, seem to have taken possession of the "Place of all the Fires" simultaneously. The pure spirit of brotherly love seems to have come with them.

Jabez Greene died without making a will, al- thousrh he had declared his intention of making: one, and told his eldest son, James, that he meant to divide his estate equally among his children. By the laws of Rhode Island James became sole heir, and the first use that he made of his indepen- dent control of the property was to carry out his father s design and divide it with his brothers. And

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATR.1NAEL GREENE. 31

thus the property was held and improved in com- mon by the six sons of Jabez, of whom Nathanael, the preacher, was the fourth. Already, in 1743, the forge, store, and merchandise were valued at £8,055, with £2,408 of uncollected debts. The chief care of the works seems gradually to have devolved upon Nathanael, and when hjs sons grew to man's estate they were admitted to the business as partners.

This business, if we take into consideration the meagre supply market and difficult communications of those days, was sufficiently extensive to require no ordinary share of commercial as well as of pro- ductive talent. The wheat was brought from A^'ir- ginia in vessels owned or chartered by the firm, and the flour sent to Newport and Providence, the principal markets of the Colony. The coal came from Virginia also, and the best iron from Pennsyl- vania. Of all these a constant and regular supply was required. Merchandise was also needed for the store, — country goods, such as workingmen and their families used, — and of these a full pro- vision was kept constantly on hand. Then the anchors were to be sent to market, and the pro- ceeds of all these various industries collected and put to use. What with his duties as a preacher, and his cares as a merchant, manufacturer, and farmer, Nathanael Greene was a very busy man.

The grist-mill was a frame building on the west bank of the river, a few yards below the dam, duly provided with all the necessary aj)paratus for

^^#^

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ll

I

i-

LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE.

[1742-1775.

making meal and flour. The constant whir of the millstone and jar of the hopper, mingling with the gurgle of the water as it rushed through the gate, and its deeper roar as it dashed over the dam, made it a difficult place to talk in, though, as young Nathanael grew up, it became one of his favorite places for study. For many years it was the only mill in the neighborhood, and through the wdiole of the first quarter of the present cen- tury farmers and farmers' boys still continued to ride thither from a wide circuit round, with their bag of corn slung over their horse's back, to have it ground under the eye of the two last survivors of the two generations of brothers. And it is not uninteresting to know, as we trace the connec- tions of civilization, that the second flour-mill that was ever constructed in Chili was constructed by Samuel Ward Greene, the fourth son of the young- er of those two brothers. Thus the knowledge that was acquired on the banks of the Potowomut helped to free fertile Chili from her dependence upon a foreign market for the most essential ar- ticle of daily food ; mysterious link in the subtile chain which binds remote lands and difierent races too;ether.

Close by the side of the mill, but on lower ground, was the forge, — a larger building, w^ith a broad shingle roof coming down so near to the ground on the west side that it was easy to get on it and play. Two broad doors opened upon the river-bank, where the sloop lay as at a natural

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1742-1775.]

LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE.

33

wharf, \yithin were three separate forges, each with its own anvil, its own chimney, and its own husre bellows. The anchor anvil stood in the middle, directly under a great trip-hammer, which, as it dealt its sharp, quick blows, ris- ing and falling with the turning of the wheel, — wheel and water both unseen, but sending forth a whirring and gurgling sound from behind the dark screen of the eastern wall, — had, as I well remem- ber, something of wonder and of mystery in it to the eye and ear of childhood. A small forge was reserved for the common work of a blacksmith's shop.

The two banks of the river were connected by a bridge just below the dam; and there, when the day's work was done, the boys loved to take their stand, and fish for eels in the dark water below.

The house, a plain wooden edifice, low in the ceilings, like most of the houses of early colonial days, but substantially built, and well adapted to the modes of life of a large Quaker family, stood almost within stone's throw of the forge, upon the brow of a small hill, up and down whose easy slope the boys used to indulge in many a frolic on their way to and from their work, not always, as they grew warm in their game, distinguishing their father from an elder brother.

About a year before the birth of General Greene the six brothers had built another forge on the Pawtucket River, in the township of Coventry, where they had purchased a large tract of land.

32 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

makino; meal and flonr. The constant whir of the millstone and jar of the hopper, mingling with the gm'gle of the water as it rushed through the gate, and its deeper roar as it dashed over the dam, made it a difficult place to talk in, though, as young Nathanael grew up, it became one of his favorite places for study. For many years it was the onlv mill in the neis-liborhood, and through the whole of the first quarter of the present cen- tury farmers and farmers' boys still continued to ride thither from a wide circuit round, \\^th their bag of corn slung over their horse's back, to have it ground under the eye of the two last survivors of the two generations of brothers. And it is not uninteresting to know, as we trace the connec- tions of civilization, that the second flour-mill that was ever constructed in Chili was constructed by Samuel Ward Greene, the fourth son of the young- er of those two brothers. Thus the knowledge that was acquired on the banks of the Potowomut helped to free fertile Chili from her dependence upon a foreign market for the most essential ar- ticle of daily food ; mysterious link in the subtile chain which binds remote lands and difterent races toQ-ether.

Close by the side of the mill, but on lower ground, was the forge, — a larger building, with a broad shingle roof coming down so near to the ground on the west side that it was easy to get on it and play. Two broad doors opened upon the river-bank, where the sloop lay as at a natural

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 33

wharf. Within were three separate forges, each with its own anvil, its own chimney, and its own huge bellows. The anchor anvil stood in the middle, directly nnder a great trip-hammer, which, as it dealt its sharp, quick blows, ris- ing; and falling: with the turnino^ of the wheel, — wheel and water both unseen, but sending forth a whirring and gurgling sound from behind the dark screen of the eastern wall, — had, as I well remem- ber, something of wonder and of mystery in it to the eye and ear of childhood. A small forge was reserved for the common work of a blacksmith's shop.

The two banks of the river were connected by a bridge just below the dam; and there, when the day's work was done, the boys loved to take their stand, and fish for eels in the dark water below.

The house, a plain wooden edifice, low in the ceilings, like most of the houses of early colonial days, but substantially built, and well adapted to the modes of life of a large Quaker family, stood almost within stone's throw of the forge, upon the brow of a small hill, up and down whose easy slope the boys used to indulge in many a frolic on their way to and from their work, not always, as they grew warm in their game, distinguishing their father from an elder brother.

About a year before the birth of General Greene the six brothers had built another forge on the Pawtucket Kiver, in the township of Coventry, where they had purchased a large tract of land.

o

4 LIFE OF NATIL\N.iEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

Here, too, was a fine stream of water to set their simple machinery agoing, and a fine hill — the rocky water-shed which holds the north and south branches of the Pawtucket apart — to build on. It was not till many years later that the building-site was used ; but so well was the water-power turned to account, that, on the death of Jabez, in 1753, his quarter was estimated at £865. By 1768 over a hundred families had gathered around Greene's forge as their home.-^

The iron used in these works was all American iron. The refined iron was brought chiefly from Pennsylvania by Apponaug, then a flourishing little seaport in the northwest corner of Coweset or Greenwich Bay, though scarcely ever visited now by anything but a lumberman from Maine or a collier from Pennsylvania. The rough ore came in part from the iron-beds in the adjacent town of Cranston, and was carted by farmers in their ox- carts to be smelted, with the help of black sand from Block Island, in the smelting-furnace which formed part of the works. Some of it was bog- iron from the neighboring swamps, and some was obtained by dragging the fresh-water ponds, which are spread like a net all over the western sections of the State. What use was made of Elliot's dis- covery of " the art of producing malleable iron from the black sea sand " I have not been able to ascertain.^

^ I have to thank for some of these Pawtucket, made a careful examina-

details the lion. Henry Rousmanicr, tion of the Warwick Records,

of Centre villc, who, in preparing his * See Holmes's Annals of America,

valuable sketches of the valley of the Vol. II. p. 123.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 35

"When the work was done, the anchors had to be carried to Apponaug in carts, and thence by water to Newport, the principal market for naval stores, and the great seaport of the colony. So well did the reputation of the Potowomut and Coventry works become established, that, more than half a century from their foundation, when the father of Commodore Perry lay at Newport in command of the " General Greene," he sent to the Greene forge for his anchors ; but so effacing are the habits of American life, that you may now go from door to door all through Coventry, and scarcely find a man who can tell you where they stood. Local cir- cumstances have preserved somewhat better the recollection of the forge and mill at Potowomut. But, with the exception of the dam, all traces of those also have been swept away within my own remembrance.

The distance between the two works was about ten miles, by a rough but pleasant road through green lanes, bordered in many parts by thick woods of walnut and oak, in some by lower growths of cedar ; opening on the highest ridges upon a rich foreground of forest, and a broad back- ground of water and islands ; the bright waters and green islands of Narragansett Bay, — green then, for the ruthless hand of war had not yet stripped them of their sheltering trees. At the bot- tom of the valleys, the road ran along the pebbly margin of a fresh-water pond, or crossed the course of a brawling rivulet, — ponds and brooks over

36 LIFE OF NATH.VNAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

^vliose fringed waters old Walton would have hung in dreamy ecstasy throughout the long sum- mer day. Over this road, to and fro, one of the partners had to pass in almost daily rides ; and it was a pleasant thought for the fither, as years thickened upon him, that he had such a sturd}'- band of sons at his call. But already his chief reliance was the son who bore his own name ; and thus in 1770, when it was decided that one of them should go and live at Coventry, the choice naturally fell upon him.

The removal to Coventry was a great event in this uniform though busy life. From childhood that son had lived under the same roof with his father and brothers, and now, in his twenty-ninth year, he was to build himself a house apart. We shall see by and by how his heart still clung to Potowomut. For his building-site he chose a spot on the hill- side, sheltered on the west by a natural wood, which still covered the brow of the hill ; sloping in front, like a green terrace, down to the brink of the river, and looking out over a broad belt of woodland towards Coweset Bay. From the tojD of the hill the eye reached the graceful curve and sparkling waters of the bay itself, which seems to shrink with a coy smile from the outstretched arms of Potowomut, and nestle securely under the bald headland of AVarwick Neck. The house was a neat two-story building, with four rooms on each floor, divided by a wide entry, and on the exterior something of an air of architecture, which still

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 37

pleases, if it does not satisfy, the eye. It was a great step in advance, both outside and in, of the old homestead at Potowomut.

Greene was soon settled, and his days resumed their even tenor. He was often in the saddle, making all his land journeys on horseback, — an unconscious preparation for the future, — and a mode of travelling to which his love of animals gave a peculiar zest. " His first visit, after an ab- sence from home," says one who w^as often in the family, " was always to the stable." ^ To Newport, instead of the old route by Potowomut River, he would go by a sloop from Greenwich ; sometimes, as a well-authenticated tradition attests, timing his movements so as to meet a party of friends at Hope, — a small rocky island half-way down the bay, — and pass the evening there in dancing. Thus much of his life was still an out-of-doors life, bringing him into constant contact with men, and almost always as a controller of their actions. Sometimes, when he found himself sin- gled out for an invitation while others of " equal claims " w^ere passed by, he would turn the cir- cumstance over in his mind with a kind of pleased surprise, and be " almost persuaded that he was a person of some importance."- Nor was he the only one that thought so. "Mr. Greene is a very re- markable man," said David Howell, then a tutor in Ehode Island College, but distinguished in later life at the bar, on the bench, and in Congress, and

1 Communicated by Mr. Rousmanier.

o

8 LIFE OF NATHAJfAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

who had ridden down to Coventry over night to borrow a book of him. It was not every day that either of them found such a man to talk with, and the conversation naturally ran on till late in the evening. Great was Howell's surprise, when he came down next morning before daylight, to make sure of reaching home in time for his recitation, to find Greene up before him, and "poring over a book by the fire." And as a proof of the delicacy of Greene's hospitality I will add, that when on parting for the night his guest had apologized for the necessity he should be under of leaving too early in the morning to bid him good by, he made no offer of breakfast, but when morning came the table was found set, and the breakfast ready.

CHAPTER IV.

Death of Greene's Father. — Greene a Voter. — First Steps in Public Life. — First Political Letter. — In the Assembly. — Gasper. — Takes his Stand. — William Greene of Warwick. — Henry Mar- chant. — Progress of the Revolution. — Greene's Opinion of Gov- ernor Ward as Deleorate to Conorress. — Militia Laws Revised. — Kentish Guards. — James M. Varnum. — Christopher Greene. — Letter to Varnum. — Trip to Boston to buy a Musket.

IVrOT long after his removal to Coventry his -*- ^ father died ; " an event," he writes, " which turned all our affairs into different channels, that made it requisite for me to give the closest appli- cation and attention to the settlement of matters." Still, no material change was made by it in the business relations of the brothers ; and everything continued to go on, as of old, in the name of the whole family. All had been trained to work with the feeling that in working for their father they were working for themselves; and, when the estate passed into their hands, they were prepared to share equally in its duties and profits.

