Nathanael Greene began military leadership through Rhode Island's resistance to British policy. In 1775 he organized and commanded provincial troops before becoming a brigadier general in the Continental Army. He served under Washington in the campaigns around New York and Philadelphia, gaining trust despite battlefield reverses. The loss of Fort Washington in 1776 raised serious questions about his judgment, while later operations at Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown added experience.

In 1778 Greene became quartermaster general, working to improve the army's supply system while continuing to take field responsibilities. The post involved transport, purchasing, finance, and relations with state authorities, demonstrating that the army depended on administration as well as combat. He resigned the logistical office in 1780 after disputes over the system and its demands. Washington then selected him to command the southern army after the defeat at Camden.

Greene rebuilt a weak force through cooperation with regular troops, militia, and local commanders. He divided his army to stretch British resources; Daniel Morgan's victory at Cowpens and the retreat toward the Dan helped alter the campaign. At Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, Greene lost the field but inflicted losses that weakened Cornwallis. He subsequently returned to South Carolina, fighting at Hobkirk's Hill, besieging Ninety Six unsuccessfully, and engaging at Eutaw Springs. These actions were not all tactical victories, but cumulatively restricted British control to fewer positions.

Greene remained in southern command after Yorktown while managing shortages, debts, and uneasy relations with states and soldiers. After the war he settled in Georgia on property awarded for his service and attempted to operate a plantation using enslaved labor. Financial obligations and agricultural difficulties troubled his final years, and he died in 1786. His career illustrates the distinction between winning individual battles and changing a campaign's strategic balance. Persistence, mobility, cooperation with local forces, and attention to logistics helped recover the South even when his army suffered defeats. That achievement coexisted with participation in a slaveholding social order whose freedom was not extended to all people. His record should therefore be assessed through both military organization and the limits of the republic his service helped establish.