Maj. Gen. Henry Lee, "Light Horse Harry", Governor of Virginia

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Lee_Henry_1756-1818

Maj. Gen. Henry Lee III "Light Horse Harry" (1756–1818), Governor of Virginia. Lee III married:

1. Matilda Lee (1766–1790), daughter of Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. (1727–1775) and Elizabeth Steptoe (1743–1789), who married secondly, Philip Richard Fendall I, Esq. (1734–1805).
2. Anne Hill Carter (1773–1829), daughter of Hon. Charles Carter, Sr. (1737–1802) of "Shirley", and his second wife, Anne Butler Moore (1756). Their son was Confederate General Robert E. Lee.[1]

DAR Ancestor #: A068555

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III

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.

Henry Lee III, called "Light Horse Harry", (January 29, 1756–March 25, 1818) was a cavalry officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was the Governor of Virginia and a U.S. Congressman, as well as the father of American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.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. With a view to a legal career, he graduated (1773) from The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), but, soon afterwards, on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he became a captain in the revolutionary forces.

Military Career

In 1776, he was promoted to captain of a Virginia dragoon detachment, which was attached to the 1st Continental Light Dragoons; and, in 1778, he was promoted to major and given the command of a small irregular corps, with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops.

His services on the outpost line of the army earned for him the sobriquet of "Light Horse Harry". His greatest exploit was the brilliant surprise at the Battle of Paulus Hook in New Jersey, on August 19, 1779; for this feat he received a gold medal, a reward given to no other officer below a general's rank in the entire war. (See also Discovery of medal that Congress granted to Lee). The medal is on view with other pieces from Princeton University’s Numismatic Collection, including two pewter continental "dollars", large cents from 1793 and 1794, a silver dollar of 1794, the Thomas Jefferson inaugural medal of 1801 and an Indian Peace Medal of James Madison (Princeton class of 1771). Also included are a signed letter of Lee to the New Jersey quartermaster from 1780 and a signed letter of the same year from George Washington to Lee approving Lee’s plan to capture Benedict Arnold.

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel with a picked corps of dragoons (Lee's Legion) to the southern theater of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and Eutaw Springs. He was present at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, and afterwards left the army owing to ill health.

During the infamous Whiskey Rebellion, Lee commanded the 13,000 militiamen sent to quash the rebels. However, this command existed more on paper than in actuality, as President George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, military men both, accompanied him.Between April 8–13, 1782, at "Stratford Hall", he married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee (1766–1790), who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. (1727–1775) and Elizabeth Steptoe (1743–1789). Matilda's mother later married Philip Richard Fendall I, Esq. (1734–1805). Philip would eventually marry three wives, all Lee women. Thus, he was a cousin, brother-in-law, and stepfather-in-law to Light Horse Harry Lee. Fendall was the builder of the "Lee-Fendall House" in Alexandria, Virginia, on land purchased from Lee. Matilda bore three children before she died in 1790.

On 13 June 1793, Henry Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter (17 years his junior) at Shirley Plantation. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy in 1796. Their fifth child, Robert Edward Lee would later gain fame as a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Anne Hill Carter was the daughter of Charles Carter, Esq., of Shirley, and his wife Ann Butler Moore, and a descendant of Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood and Robert Carter I, who was also a descendant of Thomas More and King Robert II of Scotland through the 2nd Earls of Crawford.

Unfortunately for Lee and his family, he invested large sums in numerous, highly speculative schemes, including partnerships with Aaron Burr and merchant Robert Morris. Although financial speculation was not rare among the Founding Fathers, Lee's handling of his personal finances was notably incompetent, and subjected his family to financial hardship. In 1810, to meet the demands of his creditors and be released from debtor’s prison, Lee was forced to sell all of his possessions. He instead took what he could from the house and left his family behind to pay the debts he owed.

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 American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.

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.

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 19 August 1779.

Lee was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned with his Legion to the southern theater of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and 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.

Between April 8–13, 1782, at "Stratford Hall", Lee married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee, who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of the Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. and Elizabeth Steptoe. Matilda bore three children before she died in 1790.

On 13 June 1793, Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter 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.[3]. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy in 1796.

Robert Edward Lee (19 January 1807 – 12 October 1870), the fifth child of Henry and Anne, served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War.

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 in 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."

On 27 July 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 attempt to heal his wounds. He died on 25 March 1818, on Cumberland Island, Georgia.

Lee was buried with full military honors provided by an American fleet stationed near the 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.

George Washington.—On December 26, 1799, General Lee delivered the following funeral oration on Washington before the two Houses of Congress:

In obedience to your will, I rise, your humble organ, with the hope of executing a part of the system of public mourning which you have been pleased to adopt, commemorative of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved personage this country has ever produced; and which, while it transmits to posterity your sense of the awful event, faintly represents your knowledge of the consummate excellence you so cordially honor.

Desperate, indeed, is any attempt on earth to meet correspondingly this dispensation of Heaven; for, while with pious resignation we submit to the will of an all-gracious Providence, we can never cease lamenting, in our 'finite view of Omnipotent Wisdom, the heart-rending privation for which our nation weeps. When the civilized world shakes to its centre; when every moment gives birth to strange and momentous changes; when our peaceful quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from any share in the slaughter of the human race, may yet be compelled to abandon her pacific policy, and to risk the doleful casualties of war; what limit is there to the extent of our loss? None within the reach of my words to express; none which your feelings will not disavow.

The founder of our federate republic—our bulwark in war, our guide in peace, is no more! Oh, that this were but questionable! Hope, the comforter of the wretched, would pour into our agonizing hearts its balmy dew. But, alas! there is no hope for us; our Washington is removed forever! Possessing the stoutest frame and purest mind, he had passed nearly to his sixty-eighth year in the enjoyment of high health, when, habituated by his care of us to neglect himself, a slight cold, disregarded, became inconvenient on Friday, oppressive on Saturday, and, defying every medical interposition, before the morning of Sunday put an end to the best of men. An end, did I say? His fame survives! bounded only by the limits of the earth, and by the extent of the human mind. He survives in our hearts-in the growing knowledge of our children-in the affection of the good throughout the world. And when our monuments shall be done away; when nations now existing shall be no more; when even our young and far-spreading empire shall have perished; still will our Washington's glory unfaded shine, and die not, until love of virtue cease on earth, or earth itself sinks into chaos!

How, my fellow-citizens, shall I single to your grateful hearts his pre-eminent worth? Where shall I begin, in opening to your view a character throughout sublime? Shall I speak of his warlike achievements, all springing from obedience to his country's will, all directed to his country's good?

Will you go with me to the banks of the Monongahela, to see your youthful Washington supporting, in the dismal hour of Indian victory, the ill-fated Braddock, and saving, by his judgment and by his valor, the remains of a defeated army, pressed by the conquering savage foe? or when, oppressed America nobly resolving to risk her all in defense of her violated rights, he was elevated by the unanimous voice of Congress to the command of her armies? Will you follow him to the high grounds of Boston, where, to an undisciplined, courageous, and virtuous yeomanry, his presence gave the stability of system, and infused the invincibility of love of country? Or shall I carry you to the painful scenes of Long Island, Work Island, and New Jersey, when, combating superior and gallant armies, aided by powerful fleets, and led by chiefs high in the roll of fame, he stood the bulwark of our safety, undismayed by disaster, unchanged by change of fortune? Or will you view him in the precarious fields of Trenton, where deep gloom, unnerving every arm, reigned triumphant through our thinned, worn down, unaided ranks-himself unmoved? Dreadful was the night. It was about this time of winter. The storm raged. The Delaware, rolling furiously with floating ice, forbade the approach of man. Washington, self-collected, viewed the tremendous scene. His country called. Unappalled by surrounding dangers, he passed to the hostile shore; he fought; he conquered. The morning sun cheered the American world. Our country rose on the event; and her dauntless chief, pursuing his blow, completed in the lawns of Princeton what his vast soul had conceived on the shores of Delaware.

