Cumberland Island:
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While Greene himself died before he was able to live in his Cumberland Island home, Dungeness, his wife, Catherine, lived there for many years with her children and with her second husband, Phineas Miller. Catherine was buried on the island while her first husband was buried in Johnson Square in Savannah, Georgia.
I made a trip to Savannah to document General Greene's burial site for The Crypt. My photos are mediocre. The day was wet and overcast. However, I still had a good time up there!
To the right: engraving of Greene on his monument in Johnson Square. Below, the towering monument.
Greene was originally interred in the Graham vault in the Colonial Park Cemetery. He was moved to Johnson Square in either 1901 or 1902. The markers show two different dates.
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Greene Square, Savannah, Georgia
From the "Washington's Southern Tour" historical marker:
During his southern tour of 1791, President George Washington attended services at the original Christ Church on Sunday, May 15. While in Savannah from May 12-15, Washington lodged at a house on the corner of Barnard and State streets on St. James (now Telfair) Square, dined at Brown's Coffeehouse with the Society of the Cincinnati, toured the ruins of the Revolutionary earthworks with General Lachlan McIntosh, was entertained at the Silk Filature on Reynolds Square and attended a large public dinner. After Sunday services, Washington dined with Catherine Greene (widow of Nathanael Greene) at Mulberry Grove plantation north of the city before departing for Augusta.
Beneath the monument in this Square repose the remains of Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene, of Rhode Island, who died near Savannah on June 19, 1786, at Mulberry Grove Plantation which had been granted to him by this State in appreciation of his services in the Revolution.
The 50 foot, white marble obelisk, designed by the well known architect, William Strickland, was completed in 1830. The original cornerstone was laid here on March 21, 1825 by Greene's old friend, the Marquis de Lafayette. At the dedicatory ceremony General Lafayette said:
"The great and good man to whose memory we are paying a tribute of respect, affection, and regret, has acted in our revolutionary contest a part so glorious and so important that in the very name of Greene are remembered, all the virtues and talents which can illustrate the patriot, the statesman, and the military leader..."
General Greene's remains were originally interred in the burial ground now known as Colonial Cemetery. His exact resting place was a matter of doubt and speculation for many years. The remains of the famed Revolutionary here were found in the Graham vault in 1901 and were reinterred beneath this monument the following year.
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From the historical marker in Colonial Park:
The remains of General Nathanael Greene who died in 1786 reposed in the Graham vault until they were reinterred in 1901 in Johnson Square.
JOHNSON SQUARE Historical Marker:
Johnson Square is named for Governor Robert Johnson of South Carolina who befriended the colonists when Georgia was first settled. It was laid out by Oglethorpe and by Colonel William Bull in 1733, and was the first of Savannah's squares. In early colonial days the public stores, the house for strangers, the church, and the public bake oven stood on the trust lots around it.
Events of historical interest are associated with Johnson Square. Here in 1735, Chekilli, head Chief of the Creek Nation, recited the origin myth of the Creeks. In 1737, the Rev. John Wesley, after futile efforts to bring to trail certain indictments against him growing out of his ministry at Savannah, posted a public notice in this Square that he intended to return to England. The Declaration of Independence was read here to an enthusiastic audience, August 10, 1776.
In 1819 a ball was given for President James Monroe in a pavilion erected in the Square. Eminent men who have spoken here include the Marquis de LaFayette, (1825); Henry Clay (1847), and Daniel Webster (1848). Beneath the Nathanael Greene monument rest the remains of the famous Revolutionary general and his son.
The son buried with Nathanael was his youngest, George Washington Greene, who drowned in the waters off of Mulberry Grove plantation in 1793. George was born in 1775 or 1776.
For more on General Greene, please visit
Who Served Here? Nathanael Greene
http://members.aol.com/JonMaltbie/NatGreene.html - This is a great site. Biography, monuments, military accomplishments, images, and more.
