[From _Memoirs of the Life and Campaigns of the Hon. Nathaniel Greene_
(Philadelphia, 1819)]
Nathaniel Greene, although descended from ancestors of elevated
standing, was not indebted to the condition of his family for any
part of the real lustre and reputation he possessed. As truly as is
the case with any individual, he was the founder of his own fortune,
and the author of his own fame. He was the second son of Nathaniel
Greene, an anchor-smith, of considerable note, who is believed to have
had the earliest establishment of the kind erected in America, and, by
persevering industry in the line of his profession, an extensive and
lucrative concern in iron-works, and some success in commercial
transactions, had acquired a sufficiency to render him comfortable, if
not wealthy.
He was born in the year 1741, in the town of Warwick, and county of
Kent, in the province of Rhode Island. As far as is known, his childhood
passed without any peculiar or unequivocal indications of future
greatness. But this is a point of little moment. The size of the oak it
is destined to produce, can rarely be foretold from an examination of
the acorn. Nor is it often that any well defined marks of genius in the
child afford a premonition of the eminence of the man.
Several of his contemporaries, however, who are still living, have a
perfect recollection that young Greene had neither the appearance nor
manners of a common boy; nor was he so considered by his elder, and
more discerning acquaintance.
* * * * *
Being intended by his father for the business which he had himself
pursued, young Greene received at school nothing but the elements of a
common English education. But, to himself, an acquisition so humble
and limited, was unsatisfactory and mortifying. Even now, his aim was
lofty; and he had a noble ambition, not only to embark in high
pursuits, but to qualify himself for a manly and honourable
acquittance in them. Seeming, at this early period of life, to realize
the important truth that, knowledge is power, a desire to obtain it
became, in a short time, his ruling passion.
He accordingly procured, in part by his own economy, the necessary
books, and, at intervals of leisure, acquired, chiefly without the aid
of an instructor, a competent acquaintance with the Latin tongue.
This attainment, respectable in itself, was only preliminary to higher
efforts. With such funds as he was able to raise, he purchased a
small, but well selected library, and spent his evenings, and all the
time he could redeem from business, in regular study. He read with a
view to general improvement; but geography, travels, and military
history--the latter, more especially--constituted his delight. Having,
also, a predilection for mathematics and mechanical philosophy, and
pursuing, in most cases, the bent of his inclination, as far as
prudence and opportunity would admit, his knowledge, in the more
practical departments of these sciences, became highly respectable.