Thence to the strong grounds of Morristown he led his small but gallant band; and through an eventful winter, by the high efforts of his genius, whose matchless force was measurable only by the growth of difficulties, he held in check formidable hostile legions, conducted by a chief experienced in the art of war, and famed for his valor on the ever memorable heights of Abraham, where fell Wolfe, Montcalm, and since, our much lamented Montgomery; all covered with glory. In this fortunate interval, produced by his masterly conduct, our fathers, ourselves, animated by his resistless example, rallied around our country's standard, and continued to follow her beloved chief through the various and trying scenes to which the destinies of our Union led.

Who is there that has forgotten the vales of Brandywine, the fields of Germantown, or the plains of Monmouth? Everywhere present, wants of every kind obstructing, numerous and valiant armies encountering, himself a host, he assuaged our sufferings, limited our privations, and upheld our tottering republic. Shall I display to you the spread of the fire of his soul, by rehearsing the praises of the hero of Saratoga, and his much loved compeer of the Carolinas? No; our Washington wears not borrowed glory. To Gates, to Greene, he gave without reserve the applause due to their eminent merit; and long may the chiefs of Saratoga and of Eutaws receive the grateful respect of a grateful people.

Moving in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to his most distant satellites; and combining the physical and moral force of all within his sphere, with irresistible weight he took his course, commiserating folly, disdaining vice, dismaying treason, and invigorating despondency; until the auspicious hour arrived, when, united with the intrepid forces of a potent and magnanimous ally, he brought to submission the since conqueror of India; thus finishing his long career of military glory with a lustre corresponding to his great name, and, in this his last act of war, affixing the seal of fate to our nation's birth.

To the horrid din of battle sweet peace succeeded; and our virtuous chief, mindful only of the common good, in a moment tempting personal aggrandizement, hushed the discontents of growing sedition, and, surrendering his power into the hands from which he had received it, converted his sword into a ploughshare; teaching an admiring world that to be truly great you must be truly good.

Were I to stop here, the picture would be incomplete, and the task imposed unfinished. Great as was our Washington in war, and as much as did that greatness contribute to produce the American republic, it is not in war alone his pre-eminence stands conspicuous. His various talents, combining all the capacities of a statesman with those of a soldier, fitted him alike to guide the councils and the armies of our nation. Scarcely had he rested from his martial toils, while his invaluable parental advice was still sounding in our ears, when he, who had been our shield and our sword, was called forth to act a less splendid, but more important part.

Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a strong and sound judgment, calmness and temper for deliberation, with invincible firmness and perseverance in resolutions maturely formed; drawing information from all; acting from himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarying patriotism; his own superiority and the public confidence alike marked him as the man designed by Heaven to lead in the great political as well as military events which have distinguished the era of his life.

The finger of an over-ruling Providence, pointing at Washington, was neither mistaken or unobserved, when, to realize the vast hopes to which our revolution had given birth, a change of political system became indispensable.

How novel, how grand the spectacle! Independent States stretched over an immense territory, and known only by common difficulty, clinging to their union as the rock of their safety; deciding, by frank comparison of their relative condition, to rear on that rock, under the guidance of reason, a common government, through whose commanding protection, liberty and order, with their long train of blessings, should be safe to themselves, and the sure inheritance of their posterity.

This arduous task devolved on citizens selected by the people, from knowledge of their wisdom and confidence in their virtue. In this august assembly of sages and of patriots, Washington of course was found; and, as if acknowledged to be most wise where all were wise, with one voice he was declared their chief. How well he merited this rare distinction, how faithful were the labors of him-self and his compatriots, the work of their hands, and our union, strength, and prosperity, the fruits of that work, best attest.

But to have essentially aided in presenting to his country this consummation of our hopes, neither satisfied the claims of his fellow-citizens on his talents, nor those duties which the possession of those talents imposed. Heaven had not infused into his mind such an uncommon share of its ethereal spirit to remain unemployed, nor bestowed on him his genius unaccompanied with the corresponding duty of devoting it to the common good. To have framed a Constitution was showing only, without realizing, the general happiness. This great work remained to be done; and America, steadfast in her preference, with one voice summoned her beloved Washington, unpracticed as he was in the duties of civil administration, to execute this last act in the completion of the national felicity. Obedient to her call, he assumed the high office with that self-distrust peculiar to his innate modesty, the constant attendant of pre-eminent virtue. What was the burst of joy through our anxious land on this exhilarating event is known to us all. The aged, the young, the brave, the fair, rivaled each other in demonstrations of their gratitude: and this high-wrought, delightful scene was heightened in its effect by the singular contest between the zeal of the bestowers and the avoidance of the receiver of the honors bestowed.

Commencing his administration, what heart is not charmed with the recollection of the pure and wise principles announced by himself, as the basis of his political life? He best understood the in-dissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and individual felicity. Watching with an equal and comprehensive eye over this great assemblage of communities and interests, he laid the foundations of our national policy in the unerring, immutable principles of morality, based on religion, exemplifying the pre-eminence of a free government by all the attributes which win the affections of its citizens, or command the respect of the world.

" 0 fortunatos nimium, sua fl bona norint !"

Leading through the complicated difficulties produced by previous obligations and conflicting interests, seconded by succeeding Houses of Congress, enlightened and patriotic, he surmounted all original obstruction, and brightened the path of our national felicity.

The Presidential term expiring, his solicitude to exchange exaltation for humility returned with a force increased with increase of age; and he had prepared his Farewell Address to his countrymen, proclaiming his intention, when the united interposition of all around him, enforced by the eventful prospects of the epoch, produced a further sacrifice of inclination to duty. The election of President followed; and Washington, by the unanimous vote of the nation, was called to resume the chief magistracy. What a wonderful fixture of confidence! Which attracts most our admiration, a people so correct, or a citizen combining an assemblage of talents forbidding rivalry, and stifling even envy itself? Such a nation ought to be happy; such a chief must be forever revered.

War, long menaced by the Indian tribes, now broke out; and the terrible conflict, deluging Europe with blood, began to shed its baneful influence over our happy land. To the first, outstretching his invincible arm, under the orders of the gallant Wayne, the American eagle soared triumphant through distant forests. Peace followed victory; and the melioration of the condition of the enemy followed peace. Godlike virtue! which uplifts even the subdued savage.

To the second he opposed himself. New and delicate was the conjuncture, and great was the stake. Soon did his penetrating mind discern and seize the only course, continuing to us all the felicity enjoyed. He issued his proclamation of neutrality. This index to his whole subsequent conduct was sanctioned by the approbation of both Houses of Congress, and by the approving voice of the people.

To this sublime policy he inviolably adhered, unmoved by foreign intrusion, unshaken by domestic turbulence.

"Justum et tenacem propositi virum, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranni, Mente quatit solida."

Maintaining his pacific system at the expense of no duty, America, faithful to herself, and unstained in her honor, continued to enjoy the delights of peace, while afflicted Europe mourns in every quarter under the accumulated miseries of an unexampled war; miseries in which our happy country must have shared, had not our pre-eminent Washington been as firm in council as he was brave in the field.

Pursuing steadfastly his course, he held safe the public happiness, preventing foreign war, and quelling internal discord, till the revolving period of a third election approached, when he executed his interrupted, but inextinguishable desire of returning to the humble walks of private life.

The promulgation of his fixed resolution stopped the anxious wishes of an affection-ate people from adding a third unanimous testimonial of their unabated confidence in the man so long enthroned in their hearts. When before was affection like this exhibited on earth? Turn over the records of ancient Greece ; review the annals of mighty Rome ; examine the volumes of modern Europe - you search in vain. America and her Washington only afford the dignified exemplification.