In Rhode Island the right of suffrage, except for the eldest son of a freeholder, was founded upon the possession of real estate of the value of forty pounds sterling. Nathanael's half-brother Thomas, who died in 17G0, had given him an estate in

40 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

West Greenwich, and upon this he was admitted a freeman in Warwick in April, 1765 ; making, as a Quaker, his " solemn affirmation " to the protest against " bribery and corruption " which the law of that daj'- prescribed. Thus, wdthin a month after the passage of the Stamp Act, and just about the time when his future opponent, Cornwallis, be- came a '' Lord of the Bedchamber," Greene be- came a voter ; little dreaming the one of the other, or of the desperate race they were to run, or the blood}^ field on which they w^ere to meet in the wilds of Carolina. Three years later, when the non-importation resolutions of 1768 were in- troduced, Greene was on the committee for can- vassing the county for signatures ; and within the very year of his removal to Coventry he was chosen to represent his new home in the General Assembly. His earliest public act in this new home was to set on foot a movement for the estab- lishment of a school.

The great Rhode Island controversy of those days, in which town and country waged war upon each other under the names of Hopkins and Ward, until the original cause of the dispute became merged in a personal contest between party lead- ers, had been brought to an end, under the over- shadowing influence of the impending contest with England, two years before he entered the legis- lature. Family ties had naturally placed him in the Ward party, and it is not improbable that he took an active part in the dispute. But the record

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 41

of his political career is too imperfect at this point to permit us to follow his first steps in public life as closely as there is always a wish to do when the later steps became so important. His earliest political letter that has been preserved is ad- dressed to Moses Brown of Providence, and turns upon the opposition to the re-election of Judge Potter. "I should be remiss," he writes, "not to give you timely information of all matters that were likely to concern civil polity or the well-be- ing of the government, and in an especial manner when I thought you would be likely to adopt any plan to obviate their schemes. I know not for what reason, but there is the greatest opposition forminsr ao^ainst Judo-e Potter's ensuins; election that I ever saw in my life against any representa- tive. His conduct and mine hath been almost uniformly the same in public measures, except the affair of your Bridge ; and they have not the least objection to my going again, if I will not support

the Judge's ensuing election so zealously Was

I not conscious that the Judge would do his town and the government better service than any other person in it, I would not be so strongly attached to his interest as to oppose any man the better sort of people thought worthy, by their suffrage, to represent them in the General Assembly." The interest of this question has long since passed away even from Rhode Island history ; but it was a question which called into play the power of reading character and controlling men of one of

42 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

the founders of a great nation, and thus becomes a part of the world's history.

Of course, much of Greene's attention as a legis- lator was given to local details. But some of these local details involved the discussion of fundamental principles; and from what is positively known of his habits of mind, we may reasonably conclude that these discussions became for him the occa- sions of an enlarged and careful study. When the resolutions of 1774 against the " importation of negroes" were passed, he was not a member of the Assembly; but his declaration of a few years later, "As for slavery, nothing can be said in its defence," shows what his vote would have been. But in the legislature and out of it he was hence- forth a public man, taking an active interest, even when he did not take a leading part in public measures. The training that was to fit him for dealing with men, and bearing great resjDonsibili- ties, was begun.

He was not present at the burning of the " Gas- per," although a local tradition makes him one of the leaders ; ^ but he went to Providence the next day, and, as he rode along, must have seen the smoke floating over the smouldering hull, as two years later he saw it floating over the ruins of Charlestown. ^ Yet his name was mixed up with this bold enterprise in the English reports of it,

1 Colonel E. Bowen, who was pres- 2 Letter to S. Ward, Jr., January ent, told me that General Greene was 25, 1773. not.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 43

and in this offensive connection probably first met the royal eye, which it was soon to meet still more offensively. When the " new-fangled court," as he calls it, assembled at Newport to receive informa- tion against the persons suspected of taking a part in the destruction of the royal cutter, he con- demned it as "alarming to every virtuous mind and lover of liberty in America." He condemns also the attitude of the General Assembly, which " seems to have lost all that spirit of independence and public virtue that has ever distinguished them since they have first been incorporated, and sunk down into a tame submission and entire acquies- cence to ministerial mandates." Already his views embraced the whole country, and the earliest writr ten expression of his political sentiments implies Union : " If this court and mode of trial is estab- lished as a precedent, it will naturally affect all the other colonies."

It is easy to conceive with what interest he read the " Farmers' Letters," and how prominent a place he gave in his library to the Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal law, and Novanglus, and the Massachusetts circular, and Otis's Eights of the British Colonies, and Quincy's Observations on the Boston Port Bill, and the other tracts of that reasoning period, during which the public mind was preparing itself for open resistance. His own mind was prepared for the worst. " The ministry seem to be determined to imbrue their cursed hands in American blood." ^

1 To S. Ward, Jr.

44 LIFE OF NATH.\NAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

These sentiments brought him into intimate rela- tions with the popular leaders. " I spent last even- ing with him (Governor Ward), Mr. Marchant, and sundry other gentlemen, at your uncle Greene's,'' he writes Governor Ward's son, Samuel, January 25, 1773. Tliat uncle Greene was the second William of the Warwick branch, through whom the blood of the first John Greene was mingled with the blood of Eoger AVilliams and Samuel Gorton, — historical names all of them, and repre- sentatives of prolific ideas. He, too, was already in public life as associate judge, and was to become chief justice, and, in a very critical moment of the war, governor. The Mr. Marchant was Henry Marchant, the Attorney-General, who had been sent to England two years before to demand the payment of the old war debt, and who was in four years more to take the place which had been so well filled by Samuel Ward in Congress. It is easy to conceive what brought such men together at such a time.

Nor did Greene long have occasion to complain of the spirit of the Assembly. The idea of a Gen- eral Congress as a means of obtaining redress had been familiar to the popular mind ever since the Congress of 17G5, and must have been so often discussed in private as to make the first public sug- gestion of it almost a matter of chance. But the first official action was that of a town-meeting in Providence on the 17th of May, 1774, instructing their " Deputies to the General Assembly " to use

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 45

their influence for promoting a Congress ; -^ and as an augury of Union, the very first election sent the leaders of Ehode Island's two great parties to sit in that Congress side by side, and take counsel together for the common defence.

Greene felt all the solemnity of this act. "Heaven bless their (the Congresses') consultations," he wrote Samuel Ward, Jr., "with her seasoning grace, and crown their resolution with success and tri- umph ! " The choice of Governor Ward gave him particular pleasure. " The mean motives of in- terest, of partial distinction of ministers of state, will have no influence upon his virtuous soul : like Cato of old, he '11 stand or fall with the lib- erties of his country."

In the December session, although not a mem- ber of the Assembly, he was put upon " a commit- tee to revise the militia laws of the Colony," and report " as soon as may be." ^ Events were hasten- ing, and his part becoming daily more important. The cannon had already been removed from Fort George. The resolution to proceed immediately to the formation of a public magazine of powder, lead, and flints, and the recommendation " to all the inhabitants of this colony, that they expend no gunpowder for mere sport and diversion, and in pursuit of game," and the act in pursuance of the report of the committee upon militia laws provid- ing for monthly exercises in " martial discipline,"

1 Arnold has examined this subject ~ Bartlet's Rhode Island Records, with his usual candor and good sense Vol. VIII. p. 262. in the second volume of his History of Rhode Island, p. 334.

46 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

and for the manner in which " the forces within this colony sliall march to the assistance of any of our sister colonies when invaded or attacked," close ominously the last year of colonial peace. Of all these preparations, none came more di- rectly home to his personal feelings than the or- ganization of the Kentish Guards, an independent company for East Greenwich, Warwick, and Coven- try, similar in object and plan to those which were organizing all over the country. To these three towns he was bound by peculiar ties ; having been born in Warwick, living in Coventry, and going, from childhood, every week to meditate in silence or listen in reverence in the meeting-house that stood thoughtfully amid rows of uninscribed graves on the bank of a mill-pond in a sweet little valley just beyond the hill-top of Greenwich. All the members of this company were his neighbors and acquaintances, some of them his friends. Among its first officers were James Mitchel Varnum, a man of "exalted talents," whom he "loved and esteemed," who was to take an honorable place in the civil and military history of the Revolution ; and Christopher Greene, who was to follow Arnold to Quebec, defend Red Bank against Donop and his Hessians, and die, sword in hand, in the flower of his age, victim of the negligence of a militia guard. And still, as the war went on, this little nursery of gallant men sent out officers to the regular army, till they numbered nearly thirty in all. Nathanael Greene was among the peti-

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 47

tioners for a charter, which was granted m the October session of 1774.^

But in connection with the Kentish Guards there was a mortification in store for Greene for which he Avas little prepared. He had entered the company as a private, and without any idea of taking a commission. But this some of his friends would not consent to, and by dint of persuasion they prevailed upon him to let his name be brought forward for a lieutenancy. But they were to encounter an objection which none of them had foreseen. Greene's stiff knee gave, as we have already seen, a limp to his gait ; and in the eyes of some of the village critics this limp, though slight, was a serious blemish, unfitting him, not merely for an oflicer, but even for a private. A limping soldier in ranks like theirs ! Greene was thunderstruck. It was the first mortification he had ever received, and he took it sorely to heart. His friends were indignant. Varnum threatened to withdraw his name, and the loss of Varnum's fine person and popular eloquence would have been a serious blow to the halforganized com- pany.

But this was a form of resentment that Greene could not accept, and, not satisfied with having told his friend by word of mouth how he thought and felt about it, he returned to the subject in a letter, which, happily for his memory, still exists

1 The original draft of the charter also Khode Island Records, Vol. is among the Varnum Papers. See VII. p. 260.

48 LIFE OF NATH/VNAEL GREENE. [1742-1755.

in his own hand, to show how firmly he ah-eady held the rein of his passions, and how early he learned to subject his feelings as a man to his du- ty as a citizen. And thus he writes from Coventry, on Monday, 2 o'clock, P. M.

" Dear Sir : —

"As I am ambitious of maintaining a place in your esteem, and cannot hope to do it if I discover in my actions a little mind and a mean spirit, I think in justice to myself I ought to acquaint you with the particulars of the subject on which we conversed to-day. I was in- formed the gentlemen of East Greenwich said that I was a blemish to the company. I confess it is the first stroke of mortification I ever felt from being considered, cither in private or public life, a blemish to those with whom I associated. Hitherto I have always had the happiness to find myself respected in society in general, and my friendship courted by as respectable characters as any in the government. Pleased with these thoughts, and anx- ious to promote the good of my country, and ambitious of increasing the consequence of East Greenwich, I have exerted myself to form a military company there ; but little did I think that the gentlemen considered me in the light of an obtruder. My heart is too susceptible of pride, and my sentiments too delicate, to wisli a con- nection where I am considered in an inferior point of light. I have always made it my study to promote the interest of Greenwicli, and to cultivate the good opinion of its inhabitants, (so) that the severity of the speech, and the union of sentiment coming from persons so unex- pected, might wound the pride of my heart deeper than the force of the observation merited. God knows when I first entered this company, I had not in contemplation

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 49

any kind of office, but was fully determined not to accept any ; but GrifF and others has been endeavor- ing to obtain my consent for some weeks past. I never expected that being a member of the company would give me any more consequence in life either as a private soldier or commissioned officer. I thought the cause of liberty was in danger ; and as it was at- tackt by a military force, it was necessary to cultivate a military spirit amongst the people, that, should tyranny endeavor to make any other advances, we might be pre- pared to check it in its first sallies. I considered with myself that, if we should never be wanted in that char- acter, it would form a pretty little society in our meetings when we might relax ourselves a few hours from the various occupations of life, and return to our business again with more activity and spirit. I did not want to add any new consequence to myself from the distinction of that company ; if I had been ambitious of promotion in a public character, you yourself can witness for me I have had it in my power, but I always preferred the pleasures of private society to those of public distinction. If I conceive right of the force of the objection of the gen- tlemen of the town, it was not as an officer, but as a soldier for that my halting was a blemish to the rest. I confess it is my misfortune to limp a little, but I did not conceive it to be so great ; but we are not apt to discover our own defects. I feel the less mortified at it as it 's nat- ural, and not a stain or defection that resulted from my actions. I have pleased myself with the thought of serving under you, but as it is the general opinion that I am un- fit for such an undertaking, I shall desist. I feel not the less inclination to promote the good of the company, be- cause I am not to be one of its members. I will do any- thing tliat 's in my power to procure the charter. I will

50 LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

bear my proportion of the expense until the company is formed and completely equipt. Let me entreat you, sir, if you have any regard for me, not to forsake the com- pany at this critical season, for I fear the consequences ; if you mean to oblige me by it, I assure you it will not. I would not have the com|-any break and disband for fifty dollars ; it would be a disgrace upon the county, and upon the town in particular. I feel more mortification than resentment, but I think it would manifest a more gener- ous temper to liave given me their opinions in private than to make proclamation of it in puljlic as a capital ob- jection ; for nobody loves to be the subject of ridicule, however true the cause. I purpose to attend to-morrow, if my business will permit, and, as Mrs. Greene is waiting, will add no more, only that I am, with great truth, your sincere friend."

