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Details
GREENE, Nathanael. Autograph letter signed (“N. Greene”), to General George Weedon, Richmond, 21 November 1780. 3 pages, folio, seal hole as well as splits along folds causing some paper loss and costing a few words.
"THERE WILL BE A MUCH GREATER EFFORT THIS WINTER TO EFFECT THIS BUSINESS THAN THERE HAS BEEN"
Greene takes command in the South and anticipates a winter of heavy fighting. “I was in great hopes to have the pleasure of seeing you before I went on to join the Southern Army;” he writes Weedon, “my appointment to which I presume you have already heard of.” Greene says “I shall leave Baron Stuben at this place to take command in this State until he hears further from me from the Southward; and it is my earnest desire that you and General Mulenburg arrange your lone of officers as soon as possible. You may depend upon it, the enemies changing their ground for the present will not induce them to drop their original design of conquering North Carolina and perhaps possessing themselves of all the lower part of Virginia.” Greene wants Weedon to “impress this idea upon the people of this State, for you may rely upon it, that there will be a much greater effort this winter to effect this business than there has been. Another detachment is making at New York for the Southward.”
This was Lafayette’s force, sent to catch the traitor Benedict Arnold. Greene further reports that “General Gates is pushing down with our battered troops into South Carolina. I wish he may not meet with a check; and a second misfortune; than which nothing could be more fatal both to him and to us.” Greene refers here to Gates’s ignominious flight from Camden, South Carolina. “Was there ever so precipitous a flight?” Alexander Hamilton asked. “One hundred and eighty miles in three days and a half!” It was admirable horsemanship, the young aide sarcastically acknowledged, “But it disgraces the general and the soldier.” This debacle forced Congress to remove Gates from the Southern Command and to heed Washington’s recommendation of Greene, who formally took over for Gates on 2 December.
Greene’s prediction of an active winter campaign proved dead accurate. In fighting at Cowpens and Guildford Court House Greene successfully checked Cornwallis’s advance, and set the stage for the great victories of the following summer. A dramatic letter, which shows the energy and enthusiasm that Greene injected into the American war effort in the South.
"THERE WILL BE A MUCH GREATER EFFORT THIS WINTER TO EFFECT THIS BUSINESS THAN THERE HAS BEEN"
Greene takes command in the South and anticipates a winter of heavy fighting. “I was in great hopes to have the pleasure of seeing you before I went on to join the Southern Army;” he writes Weedon, “my appointment to which I presume you have already heard of.” Greene says “I shall leave Baron Stuben at this place to take command in this State until he hears further from me from the Southward; and it is my earnest desire that you and General Mulenburg arrange your lone of officers as soon as possible. You may depend upon it, the enemies changing their ground for the present will not induce them to drop their original design of conquering North Carolina and perhaps possessing themselves of all the lower part of Virginia.” Greene wants Weedon to “impress this idea upon the people of this State, for you may rely upon it, that there will be a much greater effort this winter to effect this business than there has been. Another detachment is making at New York for the Southward.”
This was Lafayette’s force, sent to catch the traitor Benedict Arnold. Greene further reports that “General Gates is pushing down with our battered troops into South Carolina. I wish he may not meet with a check; and a second misfortune; than which nothing could be more fatal both to him and to us.” Greene refers here to Gates’s ignominious flight from Camden, South Carolina. “Was there ever so precipitous a flight?” Alexander Hamilton asked. “One hundred and eighty miles in three days and a half!” It was admirable horsemanship, the young aide sarcastically acknowledged, “But it disgraces the general and the soldier.” This debacle forced Congress to remove Gates from the Southern Command and to heed Washington’s recommendation of Greene, who formally took over for Gates on 2 December.
Greene’s prediction of an active winter campaign proved dead accurate. In fighting at Cowpens and Guildford Court House Greene successfully checked Cornwallis’s advance, and set the stage for the great victories of the following summer. A dramatic letter, which shows the energy and enthusiasm that Greene injected into the American war effort in the South.