The illustrious personage called by the national voice in succession to the arduous office of guiding a free people had new difficulties to encounter. The amicable effort of settling our difficulties with France, begun by Washington, and pursued by his successor in virtue as in station, proving abortive, America took measures of selfdefense. No sooner was the public mind roused by a prospect of danger, than every eye was turned to the friend of all, though secluded from public view, and gray in public service. The virtuous veteran, following his plough, received the unexpected summons with mingled emotions of indignation at the unmerited ill treatment of his country, and of a determination once more to risk his all in her defense.

The annunciation of these feelings in his affecting letter to the President, accepting the command of the army, concludes his official conduct.

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting.

To his equals he was condescending, to his inferiors kind, and to the dear object of his affections exemplarily tender. Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.

His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. Although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan escaped him; and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost! Such was the man for whom our nation mourns.

Methinks I see his august image, and hear, falling from his venerable lips, these deep sinking words:

"Cease, Sons of America, lamenting our separation. Go on, and confirm by your wisdom the fruits of our joint councils, joint efforts, and common dangers. Reverence religion; diffuse knowledge throughout your land; patronize the arts and sciences; let liberty and order be inseparable companions; control party spirit, the bane of free government; ob

serve good faith to, and cultivate peace with all nations; shut up every avenue to foreign influence; contract rather than extend national connection; rely on yourselves only: be American in thought and deed. Thus will you give immortality to that union, which was the constant object of my terrestrial labors; thus will you preserve undisturbed to the latest posterity the felicity of a people to me most dear; and thus will you supply (if my happiness is now aught to you) the only vacancy in the round of pure bliss high Heaven bestows."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III

Henry Lee III (29 January 1756 – 25 March 1818) was an early American patriot who served as the ninth 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 and Confederate Navy captain Sydney Smith Lee.

He famously eulogized George Washington to a crowd of 4,000 at the first President's funeral on December 26, 1799 —"first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III

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.

Henry Lee III, called "Light Horse Harry", (January 29, 1756–March 25, 1818) was a cavalry officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was the Governor of Virginia and a U.S. Congressman, as well as the father of American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.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. With a view to a legal career, he graduated (1773) from The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), but, soon afterwards, on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he became a captain in the revolutionary forces.

Edit Military career

In 1776, he was promoted to captain of a Virginia dragoon detachment, which was attached to the 1st Continental Light Dragoons; and, in 1778, he was promoted to major and given the command of a small irregular corps, with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops.

His services on the outpost line of the army earned for him the sobriquet of "Light Horse Harry". His greatest exploit was the brilliant surprise at the Battle of Paulus Hook in New Jersey, on August 19, 1779; for this feat he received a gold medal, a reward given to no other officer below a general's rank in the entire war. (See also Discovery of medal that Congress granted to Lee). The medal is on view with other pieces from Princeton University’s Numismatic Collection, including two pewter continental "dollars", large cents from 1793 and 1794, a silver dollar of 1794, the Thomas Jefferson inaugural medal of 1801 and an Indian Peace Medal of James Madison (Princeton class of 1771). Also included are a signed letter of Lee to the New Jersey quartermaster from 1780 and a signed letter of the same year from George Washington to Lee approving Lee’s plan to capture Benedict Arnold.

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel with a picked corps of dragoons (Lee's Legion) to the southern theater of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and Eutaw Springs. He was present at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, and afterwards left the army owing to ill health.

During the infamous Whiskey Rebellion, Lee commanded the 13,000 militiamen sent to quash the rebels. However, this command existed more on paper than in actuality, as President George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, military men both, accompanied him.Between April 8–13, 1782, at "Stratford Hall", he married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee (1766–1790), who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. (1727–1775) and Elizabeth Steptoe (1743–1789). Matilda's mother later married Philip Richard Fendall I, Esq. (1734–1805). Philip would eventually marry three wives, all Lee women. Thus, he was a cousin, brother-in-law, and stepfather-in-law to Light Horse Harry Lee. Fendall was the builder of the "Lee-Fendall House" in Alexandria, Virginia, on land purchased from Lee. Matilda bore three children before she died in 1790..

On 13 June 1793, Henry Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter (17 years his junior) at Shirley Plantation. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy in 1796. Their fifth child, Robert Edward Lee would later gain fame as a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Anne Hill Carter was the daughter of Charles Carter, Esq., of Shirley, and his wife Ann Butler Moore, and a descendant of Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood and Robert Carter I, who was also a descendant of Thomas More and King Robert II of Scotland through the 2nd Earls of Crawford.

Unfortunately for Lee and his family, he invested large sums in numerous, highly speculative schemes, including partnerships with Aaron Burr and merchant Robert Morris. Although financial speculation was not rare among the Founding Fathers, Lee's handling of his personal finances was notably incompetent, and subjected his family to financial hardship. In 1810, to meet the demands of his creditors and be released from debtor’s prison, Lee was forced to sell all of his possessions. He instead took what he could from the house and left his family behind to pay the debts he owed.

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 American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.

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.

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 19 August 1779.

Lee was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned with his Legion to the southern theater of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and 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.

Between April 8–13, 1782, at "Stratford Hall", Lee married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee, who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of the Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. and Elizabeth Steptoe. Matilda bore three children before she died in 1790.

On 13 June 1793, Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter 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.[3]. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy in 1796.

Robert Edward Lee (19 January 1807 – 12 October 1870), the fifth child of Henry and Anne, served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War.

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 in 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."

On 27 July 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 attempt to heal his wounds. He died on 25 March 1818, on Cumberland Island, Georgia.

Lee was buried with full military honors provided by an American fleet stationed near the 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.

George Washington.—On December 26, 1799, General Lee delivered the following funeral oration on Washington before the two Houses of Congress:

In obedience to your will, I rise, your humble organ, with the hope of executing a part of the system of public mourning which you have been pleased to adopt, commemorative of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved personage this country has ever produced; and which, while it transmits to posterity your sense of the awful event, faintly represents your knowledge of the consummate excellence you so cordially honor.

Desperate, indeed, is any attempt on earth to meet correspondingly this dispensation of Heaven; for, while with pious resignation we submit to the will of an all-gracious Providence, we can never cease lamenting, in our 'finite view of Omnipotent Wisdom, the heart-rending privation for which our nation weeps. When the civilized world shakes to its centre; when every moment gives birth to strange and momentous changes; when our peaceful quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from any share in the slaughter of the human race, may yet be compelled to abandon her pacific policy, and to risk the doleful casualties of war; what limit is there to the extent of our loss? None within the reach of my words to express; none which your feelings will not disavow.

The founder of our federate republic—our bulwark in war, our guide in peace, is no more! Oh, that this were but questionable! Hope, the comforter of the wretched, would pour into our agonizing hearts its balmy dew. But, alas! there is no hope for us; our Washington is removed forever! Possessing the stoutest frame and purest mind, he had passed nearly to his sixty-eighth year in the enjoyment of high health, when, habituated by his care of us to neglect himself, a slight cold, disregarded, became inconvenient on Friday, oppressive on Saturday, and, defying every medical interposition, before the morning of Sunday put an end to the best of men. An end, did I say? His fame survives! bounded only by the limits of the earth, and by the extent of the human mind. He survives in our hearts-in the growing knowledge of our children-in the affection of the good throughout the world. And when our monuments shall be done away; when nations now existing shall be no more; when even our young and far-spreading empire shall have perished; still will our Washington's glory unfaded shine, and die not, until love of virtue cease on earth, or earth itself sinks into chaos!

How, my fellow-citizens, shall I single to your grateful hearts his pre-eminent worth? Where shall I begin, in opening to your view a character throughout sublime? Shall I speak of his warlike achievements, all springing from obedience to his country's will, all directed to his country's good?

