Customer Reviews

Washington's General: Nathanael Greene and the Triumph of the American Revolution

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Why a magazine columnist from New Jersey would choose to write about Rhode Island's unsung Revolutionary War hero is beyond me, but I'm sure glad he did. To me, it's quite clear that Greene was never adequately recognized for his wartime accomplishments because he died unexpectedly in 1786 of a stroke at age 44 and never had the chance to participate and obtain fame in the founding of the new nation.

Who knows where events would have lead had he lived. He clearly had Washington's utmost respect and gratitude, and he demonstrated the highest integrity, leadership, dedication, competency, determination, and ability to get things done during times of great stress and deprivation.

Nathanael Greene's "Southern Campaign" is probably the most under appreciated aspect of the War in the books coming out today. The recent best sellers "1776" by McCullough and Pulitzer Prize-winning "Washington's Crossing" by Fisher seem to imply that after the surprise victories at Trenton and Princeton the war was all over, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

The next several years were dismal (the winter at Valley Forge was 1777-8), and it wasn't until the war later moved into the South and Greene assumed control that the colonialist learned how to defeat the British--inflict punishment, lead the British away from their supplies, and then retreat into the woods. This was Greene's strategy, and he executed it with utmost ability and skill. This is why a battered Cornwallis headed to Yorktown, to get desperately needed supplies. Washington had the personal touch, but Greene got things done, and Washington knew it and appreciated it. Everyone knew that if Washington was injured, Greene would take over.

The book read very quickly, especially the exciting section on the Southern Campaign. It also presented the more human side of Greene very well--his fondness for his very attractive wife Caty, his fierce loyality to Washington, his weakness for needing to receive recognition for his accomplishments from Washington, his determination to derive personal profit from the war, and his strict aesthetic Quaker upbringing against which he rebelled.

Earlier this year I visited the Greene homestead in Coventry, Rhode Island. It's a very simple home, set on roughly ten acres of land that is amazingly just now being cleared of overgrown brush. I'd definitely recommend a visit. The curators mentioned that there were more visitors from the South than the North. I still have a hard time believing it, but at least now I understand this better. Apparently, down south, Greene is getting his due. It's kind of a shame for the Rhode Island home boy.

The Sept 7, 2005 reviewer mentions that the two maps in the front of the book, indicating where battles were fought, could have been better. I'd have to agree.

Years ago I attended Nathanael Greene Elementary School in Pawtucket, RI, but it is only now that I can see I know anything of substance about a man who can claim a great deal of responsibility for the favorable concluding of our Revolutionary War.

The author presents, if in a manner occasionally lacking direction, a photograph on a Revolutionary Hero whose fall to the second or third tier of Founder status was certainly not due to his ability, his efforts or his promise. His portrayal is of a common man of the period - constantly concerned with his finances (as were all those we count as leaders of the Independence effort); very guarded and jealous about his reputation (another common trait among these folk); but clearly fallen on one side of the fence dividing Tories and Revolutionaries.

Greene's escapades thru the Carolinas and Virginia, and the cat and mouse game he played with British General Cornwallis, gave the rebels the opportunity to win the war. Without these accomplishments, the British might have indeed, as Washington worried, gain command of the southern colonies, and with that foothold, move their way northward. Instead, Greene's dance led them in a variety of different directions, and ultimately to their fate at Yorktown.

The author has captured in his portrayal of Greene, the marks of a hero, and the flaws and failings of a man. His accounts of Greene's quarrels with Congress, his unwavering pit-bull defense of Washington, and his arguments with, among others, John Adams, color the general as a man of conviction, if not always grace. At the same time, the author shows the easily bruised ego, the roving eye for financial opportunities, and the man who cannot say NO to his beautiful young wife.

The coverage given to Katy Greene is either too much or too little. For the amount of space she inhabits here, the conclusions that can be drawn about her, beyond her fertility, are few.

Overlooking a few editorial miscues (On at least a few occasions, the book refers to Greene's activities in Conventry, RI - instead of Coventry), this book takes you away from the hero worship that is given to a handful of people from this era, and brings home the notion that the war was fought and won, not by Adams or Franklin or Jefferson, but by those whose existence was murky, and whose commitment to this effort lived through circumstances so dire that we can only read about them. We certainly cannot grasp or understand them.

It also tells you about the dangerous nature of those times. That Greene could die within 5 years of the war's end, in his mid 40s, from a sudden illness, reminds us that living in those days was difficult in even the most basic ways.

