Major General Nathanael Greene (1742-1786) was a resident of Rhode Island who worked in his father's iron foundry until the beginning of the Revolutionary War. He then helped to organize Rhode Island's militia and served as an enlisted man, eventually rising to the rank of quartermaster general. He is known as "the Savior of the South" for his leadership of his troops against Cornwallis, cutting off the British invasion of the southern colonies. His was the first statue added to the National Statuary Hall collection in the Capitol.

James M. Goode notes in his delightful book The Outdoor Sculpture of Washington D.C. that Greene's statue was knocked off its pedestal by high winds in a 1930 storm but recovered and reseated with the help of a derrick.

In keeping with the often curious ways of District government, Greene's statue sits in a small square officially named "Stanton Square."