 , In 1850, across Harris Street from Francis Sorrel’s fine home on Madison Square, construction began on a striking Gothic Revival mansion that would be home to Charles Green, a 19th century Renaissance man. The story of his rise to power and wealth begins in 1825 when, at age 14 he begins clerking in Liverpool, England for Andrew Low & Company of Liverpool and Savannah. This begins a life-long intermingling of the lives of these two men, and it becomes even more so when Green’s sister marries Low’s nephew, John. It will even lead them later into an intriguing escapade as special agents for the Confederacy. Charles Green, arrived in Savannah in 1833 at age 22, on the ship William Donald with but a few dollars in his pocket, which he gave away to a beggar who approached him as he walked in his new city. Green was also completely self-taught. He began his life in Savannah as a clerk for Andrew Low & Company, but nine months later, there is written evidence that he acted as attorney for E.P. Butts and became a partner in the Butts’s firm. Thus begins his successful climb in the shipping and cotton exporting business…a career that will make him one of the wealthiest men in the South. He would marry three times, the collective marriages producing eight children who lived to maturity. And for each of his wives, he signed a financial settlement. It’s commonly thought that he remained an English citizen, but legal papers indicate that he became a US citizen in 1837. Always active in civic and charitable affairs, he also was named a Director of the Bank of Darien and Secretary of Savannah’s Cotton Exchange. By 1840, he is living on South Broad Street (now Oglethorpe), is a member of the Independent Church and is now a full partner in the Andrew Low Company. He even named a newly born son, Andrew Low Green in 1844. His wife would die the same year of consumption. In 1850 he remarried and hired architect John Norris to design a Madison Square urban villa, which at $93,000 for construction costs, makes it the most expensive mansion to be built in Savannah. But wait! Add on $40,000 for flagstones, trims etc. and another $53,000 for labor and materials and that sum rapidly grows to $186,000, an unheard of amount in those days. There were claims that his home was the most expensive one in America! Gossips claimed that Green was trying to out-do Andrew Low’s house on nearby Lafayette Square. It’s interesting to note today when viewing the house that the main entrance actually faces into the garden that connects the house to St. John’s Episcopal Church. But originally, Macon Street went between the home and the church, so the main entrance was designed to face Macon Street. The mansion was completed in 1861 just four days after Ft. Sumter was fired upon. And this introduces yet another side to Green’s life. When Georgia seceded from the Union in 1861, both Low and Green backed the southern cause because they had attained their vast wealth from shipping and exporting cotton. One of the major problems for the young Confederacy was its inability to raise funds for equipment, ships and arms. There were those who thought that Green, a successful Englishman, might be just the person to sway foreign investors to open their coffers. In July, 1861 Green set sail for England, accompanied by his sister, whose husband John was already in England to, among other things, outfit the C.S.S. Fingal. {As a sidelight to this story, it should be noted that this was a daring venture, as John Low sailed with the Fingal, flying a British flag and commanded by a British captain who carried papers declaring the ship’s port of call to be British Honduras. However the Fingal sailed rather dramatically into the harbor of Savannah with over $250,000 worth of munitions and supplies.} Meanwhile, Green, successful in securing loans for the purchase of arms for the Confederacy, headed back to Savannah with his sister, not knowing they were shadowed by US detectives who suspected them of carrying certain dispatches. The two entered the US via Canada and were arrested in Detroit. Greene was imprisoned at Ft. Warren in Boston Harbor and his sister, also arrested, was sent to Old Capitol Prison in Washington DC. She was questioned and searched but was released when nothing was found. However, it is known that she appeared later in the Confederate capital bearing certain dispatches. If so, where had she been hiding these papers? There is no actual proof, but it is thought they were secreted in her hair twists. Green, on the other hand, claimed his dispatches were in his red leather boots. In December 1864, General Sherman with 60,000 troops was barreling toward Savannah. The General sent a letter to Confederate General Hardee to surrender or he would burn the city. Hardee refused, but he headed out of the city with his 10,000 troops, leaving the inhabitants vulnerable. Mayor Arnold, however, did surrender the city. Green was quick to offer Sherman use of his mansion as his headquarters for two very good reasons. If Sherman were staying in Green’s home, then we would most likely not burn his own headquarters if he indeed decided to torch the city. Green also had hundreds of bales of cotton in a warehouse on River Street that he could not export because of the Union’s hold on the Savannah River. He figured that the general would surely allow him to ship the cotton as a thank-you for offering his home. Sherman enjoyed his stay in Green’s house, did not level the city, but confiscated Green’s cotton for the Union. In 1880 when Green and his third wife left Savannah, his son Edward moved into the House on Madison Square. But he would declare bankruptcy and the house would be sold to Judge Peter Meldrim. Green’s third wife was from Virginia and he acquired over 400 acres there. He died at age 73, and while no one is really sure where he is buried, it is thought Green’s remains were taken to Virginia. 
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