Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene Writes Kosciuszko Implementing His First Important Tactical Decision as Commander of the Continental Army in the South

Nathanael Greene is remembered as the general who, aside from Washington, did the most to ensure American victory in the Revolution. He foiled the best plan the British had of winning that war, and in the end drove them into Virginia and surrender.
 
In early 1780, the British switched their main emphasis from the North to the South, both to capitalize on the large population of Loyalists there and the weaker U.S. forces defending the region. They also sent in to command their forces the competent Gen. Charles Cornwallis. On May 12, 1780, they captured Charleston, South Carolina, with the Americans losing over 5,000 men along with  stores of ammunition and supplies. Congress sent in Gen. Horatio Gates to salvage the situation, but at the Battle of Camden on August 16, 1780, he lost both the battle and another 1,900 soldiers. Finally, in October, at the recommendation of George Washington, Nathanael Greene was approved by Congress to command American forces in the South.

Greene took over the weak and badly equipped American army at Charlotte, North Carolina, on December 4, 1780. He set immediately to work. He wrote introducing himself to the famed local South Carolina commander Francis Marion – the Swamp Fox. He made some decisions concerning disposition of prisoners. He then turned to his first important tactical decision as commander in the South – the urgent matter of where to place the American encampment. On December 7, he wrote a report to General Washington on the status of the army as he found it, saying he thought that remaining in Charlotte was not an option because sufficient provisions were not available. Greene's son related in his biography of his father the General's concern that the Charlotte camp would preclude him from properly training and organizing his army. And whereas Gates had assumed there would be no campaign during the winter of 1780-81, Greene believed that a winter campaign was inevitable, and that he needed a camp that would provide him with operational flexibility.

To find the proper location for an encampment, Greene dispatched his only engineer, Col. Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish patriot fighting for liberty in America, to search for one.  He had reached Philadelphia in August of 1776, intent on aiding the American struggle for liberty. He was a military engineer, and was immediately put to work fortifying the city against an expected attack by the British fleet.  After the momentous victory at Saratoga, the victor, General Gates, gave Kosciuszko credit for the victory. Washington then appointed Kosciuszko to take charge of the fortifications of West Point, where he remained until 1780. Kosciuszko was then sent to the Southern theater of operations, just on time to serve with the newly-appointed commander there, Gen. Nathanael Greene. As Greene assumed command on December 4, 1780, Kosciuszko was his sole engineer.

This is the original of Greene's letter to Kosciuszko, ordering and implementing Greene's first significant tactical decision as commander in the South.

Autograph letter signed as commander, December 8, 1780, to Kosciuszko. "You will go with Major Polk and examine the country from the mouth of Little River, twenty or thirty miles down the Pedee, and search for a good position for the army. You will report the make of the country, the nature of the soil, the quality of the water, quantity of produce, number of mills, and the water transportation that may be had up and down the river. You will also inquire respecting the creeks in the rear of the fords, and the difficulty of passing them; all which you will report as soon as possible." The original address leaf addressed to Kosciuszko is still present. It is interesting to note that the Polk mentioned was Ezekiel Polk, grandfather of President James K. Polk.  The letter has some silking.

Kosciuszko followed the order and took a canoe down the Pedee River, after which he reported to Greene that he had found an excellent site on the east bank of the Pedee, across the river from Cheraw Hills, South Carolina. Greene accepted the advice and determined to encamp there.

Greene summarized all this in a letter to Washington dated later in December: "I was apprehensive, on my first arrival, that the country around Charlotte was too much exhausted to afford subsistence for the army at that place for any considerable time. Upon a little further inquiry, I was fully convinced, and immediately despatched Colonel Kosciuszko, to look out a position on the Pedee, that would afford a healthy camp and provisions in plenty. His report was favorable, and I immediately put the army under marching orders; but the excessive rains, which continued eleven days, prevented our marching till the 20th instant. We arrived here the 26th…"

On December 16, 1780, Greene made the unorthodox move of dividing his army into two (with one segment led by Gen. Daniel Morgan). This would force the British to do likewise, and enable his smaller force to better evade the British, better choose its battlegrounds, and strike the British at multiple places. Just ten months later, starting from a greatly inferior position, Greene had maneuvered Cornwallis into Yorktown and the surrender that ended the American Revolution.

We believe this to be one of Green's first five letters as commander of the Continental Army in the South. Moreover, any Greene letters in that leadership capacity are extremely rare. A search of public sale records reveals just two having come on the market in the last twenty years, and not one closer in date to his assumption of the post of commander.