George S. Greene - Legacy

Legacy

Greene died at age 97 in Morristown, New Jersey, and was buried in the Greene family cemetery in Warwick, Rhode Island, with a two-ton boulder from Culp's Hill placed above his grave. He is memorialized with a statue erected in 1906 by the State of New York on Culp's Hill in Gettysburg National Military Park.

Greene's wife Martha died in 1883 at an age of 74. Their oldest son, Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene, was the executive officer on the ironclad ship USS Monitor during the famous Battle of Hampton Roads. Another of their sons, Francis V. Greene, commanded a brigade at the Battle of Manila during the Spanish-American War. A third, Charles Thurston Greene, was a lieutenant on his father's staff at Culp's Hill. Later in 1863, Charles was wounded by an artillery shell and his leg was amputated, but he remained on active service until 1870. George Sears Greene, Jr., volunteered to serve but was not allowed to do so by his father so he could survive and carry on the family name.

A description of George Sears Greene from Lt. George K. Collins of the 149th New York Infantry sums up the general:

He was a West Point graduate, about 60 years old, thick set, five feet ten inches high, dark complexioned, iron gray hair, full gray beard and mustache, gruff in manner and stern in appearance, but with all an excellent officer and under a rough exterior possessing a kind heart. In the end the men learned to love and respect him as much as in the beginning they feared him, and this was saying a good deal on the subject. He knew how to drill, how to command, and in the hour of peril how to care for his command, and the men respected him accordingly.

— Lt. George K. Collins