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| Gen. Nathanael Greene |
Well, not technically, but now that I’ve hit my grandmother’s side of my family tree, I could sure go for recognition.
My 5th great grandfather (that’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather if you’re saying it out loud), Nathan Gunn Formby, fought in the Revolutionary War under the command of one of the greatest military minds of the war for independence.
Nathan was born Aug. 22, 1760 in Virginia during the height of the French and Indian War. Unrest was growing as the British sought (and eventually gained) control of North America. When Nathan was 15 years old, growing unrest over taxation of the residents of the colonies escalated to a cry for independence from Britain and King George following the battles of Lexington and Concord. A little over a year later, Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
The family tree tracks like this: Nathan had a son, Obadiah, born in 1789, six years after the end of the American Revolution. Obadiah had a son, Moses, was born in 1821. Moses married Rebekah Ann Rogers, and they had a daughter, Julia Ann, born in 1853. Julia married Thomas B. Johnson. Julia and Thomas had a daughter, Martha Ellen, born in 1880. They called her Mattie. Mattie married Gardner Chesterfield Hutchins, and they had a daughter, Nellie Estelle, in 1907. Nellie Estelle Hutchins married Ollie Albert Bates, and their third-born child was my mama, Mary Louise Bates Fortenberry.
So cool.
Nathan Gunn Formby enlisted in the Virginia militia in Chesterfield County in September 1776, just two months after the Declaration of Independence was signed. He was a private in the infantry under the command of Captain Roberson, and he and his unit were immediately called into action, marching from the Chesterfield County Courthouse along the James River to Williamsburg.
Their assignment was to guard the statehouse in Williamsburg and protect the nearby seaport towns.
In the spring of 1777 Nathan’s father, Nicholas, moved from Chesterfield County to Halifax County, about thirty miles above Petersburg. With that change in residence, Nathan volunteered to fight in the Halifax County militia under Captain Peter Rogers and Captain Joseph Gill. The Halifax militia also had their revolutionary orders. They were ordered to march from the Halifax Courthouse along a route that took them through Petersburg, Hampton, Williamsburg and Portsmouth. They militiamen remained in Portsmouth until November 1778, when then unit was discharged, but that was not the end of Nathan’s service.
After his service with the militia ended, Nathan was called to serve in the Continental Army. He enlisted in February 1779 and met up with the army in Petersburg in April to fight under Capt. Richard Parker of the first regiment of Capt. Benjamin Taliaferro’s Company. Nathan’s militia experience earned him the rank of sergeant along with William Willis, Peter Lagran and James Landers.
Taliaferro (pronounced TAH-la-ver) had joined Parker’s First Virginia Battalion to help Georgia fight to end the British occupation of Savannah, and Nathan joined them there. Taliaferro’s service in the war propelled him into a career as an early American politician. After the war, he moved to Wilkes County, Georgia where he served in a series of roles of ever-growing importance, beginning with judge in the county court. Over the course of his career, he was elected as a state representative, state senator, delegate to Georgia’s constitutional convention in 1798, U.S. Representative and George Supreme Court judge. He also was appointed trustee for the University of Georgia.
But, let’s get back to Nathan.
At the first of the summer, Taliaferro and Sgt. Nathan Formby were called to the South. They marched from Petersburg to Roanoke at Tailor’s Ferry through Salisbury, Camden and Augusta, arriving in Savannah in September, where the French had staged a siege.
On Oct. 9, 1779, Nathan and his fellow soldiers attempted to take the place by storm, and in that attempt Nathan was shot in his right shoulder, shattering his shoulder blade. He was taken to the hospital in Charleston by water where he recuperated until Christmas. He then returned to Augusta, where his regiment had wintered. As spring neared, the regiment was called to Charleston, but Nathan was ordered to stay behind in Augusta as sergeant with the soldiers who were too sick to travel.
In May of 1780 Charleston was taken by the British. Hearing that Col. Parker was killed and the regiment taken prisoner, Nathan joined Col. William Davis’ regiment at Chesterfield Courthouse. When he completed the 18 months of service, for which he had enlisted, he was discharged and returned home in time for Christmas.
But the war was not over, and Nathan knew he could not stay at home while the country was fighting for its freedom. In February 1781 Gen. Charles Cornwallis and 2,500 British troops pursued Gen. Daniel Morgan into North Carolina. Gen. Nathanael Greene, who had been appointed commander of the southern army by George Washington himself, the previous December, devised a strategy to divide Cornwallis’ army by dividing his own troops into two factions. Nathan was among the soldiers serving under the esteemed General.
Having successfully divided the British, Greene decided to reunite his factions with Morgan’s. On Feb. 9, 1781, Greene and his officers met at Guilford Courthouse and decided to put off engaging with Cornwallis until more military support could arrive.
Greene wrote that he decided to wait for reinforcements before engaging Cornwallis.
“I called a council who unanimously advised to avoid an action and to retire beyond the [Dan River] immediately…. I have formed a light army composed of the cavalry…and the Legion amounting to 240, a detachment of 280 Infantry under Lt. Col. Howard, the Infantry of Lt. Col. Lee’s legion and 60 Virginia Rifle Men making in their whole 700 men which will be ordered with the militia to harass the enemy in their advance, check their progress and if possible give us an opportunity to retire without a general action.”
Greene and his men assembled across the Dan River, beating Cornwallis to the divide without boats to cross. Nathan Formby stated in his pension application that he was among the men who defended the Dan River against the advance of Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis.
Greene’s strength of position gained him time to wait for reinforcements, setting up the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, which was fought on March 15, 1781 in the town now called Greensboro in Guilford County, North Carolina.
In the end, Greene’s army of 4,500 soldiers lost to Cornwallis, but not before the British army lost a number of their own men in the battle. The high number of British casualties counted as a strategic win for the Americans. The battle, historians say, was among the largest and most highly contested in the American Revolution’s southern front and led to the eventual surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Following the battle of Guilford Courthouse, Nathan, under Greene, fought at the Battle of Hobkirk’s Hill in late April and continued with the company to seize the South Carolina town of Ninety-Six, where Nathan served under the command of Henry Ledford, from May 22 until June 19, 1781.
Nathan remained with Greene as he rested his troops along the Santee River, before engaging the British at Eutaw Springs. While Greene’s troops engaged in battle, Nathan, was sent with soldiers who were too sick to fight, to Charlotte Town, until their unit was discharged.
The Continental Army lost the Battle of Eutaw Springs, but it resulted in severely weakening the British forces, who retreated to Charleston where Greene eventually pinned them down until the end of the war.
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