mediately withdrew from the south, and returned to the bosom of his native state.

The reception he there experienced was cordial and joyous. The authorities welcomed him home with congratulatory addresses, and the chief men of the place waited upon him at his dwelling, eager to testify their gratitude for his services, their admiration of his talents and virtues, and the pride with which they recognized him as a native of Rhode Island.

On the close of the war, the three southern states that had been the most essentially benefitted by his wisdom and valour, manifested at once their sense of justice, and their gratitude to General Greene, by liberal donations. South Carolina presented him with an estate valued at ten thousand pounds sterling; Georgia with an estate, a few miles from the city of Savannah, worth five thousand pounds; and North Carolina, with twenty-five thousand acres of land in the state of Tennessee.

Having spent about two years in his native state, in the adjustment of his private affairs, he sailed for Georgia in October, 1785, and settled with his family on his estate near Savannah. Engaging here in agricultural pursuits, he employed himself closely in arrange

ments for planting, exhibiting the fairest promise to become as eminent in the practice of the peaceful virtues as he had already shown himself in the occupation of war.

But it was the will of heaven that in this new sphere of action his course should be limited. The short period of seven months was destined to witness its commencement and its close.

Walking over his grounds, as was his custom, without his hat, on the afternoon of the 15th of June, 1786, the day being intensely hot, he was suddenly attacked with such a vertigo and prostration of strength, as to be unable to return to his house without assistance. The affection was what was denominated a "stroke of the sun." It was succeeded by fever, accompanied with stupor, delirium, and a disordered stomach. All efforts to subdue it proving fruitless, it terminated fatally on the 19th of the month.

Intelligence of the event being conveyed to Savannah, but one feeling pervaded the place. Sorrow was universal; and the whole town instinctively assumed the aspect of mourning. All business was suspended, the dwelling houses,

stores, and shops, were closed, and the shipping in the harbour half-masted their colours.

On the following day, the body of the deceased being conveyed to the town, at the re

quest of the inhabitants, was interred in a private cemetry with military honours; the magistrates of the place, and other public officers, the society of the Cincinnati, and the citizens generally, joined in the procession.*

In estimating the military character of General Greene, facts authorized the inference that he possessed a genius adapted by nature to military command. After resorting to arms, his attainment to rank was much more rapid than that of any other officer our country has produced; perhaps the most rapid that history records. These offices, so high in responsibility and honour, were conferred on him, not as matters of personal favour or family influence, nor yet through the instrumentality of political intrigue. They were rewards of pre-eminent merit, and tokens of recognised fitness for the highest functions of military service.

It is said, that on his very first appearance in the camp at Cambridge, from the ardour of General Greene left behind him a wife and five children.

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his zeal, unremitted activity, and strict attention to every duty, he was pronounced by soldiers of distinction,* a man of real military genius.

"His knowledge," said General Knox to a distinguished citizen of South Carolina, "is intuitive. He came to us the rawest and most untutored being I ever met with; but in less than twelve months he was equal in military knowledge to any general officer in the army, and very superior to most of them." Even the enemy he conquered did homage to his preeminent talents for war. Tarlton, who had strong ground to know him, is reported to have pronounced him, on a public occasion, the most able and accomplished commander that America had produced.

When acting under the order of others, he never failed to discharge, to their satisfaction, the duties intrusted to him, however arduous. But it is the southern department of the Union that constitutes the theatre of his achievements and fame. It was there, where his views were unshackled and his genius free, that, by performing the part of a great captain, he erected for himself a monument of reputation, durable

* Colonel Pickering and others.

as history, lofty as victory and conquest could render it, and brightened by all that glory could bestow.

In compliment to his brilliant successes, the hivalric De la Luzerne, the minister of France, who, as a knight of Malta, must be considered as a competent judge of military merit, thus speaks of him: "Other generals subdue their enemies by the means with which their country or their sovereign furnished them, but Greene appears to subdue his enemy by his own means. He commenced his campaign without either an army, provisions, or military stores. He has asked for nothing since, and yet scarcely a post arrives from the south that does not bring intelligence of some new advantage gained over his foe. He conquers by magic. History furnishes no parallel to this."

On the 12th of August, of the year in which the general died, the Congress of the United States unanimously resolved, "That a monument be erected to the memory of the Honourable Nathaniel Greene, at the seat of the federal government, with the following inscription: