Nathanael Greene's Home A Living Link To History

If George Washington had been killed in the Revolutionary War Nathanael Greene might have been known as the Father of our Country.

Greene and Washington are the only two generals who served all eight years of the struggle, and although he was involved in many key campaigns and would have replaced Washington in the event of a tragedy few people today know of his role.

Turning off Post Road onto Old Forge Road leads to the still existing house in Potowomut he was born and worked at the family forge. The family had a series of forge, grist and saw mills and when he was 27 his father put him in charge of a forge in Coventry.

The Potowomut forge and grist mill are long gone but the house, looking as it did when Nathanael Greene was born, is occupied by his great, great, great, great nephew, 80 year old Thomas Casey Greene. 

Thomas Casey Greene is a living record of the far flung Greene family and can describe the history of the most distant relative, including some who wound up in other countries and on other continents.

In spite of the conflict caused by his Quaker heritage, Nathanael Greene saw the coming struggle we know as the Revolutionary War and chose to put what he saw as duty ahead of his religion. With his friend James Mitchell Varnum he formed the Kentish Guards in East Greenwich.

Because of a limp caused by an accident at the forge, The Kentish Guards chose Varnum over Greene as their first leader.  Several years later the General Assembly recognized Greene’s abilities and promoted him from a Private to Brigadier General, one of the biggest jumps in rank in history.

Greene is known as the “Savior of the South” for his role as commander of the Southern Army.  He steered an extremely disorganized army into shape and fought a series of battles that led to the British defeat.

A grateful south, which still remembers his role in history, rewarded him with a gift of land in Georgia where he lived the rest of his life.  Unfortunately that life was cut short at age 45, due to a severe case of sunstroke brought on by overexertion and the severe heat of the Georgia sun.

Without the self taught fighting Quaker from Rhode Island our Fourth of July might be a very different celebration or even exist.

A highly prized possession of Thomas Casey Greene is a British musket Nathanael Greene bought from a deserter when he went into Boston on what essentially was a spying mission.  The British would not allow the colonists to have such weapons and Greene smuggled it back to East Greenwich.

The barrel of the weapon is original, but the wooden stock has been replaced. The Kentish Guards borrow it from time to time when they participate in important ceremonial events.

As Thomas Casey Greene looks to the future he worries about his historic piece of property, fearing that inheritance taxes may result in loss of the land to his family and to the future.