How the matter was finally arranged is no longer known, beyond the simple fact that he re- mained in the company as a private. There was still another practical difficulty : where should he find a musket ? for alreadj^ muskets and military accoutrements of all kinds were hard to get. He resolved to go to Boston, where his business rela- tions, although it was the first year of the Port Bill, would afford a sufficient pretext for a visit. It is probable that he took lodgings at the " Bunch of Grapes," on the little square in front of Faneuil Hall. If we bear in mind his position in the Legis- lature, we shall see that he would hardly be in Boston at such a time without endeavoring to ex- change opinions with the leaders of the popular party. He may have met Sam Adams and War-

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 51

ren, and discussed with them the chances of that arm J of twenty thousand men which Massachusetts had just asked Rhode Island to join with New Hampshire and Connecticut in helping her raise, and Josiah Quincy's pamphlet, and that little close- printed quarto of sixteen pages which told what the General Congress of Philadelphia had done. It is as certain as tradition can make it, that he went more than once to Knox's bookstore. It is posi- tively known that he attended the morning and evening parades of the British troops, looking at them sternly from under the broad brim of his Quaker hat with those keen eyes which, before another twelvemonth was passed, were to look at them more sternly still from under the cocked hat of a brigadier-general. And then, having bought a musket, and engaged a British deserter to go back with him as drill-master to the " Guards," he prevailed upon a farmer to hide his musket in his cart, and, following him at a cautious distance, set out upon his journey homeward. Once over the Roxbury lines, he would breathe freely ; but when, a few months later, he heard poor Ditson's ^ story, he must have recalled his own adventure with something more than self-congratulation. In a few days he appeared on parade with his drill- master and his musket ; and still in the old home- stead, w^here he was born and grew up to full man- hood, that musket has its place on the wall, and is reverentially preserved in memory of him.

1 Who was tarred and feathered for buying one. See Force, Am. Archives, 4th Series, Vol. II. p. 83.

CHAPTER V.

Inner Life. — Mental Culture. — How and what be studied. — His Library. — Study of Composition. — Letters to S. Ward, Jr. — Quaker Prejudices against Literature. — Glimpses of his Daily Life and Habits. — Forge burned. — A Lottery. — Letter to William Greene. — Asthma. — In Love. — Why he loved S. Ward. — S. Ward's Sister. — Progress of the Dispute with England. — Greene resolves to take up Arms. — Read out of the Meeting. — Threatened Accusation. — Military Reading. — Rhode Island College. — Court- ship and Marriage. — Domestic Life. — Rapid Development of Pub- lic Opinion. — Tea burned in Market Square, Providence. — Battle of Lexington. — March of Kentish Guards. — Assembly meets. — Army of Observation. — Mission to Connecticut. — Greene chosen Brigadier-General. — Commission. — Farewell Letter to his W^ife.

"OUT, side by side with this out-of-door hfe, in -*-^ the eye of his Uttle world, Greene was Hving a thoughtful inner life, which few in that world could appreciate or understand. From the time when his literary curiosity had first been awakened by his conversation with Giles he had resolved to make the cultivation of his mind a part of his daily work. The long evenings of winter, and early ris- ing all the year round, gave him hours and half- hours which amounted to days in the course of the month, and he turned them all to account. Some time, too, as I have already said, he gained during his working hours by still keeping his book at hand, to be taken up, though but for a moment,

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 53

while the iron was heating, or for freer use wliile the corn was passing from the hopper.

In this way he had gradually mastered Euclid and Locke ; the frequent interruptions serving only to make him think more closely, and weigh every idea and principle more carefull}^, before it took its appropriate place in his mind. Thus his mode of reading became very deliberate, and being prevented both by the turn of his mind and his slender stock of books from reading for excitement, he would read the same book over and over again, returning to it with unpalled appetite, until he had made himself thoroughly master of its contents. And thus, too, his knowledge, instead of floating loosel}'' upon the surface of his mind, permeated every part of it, and became a substantial thing, over which his control was absolute. And hence, in after years, it was a saying, among those who knew him best, that nobody could get the sub- stance out of a book as he could.^

It was not, however, without the constant ex- ertion of a strong will that he could carry his studies beyond Barclay and Fox, much less enter those profane regions where wit and poetry spread their snares for heedless feet. Of his father's prej- udices I have already spoken ; and it was not till

•1 This has often been told me by knowledge how much I owe to her

my grandaunt, Mary Ward, sister of tenderness for the happiness of my

Greene's first love, and of his early early years, and to Tier sound, clear

friend, Samuel Ward. The reader mind for my comprehension of the

will pardon me if I add, that I can- feelings and sentiments of our Revo-

not write the name of this excellent lution. woman without a longing to ac-

54 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

he grew up to man's estate that he became wholly free to follow his natural bent and indulge a wider range of study, and not until he had a house of his own that he could make a library a part of its furniture. Then the pleasant little northeast room that looks down the meadow to the river was chosen for a study ; and, on walls covered with the miscellaneous contents of a country store, a few shelves were set apart for his books. By degrees the number rose to two hundred and fifty well- chosen volumes, the wonder of the country round, and which doubtless made even some of his friends, as they thought of the precious dollars that had been given for them, shake their heads gravely, and say, " You never can read them all ! " There was Euclid, his early teacher, who had given him his first consciousness of a firm grasp upon scientific truth. There were the four thick octavos of the Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, answering hun- dreds of the questions that crowded upon his mind, and illustrating its answers, when they were susceptible of illustration, by elaborate engravings. He had paid " four pounds lawful " for them ; but it was not by pounds and shillings that the pleas- ure and profit he had derived from them could be estimated. There was John Mair's " Book-keep- ing Methodized," with a dictionary of commercial terms, and an appendix full of valuable informa- tion about the Colonial trade, — lessons gratefully remembered when the complicated questions and accounts of the quartermaster-general's department

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 55

came up before him. There were Locke's Essay and Butler's Analogy. There, high in place, were the four beautiful quartos of Blackstone from the Ox- ford press, and near them an Edinburgh quarto, with leaves often and thoughtfully turned, Fergu- son's Essay on Civil Society, — a w^ork little read now, but which was held in that day to have " a great deal of genius and fine writing." ^ Beccaria's golden treatise, the first application of a humane philosophy to the theory of crimes and punish- ments, was there also. Were not Montesquieu and Burlamaqui, and Puffendorf and Vattel, and Hume's essays close by its side ? I do not know positively, though I know that a few years later he had read Vattel and Hume ; and he could hardly have seen the names of the others recurring so often, in books which he is known to have read, without feeling a strono; desire to read them too. His Roman his- tory was Rollin, with engravings facing the title- page ; young Pompey leading his horse before the censors ; Regulus tearing himself from the arms of his wife and children ; Caesar sinking under the dagger which Brutus, with averted head, thrusts into his bosom. His English history was Eapin ; his rhetoric and literature, Rollin in four duodeci- mos. There was Csesar " Englished by Duncan," and Horace by Smart. There was Pope's Homer, and Pope's own poems, and the Spectator, and Swift, whose terse simplicity he had early learned to admire, and Tristram Shandy, whom he often

1 Hume to Robertson, May 29, 1759. Stewart's Life of Robertson.

66 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

quotes, and whose Dr. Slop he loved to unperson- ate to the great amusement of his brothers. And in most of these books, on a fly-leaf or the title- page, was written Nathanael Greene's, in a bold, round hand, which a schoolmaster might have en- vied, but which was to lose itself almost in a swift running-hand when thoughts crowded his pen, and expresses, booted and spurred, waited to convey his orders.

How soon he began to use his pen as a means of culture I have no w^ay of ascertaining. The earliest specimens of his writings that have been preserved are his letters to Samuel Ward, Jr., a son of the Governor, beginning shortly after his re- moval to Coventry, and coming down to the mid- dle of 1774. Some of these are regular studies of composition ; showing less, however, the progress he had made as a writer than the subjects to which he had turned his thoughts, and the opinions he had formed upon them. In one of these letters he traces our actions to " self-love " as " the primary mover and first principle of them all," attributing the " hazardous actions of great and exalted spirits " " for the good of others " to the " passion of glory," and the '• generous benevolence of worthy minds in the domestic way of life " to the " greater hap- piness " which the gratification of their benevo- lence affords them.

In a comparison between town and country life, he unconsciously gives us a pleasant glimpse of his own way of enjoying life in the country. Town

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE, 57

life reminds him of a cloudy sky, country life of a clear one, each acting upon the other by a law of " necessary succession " ; but country life, in which " nature seems to move gently on, undisturbed by noise and tumult," affords an opportunity of " con- templating her order and beauty until we arrive at that pitch of knowledge and understanding that the God of nature has qualified us to soar to."

He defines " virtuous manners as such acquired habits of thought and correspondent actions as lead to the steady prosecution of the general wel- fare of society. Virtuous principles are such as tend to confirm those habits by superinducing the idea of duty." " Virtuous manners " he holds to be " a permanent foundation for civil liberty, be- cause they lead the passions and desires them- selves to coincide with the appointments of civil law." He speaks of benevolence, " What shall I say to you of benevolence ? The example of God teacheth the lesson truly." He speaks of friend- ship, and finds its " principal fruit in the ease and discharge of the swelling of the heart." " The jDur- suit of virtue where there is no opposition," he re- gards as " the merit of a common man ; but to practise it in spite of all opposition is the charac- ter of a truly great and noble soul." Sometimes his sentiments assume the form of friendly sugges- tion. " It is very fortunate for you to be able to enumerate a long train of noble ancestors, but to equal the best and excel the most is to have no occasion for any He that enters in life with

58 LIFE OF NATn.\NAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

all the advantages of a noble birth, adorned with a liberal education and improved by the most pious example, cannot be excused short of an improve- ment proportionate to the opportunity given

Learn, my friend, to distinguish between true and false modesty. AVhat I call false modesty is not to have resolution to deny an unreasonable request

or power to oppose a corrupt custom Have

you not felt, on seeing or reading of noble deeds or generous actions, pleasant emotions mixt with the desire of imitation? These are the advantages that spring from choice books and the best of com- pany. They inspire the mind to action, and direct the passions."

Sometimes his thoughts, dwelling upon the bright prospects of his young friend, revert with a dignified consciousness to his own position. " I hope one day to see you shine like a star of the first magnitude, all glorious both evening and morning I lament the want of liberal edu- cation. I feel the mist of ignorance to surround me. .... I was educated a Quaker, and amongst the most superstitious sort ; and that of itself is enough to cramp the best of geniuses, much more mine. This constrained manner of educating their youth has proved a fine nursery of ignorance and super- stition instead of piety, and has laid a foundation for farce instead of worship."

He then goes on to show that " it was not the original intention of the Friends to prevent the propagation of useful literature in the Church, but

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 59

only to prohibit their youth from reading such books as may make them fools by industry " ; that " they considered youth to be the great opportu- nity of life, which settles or fixes most men in a good or bad course " ; that, falling upon an age of priestcraft, they were disgusted with a system of education the only aim of which was to " cultivate the youthful mind to be subservient to the after- views " of the priesthood, and failing to distinguish " where the evil lay," and, arguing " from the abuse to the disuse of the thing," they confounded litera- ture with a " vain philosophy," and while they aimed only " to lop off the dead branches," super- stition and ignorance, creeping in, " increased into

the decay of learning This, my dear friend,

was the foundation of my education."

It is this feeling, perhaps, that prevents him from speaking often of books, although a mention of them now and then creeps in. " I have been read- ing," he writes, July 21, 1773, "Butler's Analogy between Natural and Eevealed Religion." Some- times his reading furnishes him with a simile, " Griffin pursued him through Connecticut as Death did Tristram Shandy through France." Sometimes with a quotation, " I conclude with the contents of one of Seneca's letters, ^ I am well, I hope you are well, farewell.' " Once there is an attempt at hu- mor. He sends out an imaginary messenger to see what his friend " Sam " is a doing ; and, after some hesitation, the messenger says : " Why, then, — if — -.if I must, I will. I found him out in the

60 LIFE OF NATIIAN.\EL GREEXE. [1742-1775.

woods the back of the house with his winter shoes on, new modelling his bow agreeably to the Boston plan. He had scraped up the earth as you have seen stray cattle when they meet, and was all be- smeared with the dust he had raised ; he looked like the miller in the farce." The drama, if we^nay judge by this allusion, had attracted some share of his attention. Once only does he quote poetry. A " once celebrated " belle had joaid him a visit. She was in declining health. " She appears," he writes, " like a gaudy flower nipt by the pinch- ing frost. I fancy she is not long for this world. Though she flies swiftly on the wings of wild de- sire for matrimony.

