I spent some time thinking how I was going to portray General Nathanael Greene the C & C of the American forces at Guilford Courthouse.
A little about General Greene in that he started the war as a militia private and ended the war as possibly General Washington's best General in organization and strategic command decisions!
After serving some time with Washington,General Greene was asked to take command of the forces in the south opposite the very aggressive and capable British General Cornwallis after the humiliating performance of General Gates at Camden .
He quickly began reorganizing the shattered American forces and began a campaign of marches and counter marches and small conflicts to tire the enemy and buy himself some time.He also effectively destroyed Cornwallis light troops by releasing General Daniel Morgan to trap Tarleton and his light trops at the Cowpens.
This prompted a furious pursuit by Cornwallis to recover his troops captured at the Cowpens.Eventually after retreats and pursuits and counter pursuits the two forces clashed at Guilford Courthouse where Greene was defeated by Cornwallis,but inflicted such heavy causalities on the British so as to severely hamper them in the theater for the duration of the war.
Greene had a couple more larger engagements with the British at Hobkirks Hill(small defeat) and at Eutaw Springs where he has largely unlucky and was left with an inconclusive draw.
Although Greene was unable to defeat the British in open field he was however successful in winning the strategic battle by a policy of maneuver,bleeding the enemy in both battle and morale,and keeping his army intact and fighting.Eventually he ground the British forces down that led in a very large part to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
After some thought I decided General Greene would have made some excellent use of scouts as this really helped him to stay a step ahead of the British.This gave me an idea to use the mounted riflemen from Perry and General Greene together as if they were advising him as to the location of various British forces.It also gave me the excuse I needed to include these wonderful mini's that normally are difficult to find a place for!Didn't I always say riflemen were my favorite.:-)
Miniature Company-Perry & Wargames Foundry
