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Nathanael Greene to George Washington First Informing Him of Victory in New Jersey; One of the Finest Greene Letters Known!
Nathanael Greene to George Washington First Informing Him of Victory in New Jersey; One of the Finest Greene Letters Known!
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Description:

Greene Nathanael

Nathanael Greene to George Washington First Informing Him of Victory in New Jersey, One of the Finest Greene Letters Known!

 

NATHANAEL GREENE, Autograph Letter Signed, to George Washington, June 24, 1780, Springfield, New Jersey. 2 pp., 7.25" x 9.5". Expected folds; some browning; very good. From the Library of Charles I. Forbes, off the market since 1958.

 

Complete Transcript

                                                                        Springfield June 24th 178[0

Dear Sir

            I make use of the first moment to acquaint your Excellency that the whole force of the Enemy, which have been in Jersey, went from Elizabeth Town point, between 12 and 1 oClock this morning, whether they crossed to Statten Island, or embarked on board their shipping I am not as yet sufficiently inform’d, although it is reported they have embarked and proceeded up Hackensack River. to the latter I give but little credit, however I shall take immediate measures to ascertain the truth & discover their present position & designs as far as is possible.

            I shall do myself the honor to state to your Excellency as soon as I have leisure, the proceedings of Yesterday, and in the interim

                                                                        I am with the greatest respect and esteem

                                                                        Your Excellency’s

                                                                        Nath Greene

Genl Washington

P.S I have order’d Genl Wayne to join the Army under Your Excellencys immediate Command, and bet to receive Your Direction respecting the reminder of the Troops

[Docketing: To Genl Washington / June 24th 1780 / A hurried scrawl after the Affair of Springfield

 

Historical Background

At the Battle of Connecticut Farms on June 7, 1780, New Jersey militia interrupted Hessian General Wilhelm von Knyphausen’s attempt to attack the main Continental Army at Morristown, New Jersey. Although he forced the militia to withdraw, Knyphausen stopped for the night and then withdrew back toward New York City.

 

Two weeks later, Knyphausen again attempted with 6,000 men to reach Hobart Gap (and the Continental Army just beyond) with a two-pronged attack. One column would advance from Elizabethtown Point and pass through Connecticut Farms and Springfield, while another column would travel north of Springfield. As the British advanced, General Nathanael Greene ordered his men to remove the planking on the bridges over the Rahway River.

 

After the British forced New Jersey militia out of Connecticut Farms, they advanced toward the Galloping Hill Bridge. The British bombarded the Americans with six cannon, and the Americans answered with their only cannon. When the American artillery ran low on wadding, Continental Army chaplain James Caldwell, who had lost his wife two weeks earlier as a civilian casualty at the Battle of Connecticut Farms, brought forward hymn books by Isaac Watts. “Give ’em Watts, boys!,” he shouted. After the British failed to take the bridge, they forded the Rahway River and drove the Americans back. Although the British took Springfield, Major Henry Lee and his detachment made a fighting retreat for two miles, where they were reinforced by two Continental regiments and a cannon. An increasing number of New Jersey militia gathering on the slopes of Newark Mountain and on the Short Hills convinced Knyphausen to halt his advance and return to Elizabethtown Point. Before doing so, he ordered the loyalist New Jersey volunteers to burn Springfield, and they burned all but four houses to the ground. New Jersey patriot militia harassed the withdrawing British, inflicting several casualties. The Battle of Springfield was one of the last major engagements of the Revolutionary War in the north and effectively ended British attempts to take New Jersey. Greene letters to Washington are as scarce as hens’ teeth and have fetched over $20,000.  A similar one sold in Sotheby’s in 1997, though it had significant condition problems, for over $23,000.

 

Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) was a major general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He was born in Rhode Island and served in the Rhode Island General Assembly in the early 1770s. In 1775 he was promoted from private to major general of the Rhode Island Army of Observation formed in response to the Siege of Boston. The Continental Congress appointed him as brigadier general in the Continental Army in June 1775. Promoted to major general in August 1776, he was active in the major battles until General George Washington selected Greene to command all troops from Delaware to Georgia in late 1780. From March 1778 to August 1780, Greene also served as Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. Although placed in command of smaller forces, Greene successfully tired the British troops in the southern department through rapid maneuvers against superior forces. Although he lost every pitched battle against the British, he effectively liberated the southern states from British control, limiting them to a few coastal cities by the end of the war. He twice turned down the position of Secretary of War before settling on his Georgia estate, where he died at age 43.

 

 

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