A place has been waiting for Nathanael Greene in the Childhood of Famous Americans series. His fame as the "second general" of the Revolution has grown steadily. He was George Washington's good right arm in all the early campaigns. When the American soldiers were cold and hungry at Valley Forge, Washington made him Quartermaster General. He called on Greene to find the supplies they needed so desperately. Somehow General Greene found them.

Then Washington sent him to the South, where things were going badly for the patriots. He had only "the shadow of an army," against British regulars. But General Greene kept his untrained troops together. He proved himself a master of military tactics. He drew Lord Cornwallis farther and farther from his base. In panic, the baffled British general retreated to Virginia, to the surrender at Yorktown. And the patriot bands played "The World Turned Upside Down." General Greene had hardly won a battle—but he had won a whole campaign!

This is a story about that general's boyhood, about the years when he was young Nat Greene. Nat's father had a farm, a mill and a forge in Rhode Island. And he had a family of eight sons. As fast as the Greene boys grew big enough, they learned how to work at the family businesses, and how to manage them, too. First the farm, then the mill, then the smithy—and finally one's choice of work.

Young Nat came in the middle of his big family. Very early he was sure what his final choice would be: the smithy. He liked the forge and anvil and tools, the skill and excitement of shaping hot metal. He wanted to carry on his family tradition of anchormaking. This was the training that stood Nathanael in good stead when he became Quartermaster General.

Nat's father was a peace-loving Quaker. He wanted his sons to follow Quaker ways. He had some trouble, always with Nat. For the boy had a mind of his own. He wouldn't try to meet a bully with kindness and reason with him gently. Nat was smart enough to lead a bully on, outwit him and avoid a fight. But when a bully abused someone else, Nat saw red. He couldn't stand by and do nothing. Then it was up to him to fight, and he fought hard. So, in time, the "Fighting Quaker" was to outsmart and outfight a great tyrant.

Nat Greene was a long-headed, quick-witted lad who learned fast, who could turn even handicaps to his advantage. This story about him was written by Howard H. Peckham, a descendant of the Greenes, who is Director of the great Clements Library at the University of Michigan, which now possesses most of Nathanael Greene's own letters and papers. Dr. Peckham knows American history, and knows how to tell a good tale about his famous ancestor.

From the dust jacket