" How rich, how valued once avails thee not ; To whom related or by whom begot. A heap of dust alone remains of thee, 'T is all thou art, and all the proud shall be."

In these transcripts of his mind he gives us oc- casional glimpses of himself from other points of view. " I have been to meeting to-daj^," he writes, of a Sunday afternoon ; " our silence was inter- rupted by a vain, conceited minister. Ilis sermon made me think of a certain diet called Whistle- Belly vengeance ; he that eats most has the worst share. lie began by asking what could be said that had not been said : 'Much more,' thinks I, ' than you ever thought or ever will.' Poor man ! he had a little morsel to comfort himself, and he could n't be contented to eat it alone, but, feeling the springs . of benevolence rise up in his mind, he thought it

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 61

his duty to make a distribution among the whole congregation. The assembly was so large and the matter so light that it evaporated like smoke, and left us neither the fuller nor the better pleased than when he began."

Another day he was more fortunate. " There has been a famous preacher at Greenwich. He is a gentleman of elevated faculties, a fine speaker, and appears by his language to be a lover of man- kind."

Sometimes we meet a passage that gives us a morning glance into his room ; as Cicero's licec ante diluculum scripsi^ does into the early hours of the great orator. " Day stands tiptoe, and the rays of the sun begin to gild the tops of the high- est hills and tallest trees," he writes in August, 1772; arnd sometimes a glance which shows that, with all his love of books and application to business, he loved a hearty merry-making still. " I am just returned from Mr. Benjamin Gardener's wedding," he writes from Potowomut in January, 1774. " We

kept it up three or four days The bride was

dressed in a corded lutestring gown, flounced and furbelowed in high taste ; her head was dressed in a laced fly, long lappets — "and then suddenly checking his pen, as if conscious that he was beyond his depth, he adds, " the rest of the head-dress was of a piece, which I leave to your imagination to frame, as I am no great connoisseur in female fur- niture, and am at a loss for a name to convey my

1 I wrote this before dawn.

62 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

ideas. The bride looked rich, but not neat; amia- ble, but not handsome. So much for the wedding." And passing to " snow-storm upon snow-storm ; all the face of the earth is covered with virgin snow," he closes with another unconscious revelation of character, showino; how strono- his local attach- ments were, and what a hold the old homestead had upon his affections. "Although it (the snow) is deep and difficult to get abroad, yet I can't con- fine myself long from Potowomut, where we ap- jDear as the people of old did that went into the ark, male and female."

In the summer of 1772, August 17, the forge at Coventry was burnt down. Lotteries were the in- surance companies of that day, and the Legislature was petitioned for a lottery. Lest any one should feel inclined to tax the Greenes with gambling, let it be remembered that school-houses and churches were built and repaired by the same means, and that even private individuals felt authorized to have recourse to them for the reparation of pri- vate losses.

" Whereas," say the records, " John Greene & Compan}', and Griffin Greene all of Coventry ; and Nathaniel Greene & Company preferred a petition, and represented unto this Assemljly that, on the night of the 17tli instant, the buildino-s of the foro-e in said Coventry, of which they were owners, were entirely consumed by fire ; that the loss is so great that they cannot repair it without assistance ; that some of them are considerably indebted, have in-

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 6

o

creasing families to maintain, and by the said mis- fortune are deprived of their principal dependence ; that although they the petitioners are the immedi- ate sufferers, yet many others must consequently share in the calamity, as a considerable part of the country adjacent were employed by means of said forge, which also furnished a very material and expensive article for shipping ; and that, if the said forge be not repaired, the anchor works, which still remain, will be in a manner useless ; and thereupon prayed this Assembly to grant them a lottery to raise the sum of $ 2,500 under the direction of Messrs. William Greene, Christopher Greene, and Charles Holden, they giving bond for the faithful performance of the said trust ; on consideration whereof

" Be it enacted by this General Assembly and by the authority thereof it is enacted, that the afore- said petition be, and the same is hereby granted." ^

Two years later Nathaniel Greene & Company relinquished their interest in the lottery, which by a new act, in compliance with a new petition, was made over to Griffin Greene, whose name we shall often meet as a favorite cousin of the General.^ A letter to William Greene gives the story from an- other point of view.

" Coventry, August 23, 1772.

" News of our misfortune in the destruction of the forge doubtless will reach you before this. We have made ap-

1 Bartlett, R. I. Records, Vol. VII. stated in the text, see the same vol- p. 52. For numerous instances of ume, passim. similar grants, to the full extent ^ Records ut sitjj. 242.

64 LIFE OF NATnAN.\EL GREENE. [1742-1775.

plication to the General Asseml)ly for a lottery, which have obtained a grant of. You, jNIr. Christopher Greene, and Charles Holden, are appointed directors. I must entreat you to accept of that trust, lest it should defeat the whole scheme. I am confident the satisfaction of as- sisting the unfortunate will give you as much pleasure as will balance the trouble and diflEiculty you '11 experi- ence upon the occasion. I urge it more on my uncle and Griffin's account than our own ; and had it not been for them we had not adopted this method to recover part of our loss, but the injury was too great for them to re- cover themselves without the aid and assistance of their friends. The loss is much greater in its consequences to us than it would be in its own nature, for uncle's loss is our loss, for this unhappy affair will put it out of his pow- er to pay us our demands for some time, if ever he gets able." 1

Thus much for the lottery, which I have thought too mteresting an illustration of ninety years ago to be passed over in silence.

" I have had a most severe turn of the phthisic or asthma," the letter continues ; " I have not slept six hours in four nights, being obliged to sit up the two last nights. I hope you and your family enjoy a better state of health. If ever I felt the benefit of philosophy it has been upon this occasion, for I felt as calm and as contented as old Socrates when condemned unjustly by the /Athenians."

This is the first mention of a disease which stuck to him through life ; and if we feel a smile stealing

1 I am indebted for tlie original left in blank are covered with memo- of this letter to Lieutenant-Governor randa of names and numbers, show- William Greene, the grandson of the ing how industriously the trust was William to whom it was written, fulfilled. All the parts of iho sheet originally

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 65

to our lips at the self-congratulatory comparison with Socrates, we may remember that Greene was not a mere declaimer, trying to embellish a sen- tence, but a student of real life, trying to form him- self for its duties by the example of great men.

A few days after the fire he wrote to Samuel Ward : " Your letter reached me the morning after the destruction of the forge. I sat upon the remains of one of the old shafts and read it. I was surrounded with gloomy faceSj piles of timber still in flames, heaps of bricks dasht to pieces, bushels of coal reduced to ashes ; — everything seemed to appear in ruin and confusion." The letter troubled him too. Some expressions in one of his own let- ters had been misunderstood, and his young friend had been wounded by them. "I read over your letter once or twice," Greene writes, " before I could satisfy myself whether the surprise I felt was the effect of the loss, or from the contents of the letter." He defends himself warmly ; but a sweet tone of affection runs through his defence, and, withdrawing for a moment the veil of his feelings, he confesses that " a contest has been going on in his bosom, that his breast has been like a theatre of strife and a field of battle, where reason and pas- sion contend with various successes of power and victory." If we would know why he was thus " at variance " with himself, and continually " torn and distracted with civil feuds of his own disturbed im- agination" we must go a little more into detail and withdraw the veil still further.

66 LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENR [1742-1775.

There were many things in young Samuel Ward to draw Greene towards him, notwithstanding the fourteen years' difference in their ages. Nature had given him fine talents. The happy fortune of his birth had brought him early into contact with cultivated men. He laid the foundation of his education betimes, graduating at Rhode Island Colleo-e on its third commencement, and with hio-h honors, although not yet turned of sixteen. As he came out into life it was seen that sound principles, force of ^vill, self-control, and generous sentiments formed a part of that education ; exalted, all of them, by an honorable ambition, and vivified by a dash of bold enterprise. How resolutely he bore the privations of the march through the wilder- ness, how bravely he fought under the walls of Quebec, how gallantly he faced the Hessians at Red Bank, how adventurously, when the war was ended, he carried the flag of the new republic into the China seas, with what placid serenity he re- turned to the plough when his midday was passed, closing the active portion of his long career amid the woods and fields, cheerfully sowing where his hand might not be permitted to gamer, and plant- ing trees whose fruit he could never hope to see, are things which it is not now my office to tell. But I cannot write his name upon the same page with that of my grandfather, without re- calling, as if it were but of yesterday, the rev- erence with which, thirty years ago, and with eyes already accustomed to look upon historical

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 67

men, I looked upon his venerable form as bent, but not broken by age, he would talk to me of Horace, his daily companion, or, at my urgent request, call forth from his faithful memory some pleasing recollection of the friend of his youth.

And now, if we bear in mind Greene's political ties, we shall see how naturally his relations with the father would ripen into still closer relations with the son. And if we remember the longing with which he looked to the intellectual " Canaan " amid whose pleasant places his young friend was roaming at will, while his own feet, like those of " Moses of old," were stayed by the waters of " Jor- dan," we shall see how much this intimate connec- tion with one so highly favored must have ap- peared to him like standing on the brink of the stream, and catching a breath from the hallowed region beyond.

But besides all this, Samuel \yard had a sister who was exceeding fair in the eyes of his friend ; a maiden in whom all the noble instincts of the father and brother looked out through soft eyes of bluish gray, strengthening the harmony of well- matched features, deepening at times the tints upon rosy cheeks, and imparting dignity to a form which, although not above the middle size, was full of symmetry and grace. In the intimacy of coun- try life, Greene had seen her grow up from girl- hood to womanhood, and learned as he talked with her and looked upon her to give her his love.

68 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

But she could only give him friendship in return, and for a long while the alternations of hope and fear, the effort to awaken a warmer feeling, and the Q:rowin2: consciousness that his efforts were vain, seem to have " overwhelmed " him as they have overwhelmed the lovers of all generations with " agreeable distress and pleasant pains." And this it was that made him feel " at variance with himself " ; and the meditative habits which his natural disposition and his mode of life encouraged must have greatly contributed to increase and pro- lono* the aficitation.

It was fortunate for him that just at this time public questions began to demand a larger share of his attention. The dispute with England was rapidly assuming a more decided form, and making it necessary for men of all classes to choose their side in the approaching contest. For Greene this decision involved another decision, which he could not make without pain, although he made it with- out hesitation. He saw that nothinor but a reso- lute appeal to arms could save the colonies from absolute subjection to the royal prerogative. He felt that his country had the same right to his ser- vices in the field which he had recognized as her unquestionable right in the council-chamber. But he knew that he could not take a sword in his hand without exposing himself to be cast out from the religious society with which he had lived in unbroken harmony from his earliest childhood. Amid the little nameless mounds that dotted the

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREEXE. 69

greensward on the west side of the Quaker meet- ing-house, there was one which he knew to be the grave of his mother, and by the same path by which, when but a boy of ten, he had followed her body to its resting-place, he had in riper years followed two brothers and his father to their places by her side. How could he cut himself off from a seat in the building in which he had so often lis- tened to his father's voice, and his rio^ht to a o-rave in a spot consecrated by the graves of father and mother and brothers ?

His heart was tender, and his personal and local attachments strong ; but he took his resolution de- liberately, and ever after abided firmly by it. Yet although from the first his sentiments must have been known to the " meeting," and consequently condemned, it was not till he had made a public profession of them by attending a military pa- rade at Plainfield, near the Rhode Island border, that it took public notice of them. Then says the record : —

" At our monthly meeting, held at Cranston on

the 5th of seventh month, 1773 Whereas,

this meeting is informed that Nathanael and Griffin Greene have (been) at a place in Connecticut of public resort where they had no proper business, therefore this meeting appoints Ephraim Congdon, Jared Greene, and Cary Spencer to make inquiry into the matter, and to make report at our next monthly meeting."

And when the next meetins; came too;ether, it

70 LIFE OF NATIL\>'AEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

was further resolved : " At our monthly meeting at East Greenwich y^ 2d of the eighth month, 1773, The committee appointed to inquire into the con- duct of Nathanael Greene and Griffin Greene re- port that they have had no opportunity with them as yet. Therefore it is continued to our next monthly meeting."

