Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene was born on August 7, 1742, in Warwick, Rhode Island. Greene managed his father’s iron foundries and served in the Rhode Island colonial legislature before the Revolution. Self-trained in military tactics, he helped form the Kentish Guards in October 1774, and in May 1775, he became a brigadier general in the Rhode Island Army of Observation. In June 1775, he was commissioned with the same rank in the Continental Army, commanding troops during the siege of Boston in 1775 and 1776.
In 1776, after taking command of troops on Long Island, George Washington commissioned him as major general in August 1776. For the next four years, General Greene participated in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, spent the winter of 1777-78 at Valley Forge, and served as quartermaster general. Before commanding the southern campaign of 1780-82, Greene replaced Benedict Arnold as commander of West Point. During this time, he presided over Major John André’s trial and execution.
In January 1781, Greene played a role in the defeat of British General Lord Cornwallis at Cowpens, South Carolina, forcing Cornwallis to divide his troops. The British then retreated to Charleston, where they remained until Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781.
Greene and Washington remained close friends after the war. Following Greene’s death in 1786, Washington offered to raise Greene’s son, George Washington Greene, saying he would "give him as good an education as this country (I mean No. America) will afford...at my own cost and charge."
After the war, Greene returned to Rhode Island, later moving his family south to Mulberry Grove, a plantation gifted to him by the state of Georgia. General Greene died of a stroke on June 19, 1786.