Will you go with me to the banks of the Monongahela, to see your youthful Washington supporting, in the dismal hour of Indian victory, the ill-fated Braddock, and saving, by his judgment and by his valor, the remains of a defeated army, pressed by the conquering savage foe? or when, oppressed America nobly resolving to risk her all in defense of her violated rights, he was elevated by the unanimous voice of Congress to the command of her armies? Will you follow him to the high grounds of Boston, where, to an undisciplined, courageous, and virtuous yeomanry, his presence gave the stability of system, and infused the invincibility of love of country? Or shall I carry you to the painful scenes of Long Island, Work Island, and New Jersey, when, combating superior and gallant armies, aided by powerful fleets, and led by chiefs high in the roll of fame, he stood the bulwark of our safety, undismayed by disaster, unchanged by change of fortune? Or will you view him in the precarious fields of Trenton, where deep gloom, unnerving every arm, reigned triumphant through our thinned, worn down, unaided ranks-himself unmoved? Dreadful was the night. It was about this time of winter. The storm raged. The Delaware, rolling furiously with floating ice, forbade the approach of man. Washington, selfcollected, viewed the tremendous scene. His country called. Unappalled by surrounding dangers, he passed to the hostile shore; he fought; he conquered. The morning sun cheered the American world. Our country rose on the event; and her dauntless chief, pursuing his blow, completed in the lawns of Princeton what his vast soul had conceived on the shores of Delaware.

Thence to the strong grounds of Morristown he led his small but gallant band; and through an eventful winter, by the high efforts of his genius, whose matchless force was measurable only by the growth of difficulties, he held in check formidable hostile legions, conducted by a chief experienced in the art of war, and famed for his valor on the ever memorable heights of Abraham, where fell Wolfe, Montcalm, and since, our much lamented Montgomery; all covered with glory. In this fortunate interval, produced by his masterly conduct, our fathers, ourselves, animated by his resistless example, rallied around our country's standard, and continued to follow her beloved chief through the various and trying scenes to which the destinies of our Union led.

Who is there that has forgotten the vales of Brandywine, the fields of Germantown, or the plains of Monmouth? Everywhere present, wants of every kind obstructing, numerous and valiant armies encountering, himself a host, he assuaged our sufferings, limited our privations, and upheld our tottering republic. Shall I display to you the spread of the fire of his soul, by rehearsing the praises of the hero of Saratoga, and his much loved compeer of the Carolinas? No; our Washington wears not borrowed glory. To Gates, to Greene, he gave without reserve the applause due to their eminent merit; and long may the chiefs of Saratoga and of Eutaws receive the grateful respect of a grateful people.

Moving in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to his most distant satellites; and combining the physical and moral force of all within his sphere, with irresistible weight he took his course, commiserating folly, disdaining vice, dismaying treason, and invigorating despondency; until the auspicious hour arrived, when, united with the intrepid forces of a potent and magnanimous ally, he brought to submission the since conqueror of India; thus finishing his long career of military glory with a lustre corresponding to his great name, and, in this his last act of war, affixing the seal of fate to our nation's birth.

To the horrid din of battle sweet peace succeeded; and our virtuous chief, mindful only of the common good, in a moment tempting personal aggrandizement, hushed the discontents of growing sedition, and, surrendering his power into the hands from which he had received it, converted his sword into a ploughshare; teaching an admiring world that to be truly great you must be truly good.

Were I to stop here, the picture would be incomplete, and the task imposed unfinished. Great as was our Washington in war, and as much as did that greatness contribute to produce the American republic, it is not in war alone his pre-eminence stands conspicuous. His various talents, combining all the capacities of a statesman with those of a soldier, fitted him alike to guide the councils and the armies of our nation. Scarcely had he rested from his martial toils, while his invaluable parental advice was still sounding in our ears, when he, who had been our shield and our sword, was called forth to act a less splendid, but more important part.

Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a strong and sound judgment, calmness and temper for deliberation, with invincible firmness and perseverance in resolutions maturely formed; drawing information from all; acting from himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarying patriotism; his own superiority and the public confidence alike marked him as the man designed by Heaven to lead in the great political as well as military events which have distinguished the era of his life.

The finger of an over-ruling Providence, pointing at Washington, was neither mistaken or unobserved, when, to realize the vast hopes to which our revolution had given birth, a change of political system became indispensable.

How novel, how grand the spectacle! Independent States stretched over an immense territory, and known only by common difficulty, clinging to their union as the rock of their safety; deciding, by frank comparison of their relative condition, to rear on that rock, under the guidance of reason, a common government, through whose commanding protection, liberty and order, with their long train of blessings, should be safe to themselves, and the sure inheritance of their posterity.

This arduous task devolved on citizens selected by the people, from knowledge of their wisdom and confidence in their virtue. In this august assembly of sages and of patriots, Washington of course was found; and, as if acknowledged to be most wise where all were wise, with one voice he was declared their chief. How well he merited this rare distinction, how faithful were the labors of him-self and his compatriots, the work of their hands, and our union, strength, and prosperity, the fruits of that work, best attest.

But to have essentially aided in presenting to his country this consummation of our hopes, neither satisfied the claims of his fellow-citizens on his talents, nor those duties which the possession of those talents imposed. Heaven had not infused into his mind such an uncommon share of its ethereal spirit to remain unemployed, nor bestowed on him his genius unaccompanied with the corresponding duty of devoting it to the common good. To have framed a Constitution was showing only, without realizing, the general happiness. This great work remained to be done; and America, steadfast in her preference, with one voice summoned her beloved Washington, unpracticed as he was in the duties of civil administration, to execute this last act in the completion of the national felicity. Obedient to her call, he assumed the high office with that self-distrust peculiar to his innate modesty, the constant attendant of pre-eminent virtue. What was the burst of joy through our anxious land on this exhilarating event is known to us all. The aged, the young, the brave, the fair, rivaled each other in demonstrations of their gratitude: and this high-wrought, delightful scene was heightened in its effect by the singular contest between the zeal of the bestowers and the avoidance of the receiver of the honors bestowed.

Commencing his administration, what heart is not charmed with the recollection of the pure and wise principles announced by himself, as the basis of his political life? He best understood the in-dissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and individual felicity. Watching with an equal and comprehensive eye over this great assemblage of communities and interests, he laid the foundations of our national policy in the unerring, immutable principles of morality, based on religion, exemplifying the pre-eminence of a free government by all the attributes which win the affections of its citizens, or command the respect of the world.

"0 fortunatos nimium, sua fl bona norint!"

Leading through the complicated difficulties produced by previous obligations and conflicting interests, seconded by succeeding Houses of Congress, enlightened and patriotic, he surmounted all original obstruction, and brightened the path of our national felicity.

The Presidential term expiring, his solicitude to exchange exaltation for humility returned with a force increased with increase of age; and he had prepared his Farewell Address to his countrymen, proclaiming his intention, when the united interposition of all around him, enforced by the eventful prospects of the epoch, produced a further sacrifice of inclination to duty. The election of President followed; and Washington, by the unanimous vote of the nation, was called to resume the chief magistracy. What a wonderful fixture of confidence! Which attracts most our admiration, a people so correct, or a citizen combining an assemblage of talents forbidding rivalry, and stifling even envy itself? Such a nation ought to be happy; such a chief must be forever revered.

War, long menaced by the Indian tribes, now broke out; and the terrible conflict, deluging Europe with blood, began to shed its baneful influence over our happy land. To the first, outstretching his invincible arm, under the orders of the gallant Wayne, the American eagle soared triumphant through distant forests. Peace followed victory; and the melioration of the condition of the enemy followed peace. Godlike virtue! which uplifts even the subdued savage.

To the second he opposed himself. New and delicate was the conjuncture, and great was the stake. Soon did his penetrating mind discern and seize the only course, continuing to us all the felicity enjoyed. He issued his proclamation of neutrality. This index to his whole subsequent conduct was sanctioned by the approbation of both Houses of Congress, and by the approving voice of the people.

To this sublime policy he inviolably adhered, unmoved by foreign intrusion, unshaken by domestic turbulence.

"Justum et tenacem propositi virum, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranni, Mente quatit solida."

