But he got Washington’s attention and became one of his favorites. It says something about mobilization for that war, and something about Greene, that within two years year he went from being a private in a state militia to a major general in the Continental Army. He was particularly interested in military history and strategy, and in 1774, he joined the New Hampshire militia. His father didn’t believe in anything like a liberal education, so anything Greene learned that wasn’t written in the bible, he taught himself. Greene grew up in a Quaker family in Rhode Island. He was an interesting person in himself, but what interests me even more is that he never got credit for the influence he had, not just on the outcome of the Revolution, but on military strategy and doctrine. I’ve been fascinated with Nathanael Greene since I was very young. Ellis, author of His Excellency: George Washington Read this book and you will understand why.' - Joseph J. 'Washington said if he went down in battle, Greene was his choice to succeed him. Terry Golway argues that Greene's appointment as commander of the American Southern Army was the war's decisive moment, and this bold new book returns Greene to his proper place in the Revolutionary era's pantheon. He is vigilant, enterprising, and full of resources.' Greene's ingenious tactics sapped the British of their strength and resolve even as they 'won' nearly every battle.

I never feel secure when I am encamped in his neighborhood. His opponent in the south, Lord Cornwallis, wrote, 'Greene is as dangerous as Washington. Greene's southern campaign, which combined the forces of regular troops with bands of irregulars, broke all the rules of eighteenth-century warfare and foreshadowed the guerrilla wars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After many daring exploits during the war's first four years (and brilliant service as the army's quartermaster), he was chosen in 1780 by Washington to replace the routed Horatio Gates in South Carolina. Untrained in military matters when he joined the Rhode Island militia in 1774, he quickly rose to become Washington's right-hand man and heir apparent. Although places named in his honor dot city and country, few people know his quintessentially American story as a self-made, self-educated military genius who renounced his Quaker upbringing-horrifying his large family-to take up arms against the British. Nathanael Greene is a revolutionary hero who has been lost to history. The overlooked Quaker from Rhode Island who won the American Revolution's crucial southern campaign and helped to set up the final victory of American independence at Yorktown

Washington's General by Terry Golway