George S. Greene

George Sears Greene (born May 6, 1801 in Apponaug , Rhode Island , † January 28, 1899 in Morristown , New Jersey ) was brigadier general of the volunteers in the US Army and probably the oldest active lieutenant in world history.

Life

Greene came from a merchant family who was involved in founding the state of Rhode Island. One of his relatives was the War of Independence hero General Nathanael Greene . When Greene was working in New York in 1819, he was recommended for the Military Academy at West Point , New York . He graduated in 1823. Greene was promoted to lieutenant in the artillery and remained because of his mathematical knowledge as a math teacher until 1827 at the military academy. In 1828 he married Mary Elizabeth Vinton. The couple had three children. When his wife and children died of illness in 1833, Greene resigned and began a life as a civil engineer. After that he was involved in many projects (including the Croton Aqueduct ). In 1837 he married again.

Civil War

In January 1862 he was appointed commander of the 60th New York Infantry Regiment with the rank of colonel ; Promoted to Volunteer Brigadier General in April 1862 during Jackson's 1862 Shenandoah campaign . He took part in the Battle of Cedar Mountain , the Battle of Antietam, and the Battle of Chancellorsville .

Gettysburg

Greene achieved great fame in the Battle of Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, during which he was deployed on the far right flank of the Potomac Army at Culp's Hill. The more noticed part of the fighting took place at the other end on the far left flank, where the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment under Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain was defending its position against the 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment, which is why more and more troops were being transferred to the left flank and the right was not reinforced. This used a Confederate division to attack. Because Greene had strong field fortifications built as an engineer, he managed to stop the attack with a brigade . The Potomac Army's main supply route was just half a kilometer behind Greene's line. That Greene had held his positions was as vital to the Potomac Army's victory as Chamberlain's success on the other wing.

Further life

Greene's grave in Apponaug

In the fall of 1863, Greene was badly wounded in the face and had to take a long vacation due to illness. Towards the end of the war he was used as the brigade commander in the capture of Raleigh , North Carolina . After the war he worked again as an engineer, in 1892 he was the oldest of the Union generals still alive.

Since he wanted to have his family provided for, he asked Congress for an officer's pension. His problem was that although he had been brigadier general of the long-disbanded volunteer army, decades ago (1836) he had resigned as a captain from the regular army and there were no claims. Ultimately, Daniel E. Sickles intervened in his favor: Greene was reassigned to the regular army on August 18, 1894 with the rank of lieutenant and resigned after 48 hours of service. In this way he had secured the pension for himself and his family.

Trivia

He was one of the 12 founding members of the American Society of Civil Engineers and its president from 1875 to 1877.
He is very likely the oldest active lieutenant in world history at 93.

literature

David W. Palmer: The Forgotten Hero of Gettysburg . Xlibris, 2004, ISBN 1-4134-6633-8 .
RL Murray: A Perfect Storm of Lead, George Sears Greene's New York Brigade in Defense of Culp's Hill . Benedum Books, 2000, ISBN 0-9646261-2-8 .

Web links

Commons : George S. Greene - collection of images, videos and audio files

personal data
SURNAME	Greene, George S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Greene, George Sears (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American brigadier general in the Civil War
DATE OF BIRTH	May 6, 1801
PLACE OF BIRTH	Apponaug , Rhode Island
DATE OF DEATH	January 28, 1899
Place of death	Morristown , New Jersey