The Making of the Prefident 1789 by Marvin Kitman

Author:Marvin Kitman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 1989-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

[27]

The Greenes’ life in the army was filled with comings and goings, missed connections. So many times Kitty the angel is flying to the front, but duty is calling her husband elsewhere, PDQ. Reading the Greene letters is like studying the habits of migratory birds in the mating season.

At the time of his appointment, Greene was at West Point in 1779, recovering from the bruises on his reputation inflicted during the excess profits debate in Congress, and anticipating a cushy, quiet, idyllic, romantic winter with his dear heart, Kitty. After Arnold had fled, Greene asked Washington for that post, and it had been assigned to him, temporarily. Nine days later, Greene received a letter from the commander-in-chief informing him of his appointment to succeed Gates in the faraway Southern department. Greene asked for a few days at home to settle his “domestic concerns” and to recover from a high fever. Then he wrote another letter:

My dear Angel,

What I have been dreading has come to pass. His Excellency General Washington, by order of Congress, has appointed me to the command of the Southern Army, General Gates being recalled to under[go] an examination into his conduct. …

I have been pleasing myself with the agreeable prospect of spending the winter here with you, and the moment I was appointed to the command I sent off Mr. Hubbard to bring you to camp. But, alas, … I am ordered away to another quarter. How unfriendly is war to domestic happiness.131

Washington pressed him to leave for South Carolina. He must fly at once. “Fly” was an expression used loosely in the travel writing of the day. A trip from Haverstraw or Fishkill, New York, to Charleston, South Carolina, could take three weeks, as the crow flies.

Greene told Washington the source of his domestic concern. “I wrote to Mrs. Greene to come to camp, and I expect her here every hour. Should I set out before her arrival, the disappointment of not seeing me, added to the shock of my going southward, I am very apprehensive will have some disagreeable effect on her health, especially as her apprehensions were all alive before there was the least probability of it. My baggage sets out in the morning, and my stay here shall not be more than a day longer, whether Mrs. Greene arrives or not.”132

Tough noogies. Greene’s request for a short leave to prepare for a very long journey was denied. Within the hour that he received the note, General Washington had shot back a telex, or its equivalent: “I wish circumstances could be made to correspond with your wishes … but your presence with your command as soon as possible is indispensable … I hope to see you [at headquarters in Preakness, New Jersey] without delay.” Even as the frustrated Greene set out upon the road to Preakness, he glanced over his shoulder in the anguished hope that his dear angel would catch up with him before he left for the South. She may have tried, but she failed.

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