Benjamin Greer Gives a Hint!
John Preston Arthur in his work on Watauga County, North Carolina history, published in 1915, records an incident during 1780 hostilities that resonated through the decades. The piece of folklore or fact (probably leans toward 'fact') deals with a private soldier, Capt. Benjamin Greer who chewed tobacco, and Col. Benjamin Cleveland, a commander in the Patriot militia who was not usually concerned about legal or mannerly niceties.
This story tells us something more about the personality of this ancestor. I lift it verbatim from Arthur's work.
"Greer's Hint - This 'hint' is thus accounted for by Dr. Lyman Draper (a 19th Century historian) in a note at foot of page 442: Greer was one of Cleveland's heroes. One of his fellow solders stole his tobacco, when he threatened he would whip him for it as soon as he should put his eyes on him.
Cleveland expostulated with Greer, telling him his men ought to fight the enemy and not each other. 'I will give him a hint of it, anyway,' said Greer, and when he met the tobacco pilferer he knocked him down.
Greer's hint was long a by-word in all that region. - Col. W.W. Lenoir."
A deteriorated statue stands of Col. Benjamin Cleveland in Wilkes County, North Carolina, home of Cleveland and the Greer families. While no statue or portrait exists of Benjamin Greer, it is of family pride that Cleveland announced Greer 'a hero'.
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