The Warrior Quartermaster's Revolution
Meet the colonial logistics mastermind who wanted to fight on the battlefield, not the supply tent

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Major Gen. Nathanael Greene just wanted to fight ... on the battlefield for his country trying to establish its independence from Great Britain.

Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for colonial America, Gen. George Washington saw something deeper and better in him. Washington considered one of his top officers too good a fighter ... in the supply tent for the troops and the colonial cause for independence.

In mid-June 1775, the Continental Congress officially established the Revolutionary War Quartermaster Department, responsible for fortifying the Continental Army through logistics and transportation. Maj. General Thomas Mifflin was named the first Quartermaster General two months later and established the initial processes and protocols for the department. He left office in mid-May 1776.

The post remained open for a month before Col. Stephen Moylan accepted the role, lasting for about three months. Moylan is regarded as the first to use the term "United States of America" in a letter he wrote in January 1776, roughly seven months before the formal and official Declaration of Independence.

Mifflin resumed the office of Quartermaster General in October 1776, which he retained until mid-November 1777 amid the Revolutionary War when an effective and efficient Quartermaster Department was sorely needed.

Greene was appointed the third Quartermaster General in early March 1778 and served until early August 1780. After the serious challenges American troops experienced at Valley Forge, Greene set up the first depot system to support the Army to bolster American troops during what was labeled by historians as one of the darkest periods of their service. For a complete picture of Greene's supply chain acumen, visit the American Battlefield Trust by clicking here, https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/nathanael-greenequartermaster-general and reading the essay, "Nathaneal Greene as Quartermaster General: Perhaps the Hardest Job in the Continental Army," by Phillip S. Greenwalt, October 4, 2021, and updated July 14, 2026.

In the essay, you'll learn how Greene relied on his foundry background, military expertise and overall business sense to untangle "the intricate web of tangled lines" bedeviling the colonial supply chain during wartime and engendering respect for the Quartermaster General title, role and function during his nearly 2.5 years at the helm.