Nathanael Greene: A Biography of the American Revolution »

Gerald M. Carbone is the author of Nathanael Greene, and was a journalist for twenty-five years, mostly for the Providence Journal. He has won two of American journalism's most prestigious prizes—the American Society of Newspaper Editors Distinguished Writing Award and a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University. He lives in Warwick, RI.

When the Revolutionary War began, Nathanael Greene was a private in the militia, the lowest rank possible, yet he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington's most gifted and dependable officer—celebrated as one of three most important generals. Upon taking command of America's Southern Army in 1780, Nathanael Greene was handed troops that consisted of 1,500 starving, nearly naked men. Gerald Carbone explains how within a year, the small worn-out army ran the British troops out of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and into the final trap at Yorktown. Despite his huge military successes and tactical genius Greene's story has a dark side. Gerald Carbone drew on 25 years of reporting and researching experience to create his chronicle of Greene's unlikely rise to success and his fall into debt and anonymity.

Publishers Weekly

Although Nathanael Greene's military accomplishments generally receive less attention than Benedict Arnold's or Lafayette's, historians consider him the better general. Journalist Carbone's lively chronicle corrects this neglect. A young Rhode Island businessman, Greene (1742-1786) was only a private in his state militia, but his political influence vaulted him to its command when fighting broke out in 1775. Washington saw Greene's impressive astuteness, and Greene became the Continental Army's youngest general. His greatest feats came after 1780, when Washington sent him to the south, an area that had ruined three previous generals. Leading poorly equipped troops and vastly outnumbered by Cornwallis's forces, he fought off the British; frustrated, Cornwallis marched north to Yorktown and defeat. Bad investments and his guarantee of loans to obtain military supplies left Greene owing huge sums, and he spent the last two years of his life struggling with creditors. Inevitably the book focuses on the war, wartime politics, the Americans' inability to support the army financially and Greene's military success. He should be better known, and this well-researched history aimed at a popular audience is a good first step. (July)

List of Illustrations

Bk. I The North

1 War, War Boys! 3

2 Mad, Vext, Sick and Sorry 21

3 Their Eternal Honor 49

4 Sore with the Hardships 83

5 Treason of the Blackest Dye 123

Bk. II The Southern Campaigns

6 The Cowpens 149

7 Rise, and Fight Again 169

8 Eutaw Springs 191

9 Mulberry Grove 221

Notes 237

Bibliography 257

Index 261