Maintaining his pacific system at the expense of no duty, America, faithful to herself, and unstained in her honor, continued to enjoy the delights of peace, while afflicted Europe mourns in every quarter under the accumulated miseries of an unexampled war; miseries in which our happy country must have shared, had not our pre-eminent Washington been as firm in council as he was brave in the field.

Pursuing steadfastly his course, he held safe the public happiness, preventing foreign war, and quelling internal discord, till the revolving period of a third election approached, when he executed his interrupted, but inextinguishable desire of returning to the humble walks of private life.

The promulgation of his fixed resolution stopped the anxious wishes of an affection-ate people from adding a third unanimous testimonial of their unabated confidence in the man so long enthroned in their hearts. When before was affection like this exhibited on earth? Turn over the records of ancient Greece ; review the annals of mighty Rome ; examine the volumes of modern Europe - you search in vain. America and her Washington only afford the dignified exemplification.

The illustrious personage called by the national voice in succession to the arduous office of guiding a free people had new difficulties to encounter. The amicable effort of settling our difficulties with France, begun by Washington, and pursued by his successor in virtue as in station, proving abortive, America took measures of self-defense. No sooner was the public mind roused by a prospect of danger, than every eye was turned to the friend of all, though secluded from public view, and gray in public service. The virtuous veteran, following his plough, received the unexpected summons with mingled emotions of indignation at the unmerited ill treatment of his country, and of a determination once more to risk his all in her defense.

The annunciation of these feelings in his affecting letter to the President, accepting the command of the army, concludes his official conduct.

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting.

To his equals he was condescending, to his inferiors kind, and to the dear object of his affections exemplarily tender. Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.

His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. Although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan escaped him; and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost! Such was the man for whom our nation mourns.

Methinks I see his august image, and hear, falling from his venerable lips, these deep sinking words:

"Cease, Sons of America, lamenting our separation. Go on, and confirm by your wisdom the fruits of our joint councils, joint efforts, and common dangers. Reverence religion; diffuse knowledge throughout your land; patronize the arts and sciences; let liberty and order be inseparable companions; control party spirit, the bane of free government; ob

serve good faith to, and cultivate peace with all nations; shut up every avenue to foreign influence; contract rather than extend national connection; rely on yourselves only: be American in thought and deed. Thus will you give immortality to that union, which was the constant object of my terrestrial labors; thus will you preserve undisturbed to the latest posterity the felicity of a people to me most dear; and thus will you supply (if my happiness is now aught to you) the only vacancy in the round of pure bliss high Heaven bestows."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III

Henry Lee III (29 January 1756 – 25 March 1818) was an early American patriot who served as the ninth 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 and Confederate Navy captain Sydney Smith Lee.

He famously eulogized George Washington to a crowd of 4,000 at the first President's funeral on December 26, 1799 —"first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

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

Henry Lee III, called "Light Horse Harry", (January 29, 1756 – March 25, 1818) was a cavalry officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was the Governor of Virginia and a U.S. Congressman, as well as the father of American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.

Early life and career

Lee was born near Dumfries, Virginia. Henry was 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) [1] [2]. With a view to a legal career, he graduated (1773) from The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), but, soon afterwards, on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he became an officer in the revolutionary forces.

Military career

In 1776, he was promoted to captain of a Virginia Dragoon detachment, which was attached to the 1st Continental Light Dragoons; and, in 1778, he was promoted to major and given the command of a small irregular corps, with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops.

His services on the outpost line of the army earned for him the soubriquet of "Light Horse Harry". His greatest exploit was the brilliant surprise at the Battle of Paulus Hook in New Jersey, on August 19, 1779; for this feat he received a gold medal, a reward given to no other officer below a general's rank in the entire war.

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel with a picked corps of dragoons (Lee's Legion) to the southern theatre of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and Eutaw Springs. He was present at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, and afterwards left the army owing to ill health.

During the infamous Whiskey Rebellion, Lee commanded the 13,000 militiamen sent to quash the rebels. However, this command existed more on paper than in actuality, as President George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, military men both, accompanied him.

Marriages, Family

Between April 8-13, 1782, at "Stratford Hall", he married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee (1766-1790), who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. (1727-1775) and Elizabeth Steptoe (1743-1789). Matilda's mother later married Philip Richard Fendall I, Esq. (1734-1805). Philip would eventually marry three wives, all Lee women. Thus, he was a cousin, brother-in-law, and step-father-in-law to Light Horse Harry Lee. Fendall was the builder of the "Lee-Fendall House" in Alexandria, Virginia, on land purchased from Lee. Matilda bore three children before she died in 1790.

On 13 June 1793, Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter (17 years his junior) at Shirley Plantation. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy in 1796. Their fifth child, Robert Edward Lee would later gain fame as a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Anne Hill Carter was the daughter of Charles Carter, Esq., of Shirley, and his wife Ann Butler Moore, and a descendant of Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood and Robert Carter I, who was also a descendant of Thomas More and King Robert II of Scotland through the 2nd Earls of Crawford.

Unfortunately for Lee and his family, he invested large sums in numerous, highly speculative schemes, including partnerships with Aaron Burr. Although financial speculation was not rare among the Founding Fathers, Lee's handling of his personal finances was notably incompetent, and subjected his family to financial hardship. In 1810, to meet the demands of his creditors and be released from debtor’s prison, Lee was forced to sell all of his possessions.

Politics

In 1785, he presented George Washington with twelve horse chestnut saplings as a token of friendship. Washington later gave two of these to his friend and aide, General Robert Brown. Washington planted his ten saplings on his estate at Mt Vernon.

Brown planted his two at his home in Bath, Pennsylvania, near East Allen Township; the sole surviving tree managed to last 168 years until lightning damaged it beyond repair in 1921. In 1928, 876 of its seeds were distributed to all of the 48 state universities at the time and various nations around the world. This symbol of outward friendship led to the recognition of Brown's Horse-chestnut as America's Friendship Tree.

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 in 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 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."

Death

On 27 July 1812, in Baltimore, while helping to resist the attack of a Democratic-Republican mob on his friend, Alexander Contee Hanson, editor of the Baltimore Federal Republican, which had opposed the War of 1812, Lee received grave injuries from which he never recovered.

Lee and about two dozen Federalists had taken refuge in the three-story office building on Charles Street. With the help of Brigadier General John Stricker and other city officials, Lee and the rest surrendered the following day and were escorted to the county jail a mile away. 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 attempt to heal his wounds. He died at "Dungeness" on March 25, 1818 (Dungeness was built on Cumberland Island, Georgia by Nathaneal Greene as a summer home). Greene's daughter Louisa was in possession of the house at the time of Lee's death.

Lee was buried with full military honors provided by an American fleet stationed near the St. Marys. For many years his body rested in the same little cemetery as Louisa's mother, Catherine, but in 1913 his remains were removed to the Lee family crypt at Lee Chapel, on the campus of Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

Lee wrote the valuable Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department (1812; 3rd ed., with memoir by his son Robert E. Lee, 1869) while in debtor's prison.

His brother Richard Bland Lee was a U.S. Congressman from Virginia for two terms.

Children with Matilda Lee

1. Nathanael Greene Lee (1784), who died in infancy.

2. Philip Ludwell Lee (1785-1792), who died young.

3. Lucy Grymes Lee (1786-1864), who married Bernard Moore Carter (1784-1850), son of Hon. Charles Carter, Sr. (1737-1802) and second wife, Anne Butler Moore (1756). Bernard was a younger brother of Henry's second wife, Anne Hill Carter (1773-1829).

4. Maj. Henry Lee IV "Black Horse" (1787-1837), who married Anne Robinson McCarty (1798-1840), daughter of Daniel McCarty IV, Gent. (d. 1801) and Margaret Robinson (1780-1808), who married second, Richard Stuart, Sr., Esq. (1770-1835).

