I write to you tonight from Naval Station Newport, as congenial a duty station as anywhere in the naval service. (If any Op-Forians are in the area, send me an email at ltcolp at op-for dot com.)
Rhode Island is the birthplace of one of my personal heroes, General Nathanael Greene, and so because I am here now I think it appropriate to mention him once again. Greene was the guy who rarely won a battle, but whose very bold and canny campaign plan drove the British Army from the South and destroyed its irregular wing. In doing so he set Cornwallis up for entrapment and defeat at Yorktown. I often wonder what Cornwallis, a very capable professional soldier, thought of his lot after he realized he’d been ejected from the Carolinas and penned up in Virginia after never having lost a battle, all courtesy of a gimpy little renegade Quaker and self-taught soldier. It would have driven a lesser man to drink.
Here’s to you, General. I hoisted a few in your honor tonight; we have much to thank you for.
correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Mel Gibson’s character in The Patriot based off of NG?
Mel played Francis Marion “The Swamp Fox”
Mel played himself. Watch The Patriot and Braveheart back-to-back. You will be amazed at the similarities. Not to mention some of the same lines…
Same situation – fighting the Brits – leads to similar conduct.
FREEDOM!
My Friend and Colleague,
The following exerpt is from a site listed the history of Cumberland Island, just scant miles from my house. It ties together the threads of your hero and our fledgling Navy. I have seen the Light Horse Harry Lee Marker.
The Greenes and 19th Century
Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Greene purchased land on the island in 1783 to harvest live oaks for ship building. Wood from the island was used to build the USS Constitution, “Old Ironsides”. His wife, Catherine, remarried 10 years later to Phineas Miller, and they followed through on Greene’s designs, building a huge, four-story tabby mansion on top of an Indian shell mound. She named it Dungeness after Oglethorpe’s lodge. The mansion, with 6-foot thick walls at the base, featured four chimneys and 16 fireplaces, and was surround by 12 acres of gardens. Dungeness was the scene of many special social galas where statesmen and military leaders enjoyed the Millers’ hospitality. When the island was briefly occupied during the War of 1812, the British used Dungeness as their headquarters.
In 1818, Gen. “Lighthorse” Harry Lee, Revolutionary War hero and old friend of Nathaniel Greene, came ashore at Cumberland Island. He was in failing health and was returning from the West Indies when he asked to be taken to his old friend’s estate of Dungeness. After a month of illness, he died on March 25 and was buried on the island. His son, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, had a tombstone placed over the grave and visited his father’s final resting place several times. In 1913, Harry Lee was moved to Lexington, Virginia, to lie beside his famous son, but the gravestone was left on Cumberland Island.
The plantation economy was dealt a deathblow with the Civil War, and Dungeness deteriorated and the family moved away. Dungeness burned down in1866
Regards,
NH
I implore anyone who hasn’t studied the Revolutionary War to read The Compact History of the Revolutionary War by Trevor Dupuy (West Point Class of 1937). It’s easy reading.
Greene was a great warrior.