Ive seen some people arguing about this guy recently. Some saying he’s amazing, others not so much. And I’m at the point of sheer curiosity. What exactly did this guy do? Why is he held in such a high regard?
Correction: Daniel Morgan won Cowpens, not Nathanael Greene as the first photo implies.
The race to the Dan was really just Cornwallis being incredibly pompous and brash more than Greene being a “genius."
Cornwallis didn't "technically hold the field", he held the field. Period. Regardless of how you want to put it, Greene ran away, and that's a British victory by default.
One thing that deserves to be mentioned is my ancestor's regiment, the 1st Maryland Regiment, took part in all this, and it actively soiled their image and legacy. The regiment had saved Washington's Army at Long Island, and took part in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Cowpens. Instead of being allowed to go out with a victory, Greene reduced them to constant retreats and losses in the South, including Guilford.
No o hate towards the original poster is intended, I'm just adding my 2 cents.
After capturing Philadelphia on Sept. 26th, British General Howe would leave a detachment of 3000 soldiers in Germantown. They were to cover the main bulk of his army as they moved into the city. Washington learned of this division and planned a surprise attack against this smaller force.
The attack would happen at dawn on Oct. 4th. A heavy fog blanketed the area. American forces were split into two columns. One led by John Sullivan and the other led by arguably the great leader in American history, Nathanael Greene (the last photo). First, American forces were able to repel British pickets on Mount Airy. The British were so shocked to find such a large force that some were cut off from the main body; 120 of them took shelter in a large stone house called Cliveden. That fortified position would cause a headache for the Americans for the remainder of the battle. A series of assaults against the position by the Americans would be repulsed with heavy casualties.
Sullivan's forces, running out of ammunition, retreated from the area. A division under Anthony Wayne became separated and lost in the fog. Greene's column was moving forward to support. In the fog, a group of Greene's men confused Wayne's division as British and opened fire. Wayne's men returned fire. The resulting firefight caused both units to flee the field.
With Sullivan retreating, the British were able to outflank Greene, causing them to retreat also. After a full day of battle, the Americans were unable to make any significant gains, only diverting the attention of the British forces for the day.
With the help of the American artillery and oncoming darkness, the whole of the American forces were able to retreat.
Edit: I forgot to add that I really enjoyed the presentation of this battle in Ken Burns' American Revolution. I know that documentary has some mixed reviews but the animated battle maps along with the reenactments are top notch.
Hello all, I've been thinking about some changes we could implement to help get this subreddit back on its feet (for those who don't know, there's an ongoing mod selection process). I've brainstormed some of these rules ideas before, but I wanted to share a working draft I've come up with. I believe pretty strongly that moderation works best when there is active buy-in from the community, so please feel free to critique.
I've added new material (in bold) to rule #1 and rule #1, but largely kept them intact. Rule #3 has been completely rewritten, and expanded to set some historical guideposts before 1776 and after 1784.
Rule #4 is actually given teeth, and rule #5 added to support it. Rule #6 is entirely new. It's deliberately a bit radical; I firmly believe the best way to outflank AI slop is to uplift human creators. The trick is setting rules that read clearly, can firmly excise botspam, have a fair method to redress strikes, and still don't read as daunting to new contributors.
No low-quality posts or memes. In addition to the usual posts and photos about history, posts about artifacts, Colonial art and music, and reenacting are allowed. Discussions of modern scholarship, genealogy, living history, educational programs, contemporary artwork, and representations of the Revolution in popular media are also encouraged.
No calls to violence, antagonizing other users, racism, or hatred. Be respectful of soldiers and their history. Keep critical discussion respectful and academic in nature.
Revolutionary ideals are worthy of vigorous debate, but remember to be cordial when you disagree. Leave contemporary politics at the door—there are plenty of other subs for that.
Content should be in some way relevant to the American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – January 14, 1784), the Colonial protest movements that preceded full-scale hostilities (between 1765 and 1775), or discussions of the war’s historical influence and ongoing legacy.
Other related topics include: global theaters of the conflict (the Caribbean, the East India Company, Gibraltar, the Anglo-Dutch War), collapse of the North ministry in Parliament, Indigenous unrest (Iroquois civil war, the Chickamauga Wars, the Northwestern Confederacy), soldier/pensioner protests (Continental Line mutinies, Shays’ Rebellion, Whiskey Rebellion), and the expulsion and resettlement of United Empire Loyalists.
Generative AI has no place in history communities. Posts suspected to be entirely generated by LLMs will be flagged as spam and removed. Posts containing images determined to be AI-generated (see rule #5) will be removed.
In either instance, an offending user will receive one “strike” when their post is removed. This community has a three-strike AI policy; accumulate three strikes and your account will be banned. If you feel your post was removed in error, you can contact the moderation team to appeal a strike.
Many users treat this subreddit as an educational space, and it greatly benefits our community if you include citations with your post! For most content, this is only considered to be a courtesy. We understand not everyone has the time or research background to make scholarly citations.
However, posts containing visual art must include at least the artist’s name (and preferably the title of the work), either in the image itself or the body of the post. Posts which fail to do so and cannot be easily verified will be flagged as spam and removed (see rule #4).
If you create your own illustration, painting, map, or other American Revolution artwork, you are welcome to share it! Remember to cite yourself as the artist when you do. Attribution is important.
Join, or Die. The policies in rules #4 and #5 are one response to low-effort bot spam, but the other way to grow a community is to re-center on the human element. If you have a blog, video, or other project related to the American Revolution, we encourage you to share it! All human-created content is welcome here, without need for a “Self-Promotion” tag.
There are only two stipulations: A) Please limit personal submissions to one-post-per-week to balance out the subreddit, and B) If your submission has a pay-wall or paid promotion (i.e. substack, self-published novel, tour service, kickstarter), contact the moderation team to get it approved before posting.
A relatively unknown site within the Philadelphia campaign. After the Battle of Brandywine and Paoli, the British moved its way along the south side of the Schuylkill River while the Continental army positioned itself on the north side of the river. Washington was convinced that the British were on its way to Reading, Pennsylvania, where there were military stores. He kept the American army positioned between the British and Reading. The British army reached a town that is now called Phoenixville before turning around and taking Philadelphia. After learning that the British had turned back towards philadelphia, Washington stopped his army and set up camp to regroup. He stopped his camp in an area between Pottstown and Perkiomenville called Pottsgrove. They would stay there for about a week with Washington using the Henry Antes house as headquarters.
Anthony Wayne's division was still making its way back to meet up with the main army after the battle of Paoli. They would eventually link up with the main army at Pennypacker Mills, which is in Perkiomenville. It was at Pennypacker Mills that Washington would hold a council of war to plan the attack on Germantown.
The Henry Antes house was built in 1736. It's a fantastic example of early colonial German architecture.
Arnold spent his twilight years immersed nestled within one of London's most exclusive enclaves, surrounded by grand townhouses that originally commanded up to £3,000…an absolute fortune for a private residence at the turn of the 19th century. Today, the same multi-storey Georgian terraces change hands for £6 million plus. I’m sure Peggy was happy!
The American Revolution series has started! 🇺🇸
In this video, I tried to show how the Boston Tea Party and some important laws helped spark the American Revolution.
Please share your ideas on how I can make my content better.
I would really appreciate your feedback and ideas for future videos.