Greene's army had now been incessantly in motion for seven months. After a rest of about six weeks in a secure position on the high hills of Santee, he met the British army, in the command of which Rawdon had been succeeded by Stuart, in a decisive action at Eutaw Springs. In the morning the British were driven off the field by a superb charge upon their left Hank; but, after retreating some distance in disorder, they rallied in a strong position, protected by a brick house and palisaded garden, and succeeded in remaining there during the afternoon, but only because Greene desisted from further attack until the cool of the evening. For thus holding their second position a few hours, albeit on sufferance, the British absurdly claimed a victory, and the error has been repeated by American writers who ought to know better. At nightfall the British retreated, as Greene saw they must, and he now renewed his attack. The enemy were chased nearly thirty miles by Marion and Lee, and there was a wholesale capture of prisoners. Of the 2,300 men with whom Stuart had gone into the battle, scarcely more than 1,000 reached Charleston, where they remained for the next fourteen months, shut up under the shelter of their fleet. The battle of Eutaw Springs was a decisive and final victory for the Americans in South Carolina.
Congress testified its appreciation of Greene's brilliant conduct by a gold medal and a vote of thanks. Little more was done till the next July, when Savannah was taken by Wayne. On 14 Dec., 1782, Greene marched into Charleston at the head of his army, and the next summer, when the army was disbanded, he journeyed homeward, stopping at Philadelphia, where he was greeted by enthusiastic crowds and treated with high consideration by the congress that had come so near depriving the country of his services. In the autumn of 1785 he removed to a plantation at Mulberry Grove, which had been presented to him by the state of Georgia. Although his fortune was impaired by the war, and he was compelled to bear a heavy pecuniary responsibility incurred through the dishonesty of an army contractor for whom he had become security while quartermaster-general, his life on his plantation was very happy in the society of his charming wife and genial friends. His death, at the age of forty-four, was caused by sunstroke. In a speech before the Society of the Cincinnati, Alexander Hamilton said that Greene's qualifications for statesmanship were not less remarkable than his military ability, which was of the highest order. His series of campaigns from December, 1780, to September, 1781, will bear comparison with the best work of Turenne or Wellington. What he might have done on a greater scale and with more ample resources, it is, of course, impossible to say; but the intellectual qualities that he showed were precisely those that have won distinction for the foremost strategists of modern times. It would be difficult to praise too highly the superb manœuvring that drew Cornwallis 200 miles from his base, forced a battle on him at Guilford under such circumstances that victory proved hardly less fatal to him than defeat, and thus turned him off into Virginia, leaving Greene's hands free to drive Rawdon from Camden and reconquer South Carolina. Congress voted that a monument to Greene be raised at the seat of government; but more than ninety years elapsed before the resolve was fulfilled by placing an equestrian statue, from the hand of Henry Kirke Brown, in Washington. A monument, dedicated to Greene and Pulaski jointly, stands in a public square in Savannah. Greene married, 20 July, 1774, Miss Catherine Littlefield, niece of the wife of the governor of Rhode Island, the Catherine Ray of Franklin's letters, and by her he had two sons and three daughters. The authoritative life of the great general is by his grandson, George Washington Greene (3 vols., 8vo, New York, 1867-'71). The sketch previously published by the same author in Sparks's “ Library of American Biography” was compiled from printed sources, not from original documents. The controversy between George Bancroft and George W. Greene, occasioned by some remarks in Bancroft's history, was carried on in the pages of the “North American Review” and the “Historical Magazine.” The letters connected with this controversy are published in the second volume of Greene's life, which also contains numerous extracts from the general's private correspondence. The addresses on the presentation of the statue of Gen. Greene were published by the government at Washington in 1870, in a pamphlet of eight pages. A selection from his despatches relating to the southern campaign is preserved in two folio volumes in the state department. Some of his letters may be found in Force's “Archives,” and others in Sparks's “Correspondence of the American Revolution”; but the bulk of his correspondence still remains in manuscript. The latest life, entitled “General Greene,” by Francis V. Greene, U. S. A. (New York, 1893), is the fourth of the “Great Commanders” series. — His grandson, George Washington, author, b. in East Greenwich, R. I., 8 April, 1811; d. there, 2 Feb., 1883, entered Brown university, but left before graduation on account of failing health. From 1825 till 1847 he resided in Europe, and in 1837 he was appointed U. S. consul at Rome. On his return to this country in 1848 he was appointed professor of modern languages at Brown. In 1852 he removed to New York, and devoted himself to teaching, and writing historical and other articles for periodicals. In 1853 he edited Addison's works, with copious notes (6 vols., New York). He took up his residence at his native place in 1865, and soon afterward was chosen to represent the town in the legislature. He made speeches in 1867 and 1869 on the ratification of the 14th and 15th amendments to the constitution of the United States. In 1872 he was chosen professor of American history at Cornell. His published works include, besides two text-books of botany, one of French grammar, and several addresses: “Historical Studies” (New York, 1850); “History and Geography of the Middle Ages” (1851); “Biographical Studies” (1860); “Historical View of the American Revolution” (Boston, 1865); “Nathanael Greene: an Examination of the Ninth Volume of Brancroft's History” (1866); a life of Gen. Nathanael Greene in Sparks's “American Biography,” and a more extended one, published separately (3 vols., New York, 1867-'71); “The German Element in the War of American Independence” (1876); and a “Short History of Rhode Island” (Providence, 1877). — Nathanael's nephew, Albert Collins, U. S. senator, b. in East Greenwich, R. I., 15 April, 1791; d. in Providence, 8 Jan., 1863, was the son of Perry Greene. He received an academic education, and then studied law in New York city, where he was admitted to the bar. Subsequently he returned to Rhode Island, and there practised his profession. In 1815 he was elected to the lower branch of the state legislature, in the year following was chosen brigadier-general of the militia, and later major-general. He was again elected to the legislature, and held office from 1822 till 1825, being speaker during the last year. From 1825 till
