Henry Lee
Henry Lee (
January 29,
1756 -
March 25,
1818), American general, called
Light Horse Harry, was born near
Dumfries, Virginia. His father was first cousin to
Richard Henry Lee. With a view to a legal career he graduated (
1773) at
Princeton, but soon afterwards, on the outbreak of the
War of Independence, he became an officer in the patriot forces. He served with great distinction under
Washington, and in
1778 was promoted 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 of Paulus Hook, N.J, on
August 19,
1779; for this feat he received a gold medal, a reward given to no other officer below general's rank in the whole war. He was promoted
lieutenant-colonel 1780, and sent with a picked corps of
dragoons 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. From
1786 to
1788 he was a delegate to the
Confederation Congress, and in the last-named year in the
Virginia convention he favoured the adoption of the
Federal constitution. From
1789 to
1791 he served in the
General Assembly, and from
1791 to
1794 was
Governor of Virginia. In
1794 Washington sent him to help in the suppression of the "
Whisky Insurrection" in western
Pennsylvania. A new
county of Virginia was named after him during his governorship. He was a
major-general in
1798-
1800. From
1799 to
1801 he served in
Congress. He delivered the address on the death of Washington which contained the famous phrase, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Soon after the
War of 1812 broke out, Lee, while helping to resist the attack of a mob on his friend, A. C. Hanson, editor of the
Baltimore Federal Republican, which had opposed the war, received grave injuries, from which he never recovered. He died at the house of General
Nathanael Greene on Cumberland Island, Georgia, on March 25, 1818.
Lee wrote valuable Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department (1812; 3rd ed., with memoir by his son Robert E. Lee, 1869).
References