The papers of Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) span the years 1775-1785 and consist of originals and reproductions of correspondence, a letterbook, reports, orders and resolutions, proclamations, petitions, certificates, instructions, a commission, a will, and miscellaneous items.

The papers document Greene’s military career, especially his involvement in the Continental Army’s Southern Campaign. There are reconnaissance reports, accounts of battles and skirmishes, reports and instructions from Congress, lists of militia, and returns on casualties, supplies, and reinforcements. Included is Marquis Charles Cornwallis Cornwallis’s plan for creating a loyalist militia in South Carolina, dated June 4, 1780; Daniel Morgan’s report, January 19, 1781, on the victory at Cowpens, South Carolina, two days earlier; reports of the casualties at Guilford Court House near Greensboro, North Carolina, on March 15, 1781; and correspondence with British officers in Charleston on the treatment of prisoners, 1780-1783.

Letters from George Washington describe the status and progression of the war, and letters of 1779 from William Smallwood, Arthur St. Clair, Anthony Wayne, and other Continental officers respond to Greene’s inquiry into the propriety of holding more than one commission at the same time. There is also material on negotiations with the Indians, particularly the Cherokee and Chickasaw, including a contemporary copy of the 1781 Cherokee treaty; captured enemy dispatches; and messages of gratitude and congratulations to Greene delivered during his trip north in 1783. Additional correspondents include Marquis Charles Cornwallis Cornwallis, Thaddeus Kosciusko, John Laurens, Alexander Leslie, Francis Marion, Daniel Morgan, William Moultrie, Israel Putnam, John Rutledge, and John Sevier.

The letterbooks, October 1780-April 1782, contain copies of official correspondence from Greene as commander in chief of the Southern Department. Addressed chiefly to officers under Greene's command, the letters relate principally to military strategy, supplies, and administrative matters. Recipients include Thomas Burke, John Butler, Arthur Campbell, Richard Caswell, John Gunby, John Hanson, Benjamin Harrison, Isaac Huger, Samuel Huntington, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Sim Lee, John A. Lillington, Francis Marion, Alexander Martin, John Mathews, Daniel Morgan, Robert Morris, Abner Nash, Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur comte de Rochambeau, Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben, Jethro Sumner, Thomas Sumter, George Washington, and Anthony Wayne.