Bodine-DILLIGAF: Square 2

Today's square is Greene Square named after the Revolutionary War General Nathanael Greene. It is at Houston and York Streets. As a quick side note 124 Houston Street is a home built by Isaiah Davenport who figured prominently in yesterday's post. I have said from time to time that I was a history major in college. It is amazing to me to be in Savannah, Georgia and find out how little I know of American History. A fair portion of today's post will be spent explaining who Nathanael Greene was.

Nathanael Greene was born August 7, 1742 in Warwick Township, Rhode Island. In August 1774 Greene helped organize a local militia which became chartered as the Kentish Guards. He had a pronounced limp and his participation in the militia was challenged. He began to collect and study books on military tactics and teach himself the art of war. His zeal in fighting the British and organizing the militia resulted in him being expelled from the pacifist Quakers. On May 8, 1775 he was promoted from private to Major General of the Rhode Island Army of Observation formed in response to the siege of Boston. He was appointed brigadier of the Continental Army on June 22, 1775 and George Washington assigned him the command of the city of Boston after it was evacuated by the British in March 1776. On August 9, 1776 he was promoted to major general and put in command of the Continental Army on Long Island. The Revolutionary War in the south had not gone well. Robert Howe had been in command of the Continental Army in the south and had lost Savannah. Benjamin Lincoln was given command and lost Charleston. On August 16, 1780 the British attacked Horatio Gates' army near Camden, South Carolina. They broke and ran in confusion effectively ending the southern army as a fighting force. British General Cornwallis had a goal of gathering southern loyalists and taking the war into Virginia. He planned on using the southern ports to move men and material to the north. The choice of General Gates successor was left to General Washington. He appointed Greene and he was given command of all troops from Delaware and Georgia. Greene took command at Charlotte, North Carolina on December 2, 1780. The army was weak, poorly equipped and opposed by the superior forces of Cornwallis. Greene decided to divide his troops which forced the British to divide theirs as well. He retreated and at the Battle of Kings Mountain the campaign in the south changed. The entire British force was captured or killed. On January 17, 1781 the victory at Cowpens resulted in the killing or capturing of 90% of that British force. Greene would continue to battle Cornwallis across the south. By the time the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the war British forces controlled a couple of southern coastal cities and Geene's forces controlled the remainder of the south. Greene was given grants of land and money in North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia following the war. He settled on his Mulberry Grove estate in Chatham County, Georgia about 14 miles from Savannah in 1785. On June 19, 1786 he died on that estate from sunstroke. During the Revolutionary War General Greene was second in command to General Washington and other than Washington and Henry Knox the only generals to serve the entire 8 years of the war. In an interesting turn of events Nathanael Greene is buried in Savannah. He is buried in Johnson Square which was Savannah's first square.

Greene Square is home to the Second Baptist Church. The marker above reads: "Second Baptist Church on Greene Square was founded December 26, 1802 by Rev. Henry Cunningham and twenty-five other baptists. General William T. Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with the negroes of this city and the newly freed slaves at Second Baptist Church when Savannah surrendered to General Sherman in December 1864."