There was an evident reluctance to proceed to extremities against the son and nephew of an emi- nent preacher. The next meeting was held at " Cranston on y^ Gth day of y^ ninth month," and still the blow was suspended. " In the matter re- ferred to this meetino; concernins; Nathanael Greene and Griffin Greene, the committee report that they have treated with them, but they have given no satisfaction as j'et. Whereupon this meeting con- tinues it once more, and desires the clerk to in- form them of the same."

Another month passes, both parties meeting con- stantly the while in the pursuit of their customary avocations. The next meeting is held at East Greenwich, in the very building wherein for almost thirty years his face had been one of the most familiar, and there on " y^ 30th day of y® ninth month " the clerk writes with reluctant pen, — " The matter referred to this meetino; conceruino; Na- thanael Greene and Griffin Greene, as they have not given this meeting any satisfaction for their outgoing and misconduct, therefore this meeting doth put them from under the care of the meeting until they make satisfaction for their misconduct,

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 71

and appoint John Greene to inform them of the same." ^

Ah'eady this same year he had been menaced, with a more dangerous accusation. " One of the Gaspee's people has sworn against me as being con- cerned in the destruction of her I should

be tempted to let the sun shine through him if I could come at him," he writes Samuel Ward. The idea of being " called to the bar as a criminal," in such a cause, has its ludicrous side also. " Would it not make you laugh," he writes, "to see the Colonel stand in that attitude ? "

And now military books began to make their appearance on his shelves, purchased, most of them, an authentic tradition says, at the bookstore of Henry Knox, whom he had known thus far only as a bookseller, but whom he was soon to meet in camp, and to live with throughout the rest of his life as a cherished friend. Then came the organization of the Kentish Guards. His separation from the Quakers was complete and irrevocable.

One more trace of his interest in another class of questions remains. Rhode Island College had been established in 1764 (February 27), and gave promise of becoming an important institution. There was still, however, as late as 1770 (February 7), an uncertainty about the best place for a per- manent location ; all the principal towns of the

1 MSS. records. I am indebted for ray friend and schoolmate, James H. my copy of the passages in the text to Eldridge, M.D., of East Greenwich.

72 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

State claiming it on the ground of peculiar local advantages. Greene took an active part in the discussion, advocating the claims of East Green- Tvich.^

Erelong another decisive change in his per- sonal condition followed. Just where the hill on whose eastern slope East Greenwich is built be- gins to fall away on the west towards a deep and smiling valley stands the house of Governor Greene, — a large house for the early Colonial days in which it was built, and to whose unadorned walls association still gives such an air of simple dignity that you instinctively pause and look around you before you cross the threshold ; for there are few of Rhode Island's great men who have not crossed it, and in its little southwest parlor, whose w^estern window overlooks the valley, Franklin loved to sit and look upon the pleasant landscape. But it was not to sit where Franklin had sat, or even to discuss, with the future governor, the anxious questions of the day, that Greene stopped so often and so long in his frequent passings by. But that little parlor was lighted now by eyes of bluish gra}^, which smiled upon him till he forgot in whom he had first learned to love such eyes, and a form light and agile in his favorite dance, and a merry laugh from dewy lips, and a lively wit, and a heart all ready to meet his own in equal exchange.

1 "Guild's History of Brown Uni- interesting chapters of this authentic versify. The history of the location and important work, of this institution is one of the most

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 73

The maiden's name was Catherine Littlefield, and she was a niece of the governor's wife, the Cather- ine Ray of Franklin's letters. The courtship sped swiftly and smoothly ; and more than once, in the course of it, he followed her to Block Island, where, as long after, her sister told me, the time passed gleefully in merry-makings, of which dan- cing always formed a principal part. And, on the 12th of July, 1774, it was certified, under the hand of David Sprague, Clerke, " to all whom it may concern That The intention of marriage was Published in the congregation assembled For Di- vine Worship in Newshoreham meeting-house Three days of Publick Worship Between Mr. Na- thanial Greene of Coventry in the County of Kint and Catharine Littlefield a Daughter of John Little- field Esq. at Newshoreham in the county of New- port and no objection was made to forbid their marriage." On the same days, the worshippers at the " Episcopal Church at Providence " received a similar notice, as is testified, in a clear, copy-book hand, by the rector, J. Greaves. And a third cer- tificate being given, on the 18th, by Stephen Arnold, Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, the requisitions of law and custom were fulfilled. Al- ready, on the 10th, he had written : —

" Friend Samuel, — Please to deliver the enclosed cards to your sisters. On the 20th this instant, I expect to be married to Miss Kitty Littlefield, at your uncle Greene's. As a relation of hers, and friend of mine, your company will be required on that occasion."

74 LIFE OF NATHAN.^L GREENE. [1742-1775.

But a sterner note mingles menacingly with the marriage-bell. " The soldiers in Boston," he goes on to say, " are insolent above measure. Soon, very soon, I expect to hear the thirsty earth drink- ing in the warm blood of American sons. Oh, how my e3^es flash with indignation, and my bosom burns with holy resentment ! .... 0 Boston ! Boston ! would to heaven that the good angel that destroyed the army of Sennacherib might now in- terpose, and rid you of your oppressors ! How is the design of government subverted ! "

The 20th of July came, and in the little room hallowed by the recollections of Franklin Greene received the hand of his bride ; and then, through those green roads and lanes, which looked greener and lovelier than ever before, he led her home to Coventry.

Time now passed swiftl}^ Public life and pri- vate life crowded close upon each other. His forge, his books, the society of his wife, were occu- pation enough for one whom ambition had scarcely touched, and whose thoughts had never wandered far from his paternal fields. But the legislature met often, and each session brought up questions of great moment. Solomon Southwick, of New- port, had just published Lord Somers's " Judgment of whole Kingdoms and Nations concerning the Eights, Powers, and Prerogatives of Kings, and the Rights, Privileges, and Properties of the People " ; and as the legislators of Rhode Island read this inculcation of the duty of " resisting evil and de-

1742-1775.J LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 75

structive princes," they felt their own resolution strengthened, and saw the path of duty grow plainer to their eyes. All began to feel that " the time (was) near approaching when (they) must gird on (their) swords, and ride forth to meet their enemies." -^ Greene's feelings toward the minis- try find their way into his letters to his wife. " Re- member me to the Doctor, and tell him if he don't make a perfect cure, or lay a good foundation for it, I'll put him on board of a man-of-war, and send him to England to be tryed for the heinous offence of disaffection to Arbitrary Government and Minis- terial tyranny." It is from such letters that we learn what the habitual tone of his conversation must have been. The drills of militia and inde- pendent companies continued. The calls for arms became constant, and manufactories sprang up in different parts of the State to answer them. The ac- tion of Congress was approved in an extra session of the Assembly.^ Committees of inspection were on the alert. All eyes were turned anxiously to- wards Boston. Money and provisions were sent to the inhabitants, already straitened by the Port Bill.^ In December, as we have already seen. Fort George was dismantled, and the cannon secured for the use of the Colony.* The use of tea was

1 Extract from a letter from a gen- Greene's friend, Varnum. Bartlett tleman in Connecticut, published in R. I. Rec, Vol. VII. p. 303. Force's Archives. * " Six twenty-four-pounders, eigh-

2 R. I. Records, Vol. VII. p. 263. teen eighteen-pounders, fourteen six- ^ See, among others, the East pounders, and six four-pounders."

Greenwich resolutions, drawn by Captain Wallace to Admiral Graves,

76 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

suspended. " We will have nothing to do with the East India Company's irksome tea, nor any other subject to the like duty," say the Middletown re- solves.^ At Providence, " about twelve o'clock at noon, the town-crier" passed through the town, giving notice, "At five o'clock this afternoon, a quantity of India tea will be burnt in the market- place. All true friends of their country, lovers of freedom and haters of shackles and handcuffs, are hereby invited to testify their good disposition, by bringing in and casting into the fire a needless herb which for a long time hath been highly detrimental to our liberty, interest, and health." About three hundred pounds were burnt "by the firm con- tenders for the true interest of America. A tar- barrel, Lord North's speech, Rivingston's and Mill's and Hicks's newspapers and divers other ingredients were also added, .... many worthy women .... making a free-will offering of their respective stocks of the hurtful trash. On this occasion the bells were tolled ; but it is referred to the learned whether tolling or ringing would have been most proper. Whilst the tea was burning a spirited son of liberty went along the streets with his brush and lamp- black, and obliterated or unpainted the word tea on the shop signs."

This was in March, 1775;^ and these anxieties and preparations of feeling went on gaining

Dec. 12, 1774. R. I. Rec, Vol. VII. i Arnold's Rhode Island, Vol. II.

p. 306. Wallace's letter is a good il- p. 330.

lustration of the feeling on both sides. 2 Force's Am. Archives, 4th Series,

IIow differently tlio name sounds in Vol. II. p. 15 ; also Arnold's Rhode

Scottish history and in American ! Island, Vol. II. p. 345.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. U

strength through the first weeks of April. Then, on the afternoon of the 19th, a messenger fresh from the field reached Providence, with tidings that the regulars and the colonists were fight- ing at Lexington. The news passed quickly from mouth to mouth, each new narrator giving it the coloring of his own mind. " War, war, boys ! " John Howland heard one man say : " there is war ; the regulars have marched out of Boston ; a great many men are killed ; war, war, boys ! " ^ Men gathered in groups on the parade, inquiring the news, the officers of the four independent compa- nies amonoj them. The drmn beat to arms. It was sundown before the men could be all got to- gether, and then Sessions, the Lieutenant-Governor, would not hearken to their earnest appeals for marching orders. Wanton, the Governor, lived at Newport, thirty miles 'off! Without orders, the officers were reluctant to march, for they knew that their legal authority would cease the moment they crossed the boundary line ; and, true Anglo- Saxons, even in this uprising which strict law would have called rebellion, they would feign have preserved the forms of law. Adopting, therefore, a middle course, they despatched an express to Boston, resolved, if they were needed, to march without taking further thought of the Governor's consent.

Meanwhile, the tidings passed on, from farm- house to farm-house, from town to io\\n. It was

1 Stone's Howland, p. 40.

78 LIFE OF NATILVNAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

already night when they reached Greene at Cov- entry ; but he instantly mounted his horse, and hurried oflf to the alarm-post of the Kentish C?uards, at Greenwich, stopping at the house of a friend named Madison, — who still, in my early man- hood, lived to tell the story, — to borrow a few dol- lars in hard money. The Guards set out by dawn, with Yarnum at their head. It was early in the morning when they passed through Providence. " I viewed the company as they marched up the street," said John Rowland, "and observed Na- thaniel Greene, with his musket on his shoulder, in the ranks, as a private. I distinguished Mr. Greene, whom I had frequently seen, by the mo- tion of his shoulder in the march, as one of his legs was shorter than the other." ^ It was the stiff- ness in his knee which gave him that halt in his gait, and the musket on his shoulder was the Eng- lish musket he had bought in Boston. At Paw- tucket, just as they were crossing the line, a messenger from the Tory Governor, Wanton, over- took them, with orders to turn back. The com- pany obeyed ; but Greene, procuring a horse, pushed on with three companions, two of them his brothers. On the way, messengers met them with information that the British troops had been driven into Boston.

On the 2 2d, the Assembly met at Providence, and "Voted and resolved, that fifteen hundred men be enlisted, raised, and embodied, as aforesaid,

^ Stone's Ilowland, ut sup.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 79

with all the expedition and despatch that the thing will admit of." This little army was to serve at home as an army of observation, " and also, if it be necessary for the safety and preservation of any of the Colonies, to march out of this Colony, and join and co-operate with the forces of the neighboring Colonies." In the same session, " a committee was appointed to wait upon the General Assembly of Connecticut to consult with them upon measures for the common defence of the four New England Colonies, and that they make report to this Assem- bly at the next session." Samuel Ward and Wil- liam Bradford were made the committee ; and Ward, being unable to serve, on account of his duties as delegate to Congress, " It (was) voted and resolved, that M""- Nathanael Greene be, and he is hereby, appointed " in his place.

In the following week the Assembly met again, not at Newport, as they should have done, but, for greater security, at Providence -, and, promptly meeting the great question of the hour, pro- ceeded to organize their army of observation. The number, as we have already seen, was fixed at fifteen hundred men. These were now "formed into one brigade, under the command of a briga- dier-general," the brigade to be "divided into three regiments, each of which shall be com- manded by one colonel, one lieutenant-colonel, and one major, .... each regiment to consist of eight companies," — one of the companies to be " a train of artillery and have the use of the Colony's field-

80 LIFE OF NATHAN .VEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

pieces." Then passing to the choice of officers, the name of Nathanael Greene was placed first on the list as brigadier-general.