5. Greene Lee (1790), who died same day.

Children with Anne Hill Carter

6. Algernon Sydney Lee (1795-1796), who died young.

7. Charles Carter Lee (1798-1871), who married Lucy Penn Taylor, daughter of George Taylor and Catherine Randolph.

8. Anne Kinloch Lee (1800-1864), who married Hon. William Louis Marshall (1803-1869), son of Dr. Louis Marshall (1773-1866) and Agatha Smith (1782-1844).

9. Capt. Sydney Smith Lee (1802-1869), who married Anna Maria Mason (1811), daughter of Gen. John Mason, Hon. (1764-1824) and Anna Maria Murray.

10. Gen. Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870), who married Mary Anne Randolph Custis (1808-1873), daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, Esq. (1781-1857) (adopted son of Gen. George Washington) and Mary Lee Fitzhugh (1788-1853).

11. Catharine Mildred Lee (1811-1856), who married Edward Vernon Childe (1803).

Ancestry

Henry III, was the son of Maj. Gen. Henry Lee II (1730-1787) of “Leesylvania” and, Lucy Grymes (1734-1792) the "Lowland Beauty".

Lucy was the daughter of Hon. Charles Grymes (1693-1743) and Frances Jennings.

Henry II, was the third son of Capt. Henry Lee I (1691-1747) of “Lee Hall”, Westmoreland County, and his wife, Mary Bland (1704-1764).

Mary was the daughter of Hon. Richard Bland, Sr. (1665-1720) and his second wife, Elizabeth Randolph (1685-1719).

Henry I, was the son of Col. Richard Lee II, Esq., “the scholar” (1647-1715) and Laetitia Corbin (ca. 1657-1706).

Laetitia was the daughter of Richard’s neighbor and, Councillor, Hon. Henry Corbin, Sr. (1629-1676) and Alice (Eltonhead) Burnham (ca. 1627-1684).

Richard II, was the son of Col. Richard Lee I, Esq., "the immigrant" (1618-1664) and Anne Constable (ca. 1621-1666).

Anne was the daughter of Thomas Constable and a ward of Sir John Thoroughgood.

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.

Henry Lee III, called "Light Horse Harry", (January 29, 1756–March 25, 1818) was a cavalry officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was the Governor of Virginia and a U.S. Congressman, as well as the father of American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.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. With a view to a legal career, he graduated (1773) from The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), but, soon afterwards, on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he became a captain in the revolutionary forces.

Edit Military career

In 1776, he was promoted to captain of a Virginia dragoon detachment, which was attached to the 1st Continental Light Dragoons; and, in 1778, he was promoted to major and given the command of a small irregular corps, with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops.

His services on the outpost line of the army earned for him the sobriquet of "Light Horse Harry". His greatest exploit was the brilliant surprise at the Battle of Paulus Hook in New Jersey, on August 19, 1779; for this feat he received a gold medal, a reward given to no other officer below a general's rank in the entire war. (See also Discovery of medal that Congress granted to Lee). The medal is on view with other pieces from Princeton University’s Numismatic Collection, including two pewter continental "dollars", large cents from 1793 and 1794, a silver dollar of 1794, the Thomas Jefferson inaugural medal of 1801 and an Indian Peace Medal of James Madison (Princeton class of 1771). Also included are a signed letter of Lee to the New Jersey quartermaster from 1780 and a signed letter of the same year from George Washington to Lee approving Lee’s plan to capture Benedict Arnold.

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel with a picked corps of dragoons (Lee's Legion) to the southern theater of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and Eutaw Springs. He was present at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, and afterwards left the army owing to ill health.

During the infamous Whiskey Rebellion, Lee commanded the 13,000 militiamen sent to quash the rebels. However, this command existed more on paper than in actuality, as President George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, military men both, accompanied him.Between April 8–13, 1782, at "Stratford Hall", he married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee (1766–1790), who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. (1727–1775) and Elizabeth Steptoe (1743–1789). Matilda's mother later married Philip Richard Fendall I, Esq. (1734–1805). Philip would eventually marry three wives, all Lee women. Thus, he was a cousin, brother-in-law, and stepfather-in-law to Light Horse Harry Lee. Fendall was the builder of the "Lee-Fendall House" in Alexandria, Virginia, on land purchased from Lee. Matilda bore three children before she died in 1790.

On 13 June 1793, Henry Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter (17 years his junior) at Shirley Plantation. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy in 1796. Their fifth child, Robert Edward Lee would later gain fame as a Confederate general during the American Civil War. Anne Hill Carter was the daughter of Charles Carter, Esq., of Shirley, and his wife Ann Butler Moore, and a descendant of Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood and Robert Carter I, who was also a descendant of Thomas More and King Robert II of Scotland through the 2nd Earls of Crawford.

Unfortunately for Lee and his family, he invested large sums in numerous, highly speculative schemes, including partnerships with Aaron Burr and merchant Robert Morris. Although financial speculation was not rare among the Founding Fathers, Lee's handling of his personal finances was notably incompetent, and subjected his family to financial hardship. In 1810, to meet the demands of his creditors and be released from debtor’s prison, Lee was forced to sell all of his possessions. He instead took what he could from the house and left his family behind to pay the debts he owed.

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 American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.

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.

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 19 August 1779.

Lee was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned with his Legion to the southern theater of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and 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.

Between April 8–13, 1782, at "Stratford Hall", Lee married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee, who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of the Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. and Elizabeth Steptoe. Matilda bore three children before she died in 1790.

On 13 June 1793, Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter 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.[3]. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy in 1796.

Robert Edward Lee (19 January 1807 – 12 October 1870), the fifth child of Henry and Anne, served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War.

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 in 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."

On 27 July 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 attempt to heal his wounds. He died on 25 March 1818, on Cumberland Island, Georgia.

Lee was buried with full military honors provided by an American fleet stationed near the 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.

George Washington.—On December 26, 1799, General Lee delivered the following funeral oration on Washington before the two Houses of Congress:

In obedience to your will, I rise, your humble organ, with the hope of executing a part of the system of public mourning which you have been pleased to adopt, commemorative of the death of the most illustrious and most beloved personage this country has ever produced; and which, while it transmits to posterity your sense of the awful event, faintly represents your knowledge of the consummate excellence you so cordially honor.

Desperate, indeed, is any attempt on earth to meet correspondingly this dispensation of Heaven; for, while with pious resignation we submit to the will of an all-gracious Providence, we can never cease lamenting, in our 'finite view of Omnipotent Wisdom, the heart-rending privation for which our nation weeps. When the civilized world shakes to its centre; when every moment gives birth to strange and momentous changes; when our peaceful quarter of the globe, exempt as it happily has been from any share in the slaughter of the human race, may yet be compelled to abandon her pacific policy, and to risk the doleful casualties of war; what limit is there to the extent of our loss? None within the reach of my words to express; none which your feelings will not disavow.

The founder of our federate republic—our bulwark in war, our guide in peace, is no more! Oh, that this were but questionable! Hope, the comforter of the wretched, would pour into our agonizing hearts its balmy dew. But, alas! there is no hope for us; our Washington is removed forever! Possessing the stoutest frame and purest mind, he had passed nearly to his sixty-eighth year in the enjoyment of high health, when, habituated by his care of us to neglect himself, a slight cold, disregarded, became inconvenient on Friday, oppressive on Saturday, and, defying every medical interposition, before the morning of Sunday put an end to the best of men. An end, did I say? His fame survives! bounded only by the limits of the earth, and by the extent of the human mind. He survives in our hearts-in the growing knowledge of our children-in the affection of the good throughout the world. And when our monuments shall be done away; when nations now existing shall be no more; when even our young and far-spreading empire shall have perished; still will our Washington's glory unfaded shine, and die not, until love of virtue cease on earth, or earth itself sinks into chaos!

