Green County was formed in 1792 from parts of Lincoln and Nelson counties as the last of seven counties created during the first legislature. It was named for Gen. Nathaniel Greene, who in the Revolutionary War commanded a unit at Boston in 1776, helped plan the defense of New York, fought at Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth, and after Washington sent him south, led a Carolina campaign that forced the British to leave Charleston in 1782.