Nathanael Greene
• Continental Army quartermaster
• George Washington’s second-in-command
• Commander of Southern Army (victories at Cowpens, Guilford Court House, Hobkirk’s Hill and Eutaw Springs)
• Three U.S. Navy ships and many cities named Greensboro and Greenville are named in his honor, as well as 15 state’s Green(e) Counties. Statues of Greene have been erected in Savannah, Georgia, Greensboro, North Carolina, and at the U.S. Capitol
Richard Henry Lee
• State politician
• Introduced bill to form Virginia committee of correspondence
• Delegate to Continental Congress
• Proposed resolution of independence from Great Britain
• President of Continental Congress
• Delegate to Virginia ratification convention
• U.S. senator
Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) of Rhode Island was a Continental Army quartermaster who became Gen. George Washington’s second-in-command. He was in command of the Southern army when it achieved victories at Cowpens and Guilford Court House, and inflicted heavy British losses at Hobkirk’s Hill and Eutaw Springs.
Born a Quaker, Greene managed the family foundry before the Revolution and served in the Rhode Island legislature in the early 1770s. In August 1774, he formed a local militia and would help revise militia laws. He was expelled from the Quakers for his military services. Greene entered the Revolution as a private but was promoted to brigadier general for the siege of Boston, becoming commander of the city when the British evacuated in March 1776. Like artillery chief Henry Knox, Greene learned all he knew about the military from books. Now a brigadier, Greene was ill for most of the New York campaign except for the surrender of Forts Lee and Washington in fall. Greene once wrote, "We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again."
He was worried these defeats would result in losing field command but his loyalty to George Washington was rewarded with loyalty, and the commander-in-chief said that if anything happened to him, Greene should succeed him. After taking part at the battles of Trenton, Brandywine and Germantown, Greene reluctantly became quartermaster during the Valley Forge encampment in Pennsylvania in March 1778. He bitterly argued with Congress for much-needed food and supplies but was able to scavenge provisions from as far away as Maryland and Virginia. If the chief officers were killed, the army decimated or supplies lost, Greene warned Congress, "I would not be answerable for the consequences that such a stroke might produce in American politics." That August, Greene commanded troops at the Battle of Rhode Island, a failed Continental attempt to capture Narragansett Bay, and the victory at Battle of Springfield (New Jersey) in 1780, which prevented the British from seizing the colony. Greene also became good friends in the Army with Thomas Paine, who he called "Common Sense" in correspondence.
That December, Greene assumed command of the Southern Army, which was reeling from a humiliating defeat at Camden. Rather than confronting Gen. Lord Cornwallis’ Southern British command head-on, Greene split his force between him and Gen. Daniel Morgan to lure the British into the Carolina wilderness — unfamiliar territory far from reinforcements and re-supply for the British — and use guerilla tactics to confound the enemy. Morgan won huge victories at Cowpens and Guilford Court House a few months later. Costly British victories at Hobkirk’s Hill on April 25 and Eutaw Springs on Sept. 8 forced Cornwallis to remain in coastal Southern cities. Cornwallis surrendered his command after the Battle of Yorktown on Oct. 19, effectively ending the war.
Greene retired from public life after the war, twice refusing to become Secretary of War.
Three U.S. Navy ships and many cities named Greensboro and Greenville are named in his honor, as well as 15 state’s Green(e) Counties. Statues of Greene have been erected in Savannah, Georgia, Greensboro, North Carolina, and at the U.S. Capitol.
Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794) of Virginia was a delegate to the Continental Congress who proposed the motion for Congress to declare American independence from Great Britain. He would later serve as president of the Continental Congress and a U.S. senator.
Before the Revolution, Lee served as a justice of the peace and then in the Virginia House of Burgesses from 1758-1775. In 1765, he joined fellow-legislators Patrick Henry and George Wythe passing resolutions to denounce the Stamp Act. Eight years later, Lee proposed in the legislature the formation of a committee of correspondence "to watch the conduct of the British parliament, to spread more widely correct information on topics connected with the interests of the colonies, and to form a closer union of the men of influence in each." He was elected to the Continental Congress in August 1774.
On June 7, 1776, Lee proposed a resolution: "That these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown; and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." And he also pushed establishing foreign alliances and a continental confederation. He then gave a passionate speech defending his proposal: "Why then, sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American republic. Let her arise, not to devastate and to conquer, but to reestablish the reign of peace and of law. The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us: she demands of us a living example of freedom ..." Congress voted three days later to put off the debate of independence for a month. Unfortunately, Lee was forced to leave Congress to tend to his ill wife and didn’t help draft the Declaration of Independence.
He served in the Continental Congress when it fled Philadelphia and convened temporarily in York, Pennsylvania. On Oct. 31, 1777, he drafted the first congressional proclamation of a national Thanksgiving Day. Poor health convinced Lee to remain in Virginia and serve in the state House of Delegates and also as a colonel in the Westmoreland County militia. But he was elected back to Congress in 1784, and was elected its sixth president under the Articles of Confederation.
Along with Virginians Patrick Henry, George Mason and Edmund Randolph, Lee initially refused to endorse the new Constitution, believing it gave too much power to the federal government. He said, "To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying." In 1785, two years before the Constitutional Convention, Lee wrote that he believed it was "safest and best" not to give Congress authority over interstate commerce, noting that doing so would "be more hurtful, much more hurtful to us, than even the crabbed selfish system of Great Britain." But Lee would come to support the document, serving with the state convention which ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1788.
Lee was elected the first U.S. senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia, where he pushed for the Bill of Rights and served as president pro tempore in 1792. He resigned from the Senate on Oct. 8 because of ill health.
FORGOTTEN FOUNDING FATHERS TOURNAMENT BRACKET
Round 3
Washington Bracket
1. George Mason 58%
- William Penn 42%
Jefferson Bracket
- Nathanael Greene
- Richard Henry Lee
Madison Bracket
- Roger Williams
- Henry Knox
Franklin Bracket
- John Jay
- Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
FFFs and match-ups are determined by my interpretation of who I believe were the 32 greatest FFFs. Personal politics, favoritism and reader response was NOT a factor in selection or seeding. As for the tournament itself: each match-up will be conducted every 24 hours with a synopsis written by yours truly and readers can determine using the poll function who the winner should be for that match-up; there is no #1 overall seed; FFFs retain their seeds throughout; the winner of the Washington bracket will face the winner of the Jefferson bracket, and the winner of the Madison bracket will face the winner of the Franklin bracket; after having the first tie, I've decided the higher seed will win ties. I am not voting nor will I pick sides in discussion. I wish I could somehow do a more rigid time duration period for each round but there’s no guarantee I’ll be on a computer or awake at that time so I’m gonna say polling lasts until I post the next match-up, or roughly 24 hours later. Readers may choose whichever FFF contestant they wish, but the point of the tournament is to select the greatest Forgotten Founding Father — the most influential, most important, most impactful, who contributed the most to the Revolution and/or seeds of American liberty. Please read the original diaries in addition to the information provided above so you have all the information before voting. Have fun!