Terry Golway's "Washington's General" is a marvelous piece of history written in the same manner as McCullough's "1776", in which Golway pays tribute to the most important figure in American history behind Washington.
In Golway's arousing and commanding writting style we are transported through history to a time that seemed as if there was little hope for the vision of independence held by Washington and Greene.
Through Greene's Quaker religious upbringing and sparse education, we see the developing stages of a man who would go on to lead the American Republic through the trials and tribulations of a new political idealogy.
Though Greene was stigmatised by critical condemnation, his unyielding dedication to Washington and the cause of liberty elavated him above those who espoused the elements of a new republic but lacked the self sacrifice that requires victory.
Greene accomplished and sacrificed much for the new Republic from his assigned duties as Quarter Master General of the Contental Army, which he lothed, saving the starving army of Valley Forge and Jocky Hollow with his adminstrative skills and underming the Conway cable who sought to undermine Washington at a time that questioned his abilities to lead the army to the victories it so strived to achieve.
Greene lead the victory with brilliant hit and run strategy of the southern campaigns that brought an end to Cornwallis's expedition through the Carolina's and his eventual surrender at Yorktown.
There is much to learn about a true unsung hero of the American Republic and with Golway's exuberant storytelling Nathanel Greene's historic legacy has been brought to its rightful forefront of American History. Brilliant, rewarding and insightfull.............

This book is a compelling and highly readable account of one of the most important and underappreciated figures in American military history. The author has managed to present a nuanced look at Greene's professional and personal life that humanizes him in a way not seen among the many dry and uncritical books on this period.
And Golway obviously knows how to tell a story, as evidenced by the way that the book is larded with historical detail -- culled from recently collected volumes of Greene's personal correspondence -- without ever slowing down the narrative.

After learning for the first time about Nathanael Greene's prominence in the American Revolution while reading David McCullough's fine book, "1776", I sought out a biography on Greene, and I'm glad I selected this one. Although I was not previously familiar with Golway, I found his writing very enjoyable. This book is on a par with McCullough's "1776" as well his "Truman" and the wonderful "John Adams", and is also of comparable readability to Joseph J. Ellis' "Founding Brothers", "The American Sphinx", and "His Excellency". Since those six books by McCullough and Ellis are among my alltime favorites, those reading this review should recognize the comparison as a high compliment to Terry Golway. I can recommend "Washington's General: Nathanael Greene ..." without reservation.

Lee Steers
Scottsdale, Arizona

I have recently finished this book and I thought it was the best book on Nathaniel Greene I have ever read.If you ever need or want to read or research a book on Nathaniel Greene I advise this book. By Graham sharkey

An enjoyable, fast read, but strangely lacking in serious analysis. This may not be the author's fault; perhaps there simply isn't enough information about Greene. Still, aside from the factual recounting of battles, I couldn't help thinking that the author made an entire book out of the following unremarkable contentions: Greene lacked formal schooling, but was brilliant; he limped and was insecure; he was extremely competent but prone to self-pity. The author repeats these sentiments throughout the book and attributes Greene's every action to one or the other. That may be accurate, but it hardly paints a very complex picture. Other biographies (of other subjects) offer a vivid depiction of personality in addition to analyzing motive. This one, somehow, does not.

Great explanation of early European-American conflicts, it sources and its eventual end. I found it moving that we have forgiven the British, in spite of all their atrocities, yet continue to deride the French (who were so instrumental in obtaining a victory).

I am originally from Greenville, SC and it wasn't until late in my teens that I learned that my hometown was named for Gen. Greene. This book is an excellent introductory biography of Gen. Greene that shows him as a man within the context of his age, what this Quaker's military motivation was and how he was able to grow in command extremely quickly.

The General's independent command in the Southern colonies was one of the rare pieces of American leadership and forced a much quicker end to the conflict. He was a rare and very underappreciated first American.

Another in the recent line of excellent biographies of revolutionary era personalities. Nathanael Greene is presented as a very human, three dimensional hero whose strengths and faults combined to serve his fellow revolutionaries and their descendents in a mannner deserving of undying gratitude. The measured insertion of Greene's letters to close colleagues and his wife are both poignant and telling, and enrich the story line while fleshing out this basic, but brilliant, patriot. Golway is to be congratulated for bringing Greene to life in a way that makes both compelling and enlightening reading and for illuminating Greene's relationship to his beloved commander, George Washington. This book makes a great companion to David McCullough's recent tribute to Washington's trying year of command, 1776. The only minor criticism is that the publisher might have done a better job of providing more detailed maps of the critical campaigns and troop movements that Nathanael Greene directed to enhance the reader's appreciation of the flow of the military events.