DATE: Sunday, April 27, 1997                TAG: 9704250077

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEPHEN HARRIMAN TRAVEL EDITOR 

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

GREENE COUNTY'S CONNECTION WITH OBSCURE OFFICER UNCLEAR

RURAL Greene County, lying in relative obscurity in the eastern foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was formed from the western part of Orange County in 1838 and named for Revolutionary War Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Greene. No one seems to be able to explain exactly why.

Greene had no real connections with Virginia, and at the time the county was formed he had been dead longer (52 years) than he had lived (nearly 44 years). Perhaps someone in the new county knew his history well. Certainly Greene deserves to be honored. He was one of the unsung heroes in America's War for Independence.

The Rhode Island native was commander of the Army of the South during the war. Unfortunately the exploits of this wing have largely been shoved into obscurity by the more famous activities of George Washington.

Greene, a merchant, former Quaker expelled for his militaristic activities and son of a prosperous iron foundryman, formed a Rhode Island militia company but was not given command of it because he limped from a stiff knee. So he took a musket and enlisted as a private.

A year later, not yet 33 years old, he was a brigadier general in the Continental Army. After serving Washington ably both in the field and as quartermaster general, he was given command of the southern army, replacing the unfortunate Gen. Horatio Gates.

Greene arranged an efficient and dependable supply system and soon had the demoralized troops he had inherited in fighting trim. Although he never won a real battle, his tactics and strategic maneuvers exhausted the British troops and forced Maj. Gen. Lord Cornwallis to give up his plans of conquest in the south and retire the bulk of his army northward toward ultimate disaster at Yorktown.

After the war Greene retired to Mulberry Grove Plantation near Savannah, which had been confiscated from the royal lieutenant governor given to Greene by the grateful state of Georgia. There, in 1786, he died of a sunstroke with his friend, ``Mad'' Anthony Wayne, at his side. Said Wayne, ``I have seen a great and good man die.''

Trivia: Eli Whitney met Greene's widow, Catherine, and her plantation manager, fellow Yale grad Phineas Miller, while traveling to Savannah to seek a teaching position. While staying as a guest at Mulberry Grove, the 28-year-old Whitney invented the cotton gin.

It is possible that another Virginia county, Greensville, in Southside also was named for Nathaniel Greene. It was formed in 1780 when Greene was making his mark farther south. Some say this county was named for Sir Richard Grenville, the leader of the settlement at Roanoke Island in 1585. That is quite a reach back through history, and it doesn't account for the spelling with the double ``e.''

Greenville, a village in Augusta County, also is said to have been named in honor of Nathaniel Greene. Again, the spelling is not quite right.

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