How, my fellow-citizens, shall I single to your grateful hearts his pre-eminent worth? Where shall I begin, in opening to your view a character throughout sublime? Shall I speak of his warlike achievements, all springing from obedience to his country's will, all directed to his country's good?

Will you go with me to the banks of the Monongahela, to see your youthful Washington supporting, in the dismal hour of Indian victory, the ill-fated Braddock, and saving, by his judgment and by his valor, the remains of a defeated army, pressed by the conquering savage foe? or when, oppressed America nobly resolving to risk her all in defense of her violated rights, he was elevated by the unanimous voice of Congress to the command of her armies? Will you follow him to the high grounds of Boston, where, to an undisciplined, courageous, and virtuous yeomanry, his presence gave the stability of system, and infused the invincibility of love of country? Or shall I carry you to the painful scenes of Long Island, Work Island, and New Jersey, when, combating superior and gallant armies, aided by powerful fleets, and led by chiefs high in the roll of fame, he stood the bulwark of our safety, undismayed by disaster, unchanged by change of fortune? Or will you view him in the precarious fields of Trenton, where deep gloom, unnerving every arm, reigned triumphant through our thinned, worn down, unaided ranks-himself unmoved? Dreadful was the night. It was about this time of winter. The storm raged. The Delaware, rolling furiously with floating ice, forbade the approach of man. Washington, selfcollected, viewed the tremendous scene. His country called. Unappalled by surrounding dangers, he passed to the hostile shore; he fought; he conquered. The morning sun cheered the American world. Our country rose on the event; and her dauntless chief, pursuing his blow, completed in the lawns of Princeton what his vast soul had conceived on the shores of Delaware.

Thence to the strong grounds of Morristown he led his small but gallant band; and through an eventful winter, by the high efforts of his genius, whose matchless force was measurable only by the growth of difficulties, he held in check formidable hostile legions, conducted by a chief experienced in the art of war, and famed for his valor on the ever memorable heights of Abraham, where fell Wolfe, Montcalm, and since, our much lamented Montgomery; all covered with glory. In this fortunate interval, produced by his masterly conduct, our fathers, ourselves, animated by his resistless example, rallied around our country's standard, and continued to follow her beloved chief through the various and trying scenes to which the destinies of our Union led.

Who is there that has forgotten the vales of Brandywine, the fields of Germantown, or the plains of Monmouth? Everywhere present, wants of every kind obstructing, numerous and valiant armies encountering, himself a host, he assuaged our sufferings, limited our privations, and upheld our tottering republic. Shall I display to you the spread of the fire of his soul, by rehearsing the praises of the hero of Saratoga, and his much loved compeer of the Carolinas? No; our Washington wears not borrowed glory. To Gates, to Greene, he gave without reserve the applause due to their eminent merit; and long may the chiefs of Saratoga and of Eutaws receive the grateful respect of a grateful people.

Moving in his own orbit, he imparted heat and light to his most distant satellites; and combining the physical and moral force of all within his sphere, with irresistible weight he took his course, commiserating folly, disdaining vice, dismaying treason, and invigorating despondency; until the auspicious hour arrived, when, united with the intrepid forces of a potent and magnanimous ally, he brought to submission the since conqueror of India; thus finishing his long career of military glory with a lustre corresponding to his great name, and, in this his last act of war, affixing the seal of fate to our nation's birth.

To the horrid din of battle sweet peace succeeded; and our virtuous chief, mindful only of the common good, in a moment tempting personal aggrandizement, hushed the discontents of growing sedition, and, surrendering his power into the hands from which he had received it, converted his sword into a ploughshare; teaching an admiring world that to be truly great you must be truly good.

Were I to stop here, the picture would be incomplete, and the task imposed unfinished. Great as was our Washington in war, and as much as did that greatness contribute to produce the American republic, it is not in war alone his pre-eminence stands conspicuous. His various talents, combining all the capacities of a statesman with those of a soldier, fitted him alike to guide the councils and the armies of our nation. Scarcely had he rested from his martial toils, while his invaluable parental advice was still sounding in our ears, when he, who had been our shield and our sword, was called forth to act a less splendid, but more important part.

Possessing a clear and penetrating mind, a strong and sound judgment, calmness and temper for deliberation, with invincible firmness and perseverance in resolutions maturely formed; drawing information from all; acting from himself, with incorruptible integrity and unvarying patriotism; his own superiority and the public confidence alike marked him as the man designed by Heaven to lead in the great political as well as military events which have distinguished the era of his life.

The finger of an over-ruling Providence, pointing at Washington, was neither mistaken or unobserved, when, to realize the vast hopes to which our revolution had given birth, a change of political system became indispensable.

How novel, how grand the spectacle! Independent States stretched over an immense territory, and known only by common difficulty, clinging to their union as the rock of their safety; deciding, by frank comparison of their relative condition, to rear on that rock, under the guidance of reason, a common government, through whose commanding protection, liberty and order, with their long train of blessings, should be safe to themselves, and the sure inheritance of their posterity.

This arduous task devolved on citizens selected by the people, from knowledge of their wisdom and confidence in their virtue. In this august assembly of sages and of patriots, Washington of course was found; and, as if acknowledged to be most wise where all were wise, with one voice he was declared their chief. How well he merited this rare distinction, how faithful were the labors of him-self and his compatriots, the work of their hands, and our union, strength, and prosperity, the fruits of that work, best attest.

But to have essentially aided in presenting to his country this consummation of our hopes, neither satisfied the claims of his fellow-citizens on his talents, nor those duties which the possession of those talents imposed. Heaven had not infused into his mind such an uncommon share of its ethereal spirit to remain unemployed, nor bestowed on him his genius unaccompanied with the corresponding duty of devoting it to the common good. To have framed a Constitution was showing only, without realizing, the general happiness. This great work remained to be done; and America, steadfast in her preference, with one voice summoned her beloved Washington, unpracticed as he was in the duties of civil administration, to execute this last act in the completion of the national felicity. Obedient to her call, he assumed the high office with that self-distrust peculiar to his innate modesty, the constant attendant of pre-eminent virtue. What was the burst of joy through our anxious land on this exhilarating event is known to us all. The aged, the young, the brave, the fair, rivaled each other in demonstrations of their gratitude: and this high-wrought, delightful scene was heightened in its effect by the singular contest between the zeal of the bestowers and the avoidance of the receiver of the honors bestowed.

Commencing his administration, what heart is not charmed with the recollection of the pure and wise principles announced by himself, as the basis of his political life? He best understood the in-dissoluble union between virtue and happiness, between duty and advantage, between the genuine maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy, and the solid rewards of public prosperity and individual felicity. Watching with an equal and comprehensive eye over this great assemblage of communities and interests, he laid the foundations of our national policy in the unerring, immutable principles of morality, based on religion, exemplifying the pre-eminence of a free government by all the attributes which win the affections of its citizens, or command the respect of the world.

"0 fortunatos nimium, sua fl bona norint!"

Leading through the complicated difficulties produced by previous obligations and conflicting interests, seconded by succeeding Houses of Congress, enlightened and patriotic, he surmounted all original obstruction, and brightened the path of our national felicity.

The Presidential term expiring, his solicitude to exchange exaltation for humility returned with a force increased with increase of age; and he had prepared his Farewell Address to his countrymen, proclaiming his intention, when the united interposition of all around him, enforced by the eventful prospects of the epoch, produced a further sacrifice of inclination to duty. The election of President followed; and Washington, by the unanimous vote of the nation, was called to resume the chief magistracy. What a wonderful fixture of confidence! Which attracts most our admiration, a people so correct, or a citizen combining an assemblage of talents forbidding rivalry, and stifling even envy itself? Such a nation ought to be happy; such a chief must be forever revered.

War, long menaced by the Indian tribes, now broke out; and the terrible conflict, deluging Europe with blood, began to shed its baneful influence over our happy land. To the first, outstretching his invincible arm, under the orders of the gallant Wayne, the American eagle soared triumphant through distant forests. Peace followed victory; and the melioration of the condition of the enemy followed peace. Godlike virtue! which uplifts even the subdued savage.