As we look at this choice from our present point of view, we are instinctively led to class it among those events wherein human wisdom, recognizing its own weakness, seeks for the explanation of its impulses in a direct interposition of an overruling Providence. But there were human causes also, and we cannot but long to know them. Greene had never held a military commission. The Col- ony had its militia organization and its major- general, Simeon Potter. Why not choose for the responsible office a man of military associations ? Varnum, the colonel of the Kentish Guards, was a brilliant and popular man. Why go to his ranks for a brio-adier-eeneral ? We find Greene em- plo^-ed, it is true, in the revisal of the militia laws, and on the mission to Connecticut, in which mili- tary organization would be more or less fully dis- cussed. It is probable, also, that his late military reading had given precision and distinctness to his language upon military questions. Still, the main clew escapes us, although I cannot but feel that something was owing to his personal relations with Governor Ward. There is a tradition, but I w^ll not vouch for it, that the first choice fell upon an Epis- copalian, who declined ; the second, on a Congrega- tionalist, who also declined ; and that, when the third vote was announced as havino: ftillen on Greene, he rose in his place, and said : "■ Since the

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 81

Episcopalian and Congregationalist won't, I sup- pose the Quaker must."

Wanton, though re-elected Governor in spite of his Tory proclivities, having failed to qualify, Henry Ward, Secretary of the Colony, was " authorized and fully empowered to sign the commissions of all officers civil and military, .... receiving there- for, out of the general treasury, two shillings and eight pence for each commission." ^ And accord- ingly, on the 8th of May, 1775, impressing Rhode Island's anchor on the left-hand corner of an open sheet of common foolscap, he wrote in a clear and beautiful hand : —

" By the Honorable the General Assembly of the English Col- ony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England in America.

" To Nathaniel Greene, Esquire,

Greeting :

" Whereas, for the Preservation of the Rights and Lib- erties of His Majesty's loyal and faithful Subjects in this Colony and America, the aforesaid General Assembly have ordered Fifteen Hundred Men to be inlisted and embodied into an Army of Observation, and to be formed into one Brigade under the command of a Brigadier-General, and have appointed you the said Nathaniel Greene Brigadier- General of the said Army of Observation : You are, there- fore, hereby in His Majesty's Name George the Third, by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, &c., authorized, empowered, and commissioned to have, take, and exercise the Office of Brigadier-General of the said Army of Obser- vation, and to command, guide, and conduct the same, or

1 For these statements generally, see Bartlett, ut sup., Vol. VII. 6

82 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

any Part thereof. And in Case of Invasion or Assault of a Common Enemy, to disturb this or any other of His Majesty's Colonies in America, you are to alarm and gather together the Army under your Command, or any Part thereof, as you shall deem sufficient, and therewith to the utmost of your Skill and Ability you are to resist, expel, kill, and destroy them in Order to preserve the In- terest of His Majesty and His good Subjects in these Parts. You are also to follow such instructions, Directions, and Orders as shall from Time to Time be given forth, either by the General Assembly or your superior Officers. And for your so doing this Commission shall be your sufficient Warrant.

" By Virtue of an Act of the said General Assembly, I, Henry Ward, Esq^, Secretary of the said Colony, have hereunto set my Hand and the seal of the said Colony this Eighth Day of May, A. D. 1775, and in the Fifteenth Year of His said Majesty's Reign.

" Henry Ward." i

Details of organization and preparation followed. There were questions to arrange with the gov- ernment, and, at the last moment, with the Com- mittee of Safety. His private affairs, too, might have claimed some share of his attention, but he threw them upon his brothers; and never, from that moment, gave them more than a cursory glance. There were little details, however, which he did not forget, and, among them, to direct James Gould, of Newport, who had made him many a suit of drab, to make him a suit of uniform, and "send it to Cambridge by Wednesday."

1 From the original among the Greene papers.

1742-1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 83

And then, on the 2d of June, he wrote his Avife from Providence : —

"My dear Wife, — I am tliis moment going to set off for camp, having been detained by the Committee of Safety till now. I have recommended you to the care of my brethren ; direct your conduct by their advice, unless they should so far forget their affection for me as to re- quest anything unworthy of you to comply with. In that case, maintain your own independence until my return, which, if Providence allows, I will see justice done you ; but I have no reason to think but that you '11 be very kindly and affectionately treated in my absence. I have not so much in my mind that wounds my peace, as the separation from you. My bosom is knitted to yours by all the gentle feelings that inspire the softest sentiments of conjugal love. It had been happy for me if I could have lived a private life in peace and plenty, enjoying all the happiness that results from a well-tempered society, founded on mutual esteem. The social feelings that ac- companies such an intercourse is a faint emblem of the divine saints inhabiting eternity. But the injury done my country, and the chains of slavery forging for posterity, calls me forth to defend our common rights, and repel the bold invaders of the sons of freedom. The cause is the cause of God and man. Slavery shuts up every avenue that leads to knowledge, and leaves the soul ignorant of its own importance ; it is rendered incapable of promot- ing human happiness or piety or virtue ; and he that be- trays that trust, being once acquainted with the pleasure and advantages of knowledge and freedom, is guilty of a spiritual suicide. I am determined to defend my rights,

1 I take this from the original or- and fourth generation, pursue with re-

dei'-book of James Gould, preserved spectability and skill their hereditary

by his grandchildren, David and Na- trade, under the name of Gould and

than Gould, who still, in the third Son.

84 LIFE OF NATH.\^'AEL GREENE. [1742-1775.

and maintain my freedom, or sell my life in the attempt ; and I hope the righteous God that rules the world will bless the armies of America, and receive the spirits of those whose lot it is to fall in action into the paradise of God, into whose protection I commend you and myself; and am, with truest regard, your loving husband,

" N. Greene."

And thus, with a mind enriched and strength- ened b}'^ study ; with habits of careful investiga- tion and patient thought ; with principles drawn from reading and meditation, and tested by expe- rience in practical legislation ; with the accuracy of a man of business, and the breadth of a man of speculation ; trained to observe and to listen ; painstakmg and cautious in the formation of opin- ions, but prompt and resolute in action ; accus- tomed to deal with men ; not unused to responsi- bility ; and casting the pleasures of domestic life and the tranquil pursuits he loved behind him, he went forth, at the age of thirty-two, to take his place among great men, and fight the battles of his country.

BOOK SECOND.

FROM HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE COIVIMAND OF THE RHODE ISLAND ARMY OF OBSERVATION TO HIS APPOINTMENT AS QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL.

1775-1778.

BOOK SECOND.

FROM HIS APPOINTMENT TO THE COMMAND OF THE RHODE ISLAND ARMY OF OBSERVATION TO HIS AP- POINTMENT AS QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL.

1775-1778.

CHAPTER I.

New Phase in Greene's Life. — Condition of Rhode Island Camp. — Effects of his Presence. — Council of War at Cambridge. — Ward's Head-quarters. — Colonial Troops independent of each other. — Greene devotes himself to disciplining his Brigade. — Difficulties of the Task. — Drunkenness. — Punishments. — Hard Work. — Treated with " Great Respect" by the General Officers. — Bunker Hill. — Active Siege. — Dishonest Agents. — Arrival of Washing- ton. — Charles Lee. — Greene sends an Address to Washington. — His Satisfaction at Washington's Appointment.

/~^ REENE now enters upon a new phase of de- ^-^ velopment, still partly formative, for he had his new profession to learn ; but partly ajDplicative also, for he brought to the study of it his life-long habits of work, both with mind and body, and his experience in practical legislation. One part of that experience stood him promptly in stead, — the dealing with the passions and caprices of men, — for, on Saturday, the 3d of June, when he reached the Rhode Island camp at Jamaica Plains, he found it " in great commotion " ; the men " a factious set " ; the officers unable to control

88 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1775.

them ; " several companies with clubbed muskets," upon the point of starting for home ; " the com- missaries beaten off " ; an " excitement " which, " in a few days more, would have proved fatal to the campaign." His arrival checked the confusion, men and officers turning to him with hope, if not yet with perfect confidence. " Never," he writes, "was a man so little deservins: so welcome." It was hard work " to limit people accustomed to so much latitude " ; but he applied himself strenu- ously to the task, and "made several arrangements for order," with apparently good success ; for, on the 5th, he writes to his wife : " I am well, but very much fatigued, .... not having slept above six hours in two nights." Colonel Yarnum had not yet arrived. " I wish you would forward Colonel Yarnum's regiment," he -writes to his brother Jacob, the same day; "he will be a welcome guest in camp ; I expect much from his and his troops' example."

On the same day, too, he was " summoned to a meeting with the generals," at Cambridge, in that quaint old house which, with the added associa- tions of a historian's hfe and a poet's birth therein,^ still looks across the Common, from its modest nook, upon almost its only remaining contempo- rary, the Washington Elm. It was in this house that Ward had established his head-quarters, and, with Spencer, Putnam, Heath, and Thomas, was

^ Abiel Holmes, author of the An- works in it ; and Oliver Wendell nals, lived and wrote his principal Holmes was bom in it.

1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 89

trying to give shape and order to the young army. At first, each Colonial general commanded the troops of his own Colony, independently of the other generals. But gradually the conviction that there must be a single head crept in, and, when Washington came. Ward had already hegmi to be looked up to as commander-in-chief.^

In the beginning, Greene found enough to do in his own brigade ; for he saw plainly, that, with- out discipline, it would be impossible to keep his men together, much less prepare them for service. Fortunately, among his officers there were several who, like himself, had been taught their drill by the drill-master of the Kentish Guards,^ And thus he w^as enabled, from the first, to give the exercises of his three regiments a uniformity that was sadly wanting in the others, in which every colonel had a system of his own,^ neither the Norfolk exercises nor the regulations for 1764 for the King's troops being universally accepted.

A daily exercise was ordered for commissioned and non-commissioned officers. At four, the whole battalion was mustered and paraded, none but the sick, or those engaged in other duties, being ex- cused.* What the first parades were, and w^hat

1 Frothingham, Siege of Boston, war," I think it probable that Major p. 101. Box and the English sergeant were

2 In writing to Timothy Picker- the same person.

ing in 1779, he speaks with great ^ Kapp's Steuben, p. 127.

warmth of the aid received from Ma- * Regimental orders, MS. I am

jor Box ; and from what he says of indebted for the use of this manu-

this officer's services in "exercising script to my kinsman and old school-

and forming independent companies mate, Daniel Rowland Greene, M.D.,

previous to the commencenaent of the of East Greenwich.

90 LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. [1775.

ideas of military etiquette some of the officers and men brought with them, the regimental order of the day for the 8th of June will show : '• That Colonel Hitchcock's regiment parade on Wednesday every week, precisely at half after three o'clock, and march round the Square. The Colonel expects, in that parade, that every officer appear in his uniform, and that care is taken by the officers that every soldier be clean, and as neatly dressed as possible ; and that no one who has breeches be permitted to wear trousers, nor to parade without having on his stockings and shoes ; and that, during the march, no soldier be permit- ted to talk. As the regiment has gained honor from their regular performance of exercise, 'tis fully expected by the Colonel, that the officers spare no pains to instruct themselves in the exer- cise." The same order, it may be presumed, ex- tended to the other regiments.

An order of the 10th provides for the proper cleaning of the firelocks : " That the officers of the several companies in Colonel Hitchcock's reghuent call their companies together this forenoon, and see that every soldier's firelock be washed clean, and that some non-commissioned officer strictly attend while the guns are washing, and take special care that no one washes his gun without taking off the lock. 'T is expected that every company washes their firelocks with hot water."

An order of the 4th of July directs, " That every captain in Colonel Hitchcock's regiment make a

1775.] LIFE OF NATH.INAEL GREENE. 91

return of the number of firelocks, of the number of rounds of powder and ball, number of tools and implements of all kinds in his company, and who- ever has lost any implements, the names of the persons who lost them, — the return to be made this day."

It was found, too, upon trial, that the daily ex- ercise already established was not sufficient to overcome those inequalities wdiich are always found where many study the same thing together. On the 6th of July it was ordered, " That a drill be established for the instruction of those who are deficient in exercise, from ten to eleven o'clock in the forenoon every day; that the drill be com- manded either by a commissioned or a non- commissioned officer of the several companies by rotation, beginning with Captain Thayer's com- pany ; that the drill parade for exercise before the Laboratory ; and 't is expected that every officer will strictly see that all those who are deficient in exercise in their company constantly attend the same at the time fixed for holding the drill." By the 28th of June, Greene was enabled to write that, ''' though raw, irregular, and undisciplined," his men were "under much better government than any round about Boston."

