{dablink|This article is about Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, the American Revolutionary War officer. For other individuals with similar names,
Harry Lee (disambiguation) or
Henry Lee (disambiguation).}}
Henry Lee III (January 29, 1756 – March 25, 1818) was an early
American patriot who served as the Governor of
Virginia and as the Virginia
Representative to the United States Congress. During the
American Revolution, Lee served as a
cavalry officer in the
Continental Army and earned the name
Light Horse Harry. He was also the father of
Confederate general
Robert E. Lee.
Biography
Lee was born near
Dumfries, Virginia, the son of Maj. Gen.
Henry Lee II (1730–1787) of "Leesylvania" and Lucy Grymes (1734–1792) the "Lowland Beauty." His father was first cousin once removed to
Richard Henry Lee, sixth
President of the Continental Congress. His mother was an aunt of the wife of
Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson Jr. His great-grandmother Mary Bland was a great-aunt of President
Thomas Jefferson and he descended once from King
John of England, twice from King
Edward I of England, once from King
Jean de Brienne of Jerusalem, twice from King
Edward III of England and once from King
Pedro I of Castile..
"Light horse Harry" Lee
Military career
Lee graduated from the College of New Jersey (now
Princeton University) in 1773, and began pursuing a legal career. With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he became a
Captain in a
Virginia dragoon detachment, which was attached to the
1st Continental Light Dragoons. In 1778, Lee was promoted to
Major and given the command of a mixed corps of cavalry and infantry known as
Lee's Legion, with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops.
It was during his time as commander of the Legion that Lee earned the sobriquet of "Light Horse Harry" for his horsemanship. Lee was presented a gold medal–a reward given to no other officer below a general's rank– for the Legion's actions during the
Battle of Paulus Hook in
New Jersey, on August 19, 1779.
Lee was promoted to
Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned with his Legion to the southern theater of war. Lee's forces served at the
Battle of Guilford Court House, the
Battle of Camden and the
Battle of Eutaw Springs. He was present at
Cornwallis's surrender at
Yorktown, but left the Army shortly after due to an illness. During the infamous
Whiskey Rebellion, Lee commanded the 13,000 militiamen sent to quash the rebels.
Lee's house in Alexandria, Virginia.
Marriages and children
Between April 8–13, 1782, at "
Stratford Hall", Lee married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee (1764-1790), who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of the Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. and Elizabeth Steptoe. Matilda had three children before she died in 1790;
- Henry Lee IV (28 May 1787 – 30 January 1837), was a historian and author who also served as a speech writer for both John C. Calhoun and presidential candidate Andrew Jackson, also helping the latter to write his inaugural address.
On 13 June 1793, Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter (1773-1829) at
Shirley Plantation. Anne was the daughter of Charles Carter, Esq., of Shirley, and his wife Ann Butler Moore. She was also a descendant of King
Robert II of Scotland through the 2nd
Earls of Crawford. They had six children, the eldest died unnamed in infancy in 1796;
- Unnamed Infant (1796-1796)
- Charles Carter Lee (1798-1871)
- Anne Kinloch Lee (1800-1864)
- Sydney Smith Lee (1802-1869)
Politics
From 1786 to 1788, Lee was a delegate to the
Continental Congress, and in the last-named year in the
Virginia convention, he favored the adoption of the
United States Constitution. From 1789 to 1791, he served in the
General Assembly and, from 1791 to 1794, was
Governor of Virginia.
In 1794, Lee accompanied Washington to help the suppression of the
Whiskey Rebellion in western
Pennsylvania. A new
county of Virginia was named after him during his governorship. Henry Lee was a
major general in the
U.S. Army in 1798–1800. From 1799 to 1801, he served in the
United States House of Representatives of the
Congress. He wrote the famous phrase used by John Marshall in the address to Congress on the death of Washington—"first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
The
Panic of 1796-1797 and bankruptcy of
Robert Morris (financier) reduced Lee's fortune.
Death
On July 27, 1812, Lee received grave injuries while helping to resist an attack on his friend,
Alexander Contee Hanson, editor of the Baltimore newspaper,
The Federal Republican. Hanson was attacked by
Democratic-Republican mob because his paper opposed the
War of 1812. Lee and Hanson and two dozen other Federalists had taken refuge in the offices of the paper. The group surrendered to Baltimore city officials the next day. Laborer George Woolslager led a mob that forced its way into the jail and removed and beat the jailed Federalists and Lee over the next three hours. One Federalist,
James M. Lingan, died.
Lee suffered extensive internal injuries as well as head and face wounds, and even his speech was affected. Lee later sailed to the
West Indies in an effort to recuperate from his injuries. He died on March 25, 1818, at
Dungeness, on
Cumberland Island,
Georgia.
Lee was buried with full military honors provided by an American fleet stationed near
St. Marys. In 1913 his remains were removed to the Lee family crypt at
Lee Chapel, on the campus of
Washington & Lee University in
Lexington, Virginia.
Published works
- Lee, Henry, and Robert E. Lee. Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States. Eyewitness accounts of the American Revolution. [New York]: New York times, 1969. (originally published 1812; 3rd ed. published in 1869, with memoir by his son Robert E. Lee)
See also