To the second he opposed himself. New and delicate was the conjuncture, and great was the stake. Soon did his penetrating mind discern and seize the only course, continuing to us all the felicity enjoyed. He issued his proclamation of neutrality. This index to his whole subsequent conduct was sanctioned by the approbation of both Houses of Congress, and by the approving voice of the people.

To this sublime policy he inviolably adhered, unmoved by foreign intrusion, unshaken by domestic turbulence.

"Justum et tenacem propositi virum, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranni, Mente quatit solida."

Maintaining his pacific system at the expense of no duty, America, faithful to herself, and unstained in her honor, continued to enjoy the delights of peace, while afflicted Europe mourns in every quarter under the accumulated miseries of an unexampled war; miseries in which our happy country must have shared, had not our pre-eminent Washington been as firm in council as he was brave in the field.

Pursuing steadfastly his course, he held safe the public happiness, preventing foreign war, and quelling internal discord, till the revolving period of a third election approached, when he executed his interrupted, but inextinguishable desire of returning to the humble walks of private life.

The promulgation of his fixed resolution stopped the anxious wishes of an affection-ate people from adding a third unanimous testimonial of their unabated confidence in the man so long enthroned in their hearts. When before was affection like this exhibited on earth? Turn over the records of ancient Greece ; review the annals of mighty Rome ; examine the volumes of modern Europe - you search in vain. America and her Washington only afford the dignified exemplification.

The illustrious personage called by the national voice in succession to the arduous office of guiding a free people had new difficulties to encounter. The amicable effort of settling our difficulties with France, begun by Washington, and pursued by his successor in virtue as in station, proving abortive, America took measures of selfdefense. No sooner was the public mind roused by a prospect of danger, than every eye was turned to the friend of all, though secluded from public view, and gray in public service. The virtuous veteran, following his plough, received the unexpected summons with mingled emotions of indignation at the unmerited ill treatment of his country, and of a determination once more to risk his all in her defense.

The annunciation of these feelings in his affecting letter to the President, accepting the command of the army, concludes his official conduct.

First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen, he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life. Pious, just, humane, temperate, and sincere; uniform, dignified, and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him as were the effects of that example lasting.

To his equals he was condescending, to his inferiors kind, and to the dear object of his affections exemplarily tender. Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand. The purity of his private character gave effulgence to his public virtues.

His last scene comported with the whole tenor of his life. Although in extreme pain, not a sigh, not a groan escaped him; and with undisturbed serenity he closed his well-spent life. Such was the man America has lost! Such was the man for whom our nation mourns.

Methinks I see his august image, and hear, falling from his venerable lips, these deep sinking words:

"Cease, Sons of America, lamenting our separation. Go on, and confirm by your wisdom the fruits of our joint councils, joint efforts, and common dangers. Reverence religion; diffuse knowledge throughout your land; patronize the arts and sciences; let liberty and order be inseparable companions; control party spirit, the bane of free government; ob

serve good faith to, and cultivate peace with all nations; shut up every avenue to foreign influence; contract rather than extend national connection; rely on yourselves only: be American in thought and deed. Thus will you give immortality to that union, which was the constant object of my terrestrial labors; thus will you preserve undisturbed to the latest posterity the felicity of a people to me most dear; and thus will you supply (if my happiness is now aught to you) the only vacancy in the round of pure bliss high Heaven bestows."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III

Henry Lee III (29 January 1756 – 25 March 1818) was an early American patriot who served as the ninth 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 and Confederate Navy captain Sydney Smith Lee.

He famously eulogized George Washington to a crowd of 4,000 at the first President's funeral on December 26, 1799 —"first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

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.

Revolutionary War Continental Army Officer, United States Congressman. The Father of Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee. His Lightning Raids against the British, during the American Revolution, earned him the Name “Light-Horse Harry.” He wrote the famous Epitaph of George Washington, “First in War, first in Peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Born in Leesylvania, Prince William County, Virginia, he graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), in 1773. A Captain in the Virginia Cavalry, in 1776, his Unit joined General George Washington’s Army. In 1778, he was promoted to Major and Commanded a Cavalry Troop called “Lee’s Legion,” which he led in a daring raid on the British Post at Paulus Hook, New Jersey. In 1780, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and fought under General Nathaniel Greene. After the War, Lee served in the Virginia House of Delegates, and in the Congress, from 1785 to 1788, then served as Governor of Virginia, from 1791 to 1794. He Commanded the Troops sent by President George Washington, in 1794, to end the Whisky Rebellion. A Member of the Federalist Party, he served as a Congressman, from 1799 to 1801. In later years, Lee fell into debt, and in 1808 to 1809, he was Iimprisoned in Debtor’s Prison, during which time he wrote his “Memoirs of The War in the Southern Department of The United States.” In the strife that led up to the War of 1812, he was injured while trying to protect a friend from rioters in Baltimore, Maryland, receiving wounds from which he never recovered. He would die at his home in Montross, Virginia, in 1818.

Source: Biography by: Kit and Morgan Benson. Added By Patricia McMahan-Chambers.

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.

Henry Lee III, called "Light Horse Harry", (January 29, 1756–March 25, 1818) was a cavalry officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was the Governor of Virginia and a U.S. Congressman, as well as the father of American Civil War general Robert E. Lee.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. With a view to a legal career, he graduated (1773) from The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), but, soon afterwards, on the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he became a captain in the revolutionary forces.

In 1776, he was promoted to captain of a Virginia dragoon detachment, which was attached to the 1st Continental Light Dragoons; and, in 1778, he was promoted to major and given the command of a small irregular corps, with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops.

His services on the outpost line of the army earned for him the sobriquet of "Light Horse Harry". His greatest exploit was the brilliant surprise at the Battle of Paulus Hook in New Jersey, on August 19, 1779; for this feat he received a gold medal, a reward given to no other officer below a general's rank in the entire war. (See also Discovery of medal that Congress granted to Lee). The medal is on view with other pieces from Princeton University’s Numismatic Collection, including two pewter continental "dollars", large cents from 1793 and 1794, a silver dollar of 1794, the Thomas Jefferson inaugural medal of 1801 and an Indian Peace Medal of James Madison (Princeton class of 1771). Also included are a signed letter of Lee to the New Jersey quartermaster from 1780 and a signed letter of the same year from George Washington to Lee approving Lee’s plan to capture Benedict Arnold.

He was promoted to lieutenant colonel with a picked corps of dragoons (Lee's Legion) to the southern theater of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and Eutaw Springs. He was present at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, and afterwards left the army owing to ill health.

During the infamous Whiskey Rebellion, Lee commanded the 13,000 militiamen sent to quash the rebels. However, this command existed more on paper than in actuality, as President George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, military men both, accompanied him.Between April 8–13, 1782, at "Stratford Hall", he married his second-cousin, Matilda Ludwell Lee (1766–1790), who was known as "The Divine Matilda". Matilda was the daughter of Hon. Philip Ludwell Lee, Sr., Esq. (1727–1775) and Elizabeth Steptoe (1743–1789). Matilda's mother later married Philip Richard Fendall I, Esq. (1734–1805). Philip would eventually marry three wives, all Lee women. Thus, he was a cousin, brother-in-law, and stepfath

Elizabeth Becky Lee had a son and a daughter, James Jackson 'Little Harry' Lee and Rachel Lee (married Thomas Starling). It has been verified through Ancestry DNA testing that both the son and daughter were both indeed fathered by Henry 'Lighthorse Harry' Lee (father of Robert E. Lee).

Obviously, Harry Lee married twice and DNA has proved that two of Elizabeth's children were fathered by Henry (Harry). Henry's spouses were:
Matilda Ludwell Lee ​(m. 1782; died 1790)​ and Anne Hill Carter ​(m. 1793).
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