The greatest obstacle to the establishment of good discipline was in the officers rather than the men. Some did their duty; but for others, the transition from the equality of home life to the dis- tinctions of camp was exceedingly difficult. " Some

92 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1775.

captains, and many subordinate officers, neglect their duty," Avrites Greene ; " some through fear of offending their soldiers, some through laziness, and some through obstinacy. This makes the task of the field officers very laborious. I have warned them of their negligence many times, and am de- termined to break every one for the future who shall lay himself open to it." A corporal in Hitch- cock's regiment had already been " reduced to the ranks for repeated neglect of duty, and disobe- dience to his captain."^

Another great obstacle to good order was drunk- enness. The first court-martial recorded in Hitch- cock's orderly-book was a regimental court-martial called to decide upon a case of intoxication. Jere- miah Olney, whose name we shall meet often here- after, was president, and Stephen Olney a member. The culprit was Peter Young, who, being " sent for and examined, plead not guilty of the charge. Captain John Angell, captain of the guard, June 21, deposeth and saith, that the prisoner, Peter Young, was confined in the guard-house by Colo- nel Miller, at ten o'clock at night, for being found in liquor ; who, when confined, behaved himself in a very indecent and contemptuous manner ; damn- ing the man that confined him, and also the man that kept him in confinement, throwing his hat about the guard-house. And the prisoner being present heard Captain Angell's evidence, and said he had no evidence to confute the same. The

1 Orderly-book, ut sup.

1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 93

Court, upon mature deliberation, are of opinion that the prisoner, Peter Young, be sentenced to ride the wooden horse fifteen minutes, with two guns tied at his feet, and ten minutes without guns, as an adequate punishment for his crime."

This, however, was merely a meeting of individ- ual cases. To meet the evil itself, Greene wrote directly to the Provincial Congress of Massachu- setts, requesting them to interpose their authority, and prevent the sale of intoxicating liquors with- in the limits of the camp.^

It was not easy to adapt civil punishments to military offences. Legislators shrank at first from the severity which, as the war continued, became almost habitual. In the Rhode Island "Rules and Orders for the Army of Observation," only three articles out of fifty-three impose capital punishment ; and in two out of those three the court-martial is left free to order " such other pun- ishment" as it may think best. Even whipping, though familiar to the public mind, is limited to the Mosaic rule of " thirty-nine stripes " ; and in practice does not, at first, exceed fifteen, ten, and sometimes five.^

It was a great change for Greene, from the quiet life of Coventry. " My task," he writes, " is hard, and fatigue great. I go to bed late, and rise early. The number of applications you cannot conceive

1 Journals of the Prov. Cong, of 2 Rhode Island Colonial Records, Mass, p. 461. Greene's letter has not Vol. VII. p. 340, Rules, &c.. Arts. been preserved. 24, 25, 30, and 50,

94 LIFE OF NATH.iNAEL GREENE. [1775.

of, without being present to observe the round of business." He had wondered, in Rhode Island, at finding himself singled out by his acquaintances for special attentions. And now he felt something of the same kind of surprise at " the great re- spect " with which he was treated by " the general officers of the neighboring camps." " Were I," he writes, "to estimate my value by the attention paid to my opinion, I should have reason to think myself some considerable personage." But he lays it all to the account of his office. "Fatal expe- rience," he adds, " teaches me every day, that man- kind are apt to pay deference to station, and not to merit. Therefore, when I find myself surrounded by their flattering attentions, I consider them as due to my office, and not to me." His self-reliance had none of that presum^^tuous contempt for the opinions of others in it, which is so common in self-made men. " I shall study to deserve well," he said ; " but cannot but lament the great defects I find in myself to discharge, with honor and justice, the important trust committed to my care." But as, while a mere anchor-smith at Coventry, Judge Howel had marked him out as a "very extraor- dinary man " ; so at Cambridge, Timothy Picker- ing, hearing his questions and remarks as president of a courtrmartial, pronounced him " a man of true military genius, and decidedly the first man in the Court." ^ None were readier to acknowledge his superiority than the officers and men under his

1 Caldwell's Life of Greene, p. 41.

1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN.\EL GREENE. 95

immediate command. "My own officers and men," he writes, "are generally well satisfied, — nay, I have not heard one complaint."

It is not probable that he took part in planning the occupation of Bunker Hill, for on the day of the battle he was in Ehode Island. The tidings reached him towards evening. He immediately mounted his horse, and, riding " all night," arrived at camp " next day morning, w^hen I found Charles- town all burnt to ashes, and the troops engaged on the other side of Cambridge Bay." A thousand men were sent over from Roxbury, to work upon the intrenchments at Prospect Hill; and among them, a hundred from his brigade, under the com- mand of Christopher Greene, then a major in Var- num's reofiment. The excitement of battle was not yet passed away. The British were " con- stantly firing cannon-shot," both on the new posi- tions at Prospect and Winter Hill, and the earlier one at Roxbury, where part of Greene's force was now stationed. It was the first time that he had seen balls and shells flying in earnest. The " troops were in high spirits " ; and ten days later, when he put together the conflicting statements of the losses on both sides, he " wished that we could sell them another hill at the same price."

Everything now bore the aspect of an active siege. The "enemy made several feints to de- ceive " the Americans, but were too " narrowly watched" to succeed. From the intrenchments that were fast rising on the top of Prospect Hill,

96 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1775.

the British soldiers could be seen, with the naked eye, working hard to convert the little redoubt which they had won, at the sacrifice of so much blood, into an impregnable fortress. Shells were thrown into Roxbury. The English general seemed determined to familiarize his enemy with danger.

But there was another danger to guard against, — the demoralization of the troops, through the dishonesty of the agents to whom they looked for their daily supplies. It is a thankless task to tell the whole truth about the men of those days ; but what are the lessons of history, if they are to be moulded and colored by the vanity or caprice of the historian ? The war of independence brought great virtues into play, but it brought great vices, too, — faithless agents, heartless speculators, some cowards, some traitors, many selfish partisans, and not a few lukewarm patriots. We shall find men of each of these classes, crossing the path of the true and faithful, all through the war, and in every part of the country. We first meet them in the camp before Boston.

"There is continual complaints made to me," writes Greene to Deputy-Governor Cooke of Rhode Island, on the 4th of July, " about the provisions falling short, some barrels not having much more than one half and two thirds the quantity they ought to contain. I wish your Honor would de- sire the committee throughout the Colony to ex- amine all the provisions sent to camp, for I am

1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 97

very positive they must have been greatly imposed upon. The field officers are continually complain- mg to me of the imposition, and requesting me to have a stop put to it as soon as possible. Many people in camp suspects the fidelity of the com- mittee, to suffer such repeated impositions, and still no check put to them. Such unfavorable sentiments propagated abroad must do great in- jury to their characters, and perhaps render it very difficult for them to settle their accounts with the Colony, and do justice to themselves and those they are concerned with.

"A quantity of bread arrived from Providence last week, and to-day the much greater part was mouldy and unfit for use. (From) the first parcel I picked out what was good, and condemned the rest. This to-day appears all bad, upon examina- tion, except a few single baskets. Such bread being brought here begets jealousy among the people, that they are going to be imposed upon ; and little grievances are sufficient reasons to ground their complaints and murmurs upon, especially as they find themselves strongly supported by their friends and relations that comes to visit the troops in their quarters. There was a quantity of beef con- demned last week, as being horse-meat. When it first took rise, I thought it merely chimerical. But Captain Jerry Olney, Captain Kitt Olney, and many others, came and informed me, that the people had a conceit that it was horse-flesh; that they had gone without victuals all day, and they desired me

98 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1775.

to inquire into the matter. I, accordingly, did get a jury of butchers to examine it, and they con- demned it as unfit for use, a considerable part being horse-flesh. Captain John Collins, of New- port, happened to be at camp at the same time, and he said he had seen abundance of horse-beef, and he said he was confident this was of that kind. You must, worthy sir, be sensible that the task is difficult, and trouble great, to form people into any regrular oi-overnment that comes out with minds possessed with notions of liberty that is nothing short of licentiousness. I am willing to spend, and be spent, in so righteous a cause ; but unless I am supported by the helping hand of government, my endeavors will be defeated, and your expecta- tions blasted. God knows, I am far from com- plaining out of prejudice to any mortal; but necessity on the one hand, and justice on the other, calls on me to represent the matter to you, that the evil may be put a stop to as early as pos- sible. Many officers blames me for being so silent upon the occasion, and thinks I don't do justice to the Colony ; but as I am fully sensible that many acts upon such narrow principles of policy influ- enced by party and prejudice, I have carefully studied to avoid their captious advice. But from mature deliberation, I have thought it prudent to make you acquainted with the state of the mat- ter, that you may take such steps to remove the complaint as the subject requires. If the troops are comfortably subsisted, if they don't do their

1775.] LIFE OF NATH.\Js\iEL GREENE. 99

duty, tliey can be punished, with great justice : but if they are not well fed, and properly clad, they excuse all their misconduct from one or the other reason."

We shall meet these complaints again, from time to time, in other forms, but always proceeding from the same cause, — the love of dishonest gain, and indifference to the public interest. Meanwhile, Congress had taken the decisive step, upon which the success of the war depended. On the 15th of June, Washington had been chosen commander-in- chief On the 2d of July, about two in the after- noon, he reached Cambridge, with an escort of mounted citizens and a troop of light horse. It was Sunday, but a brisk cannonade upon Roxbury had been kept up throughout the morning from the British lines on Boston Neck. Washington must had heard it all tlirous-h his morninor ride.^ Next day, he took formal command of the army. Some, perhaps, as they saw him draw his sword under the broad elm which still extends its protecting branches over the western border of Cambridge Common, remembered, that, a few years before, they had listened to Whitefield under that same tree. Only the troops stationed at Cambridge would seem to have been there ; for on the 4th Greene writes: "I sent a detachment to-day of two hundred men, commanded by a colonel, lieutenant- colonel, and major, with a letter of address, to wel- come his Excellency to camp. The detachment

1 Frothingham, Siege of Boston, pp. 213, 214.

100 LITE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1775.

met with a very gracious reception, and his Excel- lency returned me a very polite answer, and invi- tation to visit him at his quarters."

But there was a man at Washington's side under that tree, to whom all eyes turned eagerly, when they had looked their fill at the majestic figure of the Commander-in-chief, — a tall man, lank and thin, with a huge nose, a satirical mouth, and restless eyes, who sat his horse as if he had often ridden at fox-hunts in England, and wore his uniform with a cynical disregard of common opinion, — Charles Lee, the most accomplished soldier in the whole army, men said, and whose science, they thought, was to be disinterestedly employed for us, because our cause was the cause of freedom. The next fifteen months will show how far this opinion was just.

How Greene felt at the idea of a commander-in- chief the letter from which I have just quoted will show : " A few minutes after the detachment was drawn out, I received a letter directed to his Ex- cellency, under cover of one to me, from Mr. Ward, Secretary, who acquaints me that the General Assembly has appointed him to the command of our troops ; all of which is perfectly agreeable, and I shall conduct myself accordingly ; and hope, by his wise directions, accompanied with my best en- deavors, and that of all my officers, to promote the service of the Colony, agreeable to their wishes. I expect the General next day after to-morrow to visit our camp."

1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN.IEL GREENE. 101

How he felt towards Washington, he tells Sam- uel Ward, from Roxbury, ten days later, — not the Samuel he had written long letters to from Coven- try, for that Samuel was with him, as a captain in Varnum's regiment, — but Samuel Ward the flither, who had sat with Washington in Congress Hall, and voted to send him to Cambridge, as the fittest man for the office on whose right filling the whole con- test turned. To him, then, Greene writes, on the 14th of July : " His Excellency, General Washing- ton, has arrived amongst us, universally admired. Joy was visible in every countenance, and it seemed as if the spirit of conquest breathed through the whole army. I hope we shall be taught to copy his example, and to prefer the love of liberty, in this time of public danger, to all the soft pleasures of domestic life, and support ourselves with manly fortitude amidst all the dangers and hardships that attend a state of war. And I doubt not, under the General's wise direction, we shall establish such excellent order and strictness of discipline as to invite victory to attend him wherever he goes."

And how did Washington first meet him whom, from that time forward, he was never to meet with- out an expanding of the heart? Of their first meeting and first intercourse I know nothing ; but the qualities which had attracted the attention of Pickering, when only a casual observer, could not have been hidden long from so sagacious an ob- server as Washington, when there were such mo- mentous questions to call them forth.

CHAPTER II.

Washington's Arrival the Beginnins of a New Period. — His Staff. — MifBin. — Trumbull. — Reed. — Gates. — Army of the United Col- onies. — New Organization. — Three Grand Divisions. — Greene on Prospect Hill. — Gradual extension of the Works. — Death of Ad- jutant Mumford. — All Eyes fixed on Boston. — Parties to Camp. — The Country calls for a Battle. — Want of Powder. — AVaste of Powder. — Preparations for Defence. — Extracts from General Or- ders.

