It actually shamed me about my ignorance about the Revolution.
I read a book about Greene.
We have a small monument in his honor near the library where I checked out the book. South Boston [not sure it was a town then] is in Halifax County, and we have a bridge near the monument where he retreated across the Dan River.
Greene was the master of retreat. He had trouble winning battles, but he was the reason why we were never defeated outright. He always kept retreat in mind, always kept men out to see if the routes were clear, and the British sometimes suffered horrible losses chasing him.
After we crossed the Dan River, the British had no way to pursue. Greene made sure of that. Cornwallis had to tuck tail, run his starve soldiers into a humiliating retreat, suffer desertion, and lose every inch of ground he had won. It also built up moral for our patriots.
The big problem we had was poor generalship in the Revolution. We never learned from our victories and instead kept adopting British tactics. The worst thing we could do was to try and beat them at their own game.
Napoleon learned more from our victories than we did. Even during the Civil War, too many American generals continued to think like British redcoats.
BTW — no need to feel ashamed. Not even history professors understand history well enough. Having read a number of their books, I should know.