'VX/'ITH Washington's arrival in camp a new ' ^ period begins, — a jieriod of system and or- ganization, still very imperfect it is true, but nev- ertheless a great advance upon the disconnected and irregular condition in which the troops had lived since they first broke ground before Bos- ton. Washington's own experience with regular troops had been confined to his short service on Braddock's staff"; and, like most of his officers, he had a great deal to learn. But he was fiimiliar with the common text-books, — very incomplete and meagre guides as yet, — had had full expe- rience of irregular troops, and a feeble govern- ment ; had lived in camp ; provided for the sup- plies of his men ; and learnt how to deal with prejudices, ignorance, obstinacy, and sloth. His staff" was not yet what it afterwards became ; but there were men on it whose names interest us

1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 103

still, — Mifflin, brave and eloquent, once, like Greene, a Quaker, and who now stood high in Washington's confidence, though at a later day he became a bitter enemy both of Washington and Greene ; Trumbull, in whose young mind the in- stincts of the artist were already struggling with the ambition of military distinction ; Reed, whose fine culture and pleasing address made him delight- ful as a companion, while his command of a free and flowing style, and his facility in seizing upon the important points of his subject, rendered his services, as secretary, invaluable ; and Gates, the adjutant-general, who brought with him honorable recollections of the old French war, and a heart not yet corrupted by flattery and unmerited success.

The first step in organization was to convert the independent Colonial bands, which enthusiasm had brought together, into a regular army, — the army of the United Colonies. " I am informed by his Excellency," writes Greene, " that the idea of Col- ony troops is to be abolished, and that the whole army is to be formed into brigades, and the gen- erals to be appointed by the Congress." Great was the commotion in camp when these tidings became public, and men began to ask each other anxiously who the new generals were to be. Greene viewed these incipient jealousies with regret. " I should be extremely sorry," he writes, " for any schisms that might creep in through the ports of honor, from real or imaginary degradation." For his own part, "if continued," he was prepared to "serve

104 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1775.

cheerfully " ; if not, to " submit patiently I

wish that good and able men may be the objects of the Continental choice, rather than subjects of par- ticular interests." When the appointments were announced, he found himself last on the list as brigadier-general.

The army was divided into three grand divisions, Greene being placed, with seven regiments, in the left wing, under General Lee, with Sullivan, at the head of six regiments, for senior brigadier, — in all, five thousand six hundred and seventy-seven men. His station was at Prospect Hill, — the Mount Pis- gah of some of the old maps, — with " the enemy's lines and buildings on Bunker Hill, and the desola- tion at Charlestown," ^ full in view. Not far from the foot of the hill was the farm-house in which Lee had taken up his quarters, — a comfortable two-story building, witli convenient rooms, and a pleasant view, and all too good, even in its old age, to be called " Hobgoblin Hall." - And within two miles, by a pleasant road, which soon became as familiar to him as the green lanes that lead from Potowomut to Coventry, stood the fine old man- sion which, although Sparks and Everett have since lived in it, and Longfellow has consecrated it as the birthplace of America's greatest poems, is still known, far and near, as the head-quarters of Washington.

1 Belknap's Diary, Oct. 23. In a chimneys and rubbish." — Force, Am.

letter of the times, Charlestown is Archives, 4th Series, Vol. III. p. 73.

said to be "now in ashes, and noth- '^ Letters of Mrs. Adams, p. 64. jng to be seen of that fine town but

1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 105

Three of the regiments in Greene's brigade were his own Rhode-Islanders, — ten hundred and eighty-five men in all, — led by Yarnum, Hitch- cock, and Church, with men of strong wills, like Christopher Greene and the two Olneys and the two Angells and Simeon Thayer, and of rich cul- ture, like Samuel Ward, for majors and captains and lieutenants. No troops in the whole army were equipped and appointed as they were, with their tents and marquees, and the " four excellent field-pieces," ^ which had once formed part of the garrison of Fort George. Greene "spared no pains, night nor day, to teach them their duty " ; and, fully seconded by most of his officers, — espe- cially by Yarnum and Hitchcock, " excellent disci- plinarians," — succeeded in bringing them to a high state of efficiency. Lee bestowed great en- comiums upon their bearing and discipline. " I flatter myself," writes Greene, " that they compara- tively deserve it." Four Massachusetts regiments, — seventeen hundred and thirteen men, — under Whitcomb, Gardner, Brewer, and Little, com- pleted his brigade."

The irreojular leao;uer became a reorular sieore. One by one the hills and strong positions were occupied, and secured by strong works, — Pros- pect, Winter, Ploughed, and Cobble Hills, Lech- mere Point, Sewall's Farm, " a semicircle of eight or nine miles," with the enemy in " the centre, ....

1 Essex Gazette, quoted by Froth- - I take my numbers from Froth- ingham, Siege of Boston, p. 101, note, ingham, Siege of Boston, p. 219.

106 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1775.

with entire command of the water." ^ Every day added to the streno-th of the American Hnes. Al- most every day, too, there was a skirmish, or a sur- prise, or a cannonade, shells and balls falling thick within the American works, sometimes killing, sometimes maiming, but producing, in the main, "no other effect than to inure the Americans to danger," "- and make them ask, if, with upwards of two thousand shot and shells, they have killed only twelve persons, " how many 'shot and bombs will it require to subdue the whole of his Majesty's rebellious subjects?"^ "I have no doubt," Greene writes to his wife, " that I shall be safely conducted through the shower of Tory hail. But whatever be my fate, let my reputation stand fair for the inspection of all inquiring friends."

Yet the first sight of a violent death, within his own immediate circle, came upon him with a shock. Adjutant Mumford, of East Greenwich, — a member of Yarnum's regiment, — had his head taken off by a cannon-ball. " My sweet angel," — Greene writes to his wife, immediately after, — " the anxiety that you must feel at the unhappy fate of Mr. Mumford, the tender sympathy for the dis- tress of his poor lady, the fears and apprehensions for my safety, under your present debilitated state, must be a weight too great for you to support. We are all in the hands of the great Jehovah ; to him let us look for protection. I trust that our con-

1 Washington to his brother. Writ- ^ Tliacher's Military Journal, Jan- ings, Vol. III. p. 39. uary 18, 177G.

2 Heath's Memoirs, p. 43.

1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. 107

troversy is a righteous one ; and although many of our friends and relatives may suffer an untimely fate, yet we must consider the evil sanctified by the righteousness of the dispute. Let us, then, put our confidence in God, and recommend our souls to his care. Stifle your own grief, my sweet creature, and offer a small tribute of consolation to the afflicted widow. I could wish, from my soul, that you was removed from this scene of horror, altogether inconsistent with the finer feelings of a delicate mind. I would come and see you, but prudence forbids my absence. I sent Colonel Var- num to communicate to you the wretched loss his poor lady has met with. My heart melts with pity, but dumb silence must speak my grief until I am in a situation to give scope to the natural sen- timent of the human heart. I hope his good sense and knowledge of the human heart will point out the most prudent method."

Before another year was passed, his eye had become more familiar with violent death, and he would hardly have thought of sending a field officer to annomice such an event. But at first, the true heart still pleaded earnestly against indurat- insT custom.

Meanwhile, from far and near, all eyes were fixed upon Boston. " The roads were lined with specta- tors." Parties were formed to go and see the camp, many coming from a great distance, and looking, some with admiration, some with terror, — all with wonder, — at the forts, "bomb proof"; at breast^

108 LIFE OF NATIIANAEL GREENE. [1775.

works, " seventeen feet thick " ; at the trenches, " wide and deep " ; at the " forked impediments " for guarding the approaches to them.^ Sometimes, in the midst of their gazing, they would see a party of officers go by on horseback, and distin- guishing, in the midst of them, one with a " noble and majestic air, .... tall and well-proportioned," would say to each other, '• That is his Excel- lency! that is General Washington!" not failing, at the same time, to take note of his " blue coat, with buff-colored facings ; the rich epaulette on each shoulder ; the buff underdress ; elegant, small sword, and black cockade in his hat." ^ Sometimes this pleasure excursion had a fatal ending. Trum- bull's sister, the wife of Colonel Huntington, re- ceived such a shock from what she saw, that she went mad, and soon after died.'^ But to the greater part of those ,whom curiosity or family attachment brought there it was a wild, pic- turesque scene, full of strange excitement. To their inexperienced eyes, the morning prayers, fol- lowed by the reading of the orders of the day; "the great distinction between officers and sol- diers," everybody being " made to know his place, and keep in it, or be tied up, and receive thirty or forty lashes " ; and " the thousands at work every day, from four to eleven," gave the army a general air of discipline and order, and inspired a degree of confidence which its leaders were far from shar-

1 Letter cited in Frothingham's ^ Thacher's Military Journal, Ju- Sicj;e of Boston, p. 275. The name ly 20, 1775. of the writer is not given. ^ Trumbiill's Autobiography, p. 22.

1775.] LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. 109

ing. If, without this preparation, they had held Bunker Hill so long against the best troops in the British army, why can they not, with the in- creased strength which discipline gives them, drive the enemy from Boston ? The country grew clam- orous for another battle.

The subject was brought up more than once in council of war. The first council had determined not to occupy Dorchester, nor to defend it if the British should attempt to occupy it. But shall they be left in undisturbed possession of Boston ? Greene felt that "an attack upon a town, gar- risoned with eight thousand regular troops, was a serious object." He knew, as Washington did, that, however veteran-like the troops might appear to common eyes, to the soldier's eye they were still " raw and undisciplined." Yet he thought that an attack, with twenty thousand men, might succeed ; " but of an army of twenty thousand men," he writes, " it will be hard if we cannot find eight thousand who will fight manfully. There must be some cowards among them as well as among us."

There were anxious hours, as summer and au- tumn wore slowly on. On the 3d of August a council was held at head-quarters, and it was found that, owing to a mistake in the report of the Mas- sachusetts committee, instead of four hundred and eighty-five quarter-casks of powder in the maga- zine, as had been supposed, there were only thirty- five half-barrels, or not half a pound a man. When Washington heard the report, he was so much struck

110 LIFE OF NATHANAEL GREENE. [1775.

by the danger "that he did not utter a word for half an hour; every one else was equally surprised. Messengers were despatched to all the Southern Colonies to call in their stores."^ The dangerous secret was carefully kept from the army. But Greene knew it ; and as he looked upon his silent cannon, and listened to the frequent roar of the enemy's cannon, or marked at night " the track of their shells, — a long train of light on the dark sky,"^ — he must have often asked himself, "How can I hold this hill, if they come out now ? "

It was hard to enforce even the most salutary rules in an army in which a large proportion of the officers stood more in need of discipline than their men. AVhen the danger from a deficiency of powder was passed, a new danger arose, from the " wanton waste " of it. " There being," say Greene's orders for November 7, "an open and daring violation of a general order, in firing at geese, as they pass over the camp, General Greene gives positive orders, that any person that fires for the future be immediatel}' put under guard. Every officer that stands an idle spectator, and sees such a wanton waste of powder, and don't do his utmost to suppress the evil, may expect to be reported."

In the orders of the 9th, the same suljject recurs, under another form : " That all the car- tridges delivered out this day, if the bunches are not broke, the captains collect them in their sev- eral companies, and deliver them out when occasion

1 Sullivan to New Hampshire Com- - Trumbull's Autobiography, pp. mittec of Safety, August 5, 1775. 21, 22.

1775.] LIFE OF NATHAN.iEL GREENE. Ill

calls. Every person that fires his gun without posi- tive orders, to be punished immediately by a regi- mental court-martial; and if these orders are not obeyed, the General will order the first transgressor to be tied up and whipped, for an example."

An order of the next day brings to light another infraction of discipline : " General Greene is in- formed, that the soldiers have got into a practice of stealing cartridges from one another, and those that go on furlough, or are discharged, carry them home. As this conduct is both dishonorable and villanous, the General hopes there are but few, if any, that are so lost to honor and honesty as to commit so dirty a crime. If any are detected in the fact, they may expect to be punished without mercy."

Every alarm, too, seems to have furnished a pre- text for wasting powder. "The officers of this brigade," continue the orders of the 10th, "are once more desired to pay particular attention to the preservation of the cartridges. There has been such a wanton waste, for some time past, and still continues, upon every alarm, that it is really disgraceful. It is impossible to conceive upon what principle this strange itch for firing originates, as it is rather a mark of cowardice than bravery to fire away ammunition, without any inten- tion. If the soldiers are desirous of defending their rights and liberties, the General desires they would not deprive themselves of the means to execute so laudable a purpose."

112 LIFE OF NATHAN AEL GREENE. [1775.

These appeals to the patriotism of the troops are not always successful. A large infusion of bad elements would seem, from the frequent courts- martial recorded in the orderly-books, to have found its way into the