Lee was a cousin of Arthur and Francis Lee, born near
Dumfries, Virginia, and educated at the College of
New Jersey (now Princeton University). Called "Lighthorse
Harry" Lee, he earned his nickname for his frequent successes
as an outpost leader.
In 1775 Lee joined the Virginia cavalry as a captain,
and two years later he was transferred to the Continental
Army unit of General George Washington in Pennsylvania. He
was promoted to major for valor in battle in January 1778 and
was placed in command of two troops of horse, a force later increased
by another troop of horse and one of infantry.
Lee showed a masterly command of guerrilla tactics
in his use of this force, harassing the British both on the march
and in camp. His capture of Paulus Hook (now Jersey City), New
Jersey, which he took in a surprise raid on August 19, 1779,
is regarded as one of the most brilliant exploits of the war.
Lee was rewarded for this coup by promotion to the rank of lieutenant
colonel, and Congress awarded him a gold medal.
In 1780-81 he operated in the Carolinas in support
of General Nathanael Greene and his
Army of the South in the Carolinas, covering, by his ceaseless
stinging forays against the British, Greene's retreat across
North Carolina to Virginia. Lee resigned his commission because
of ill health in 1781.
From 1785 to 1788, as a member of the Continental
Congress, he supported the adoption of the U.S.
Constitution. He was governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794
and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1799 to
1801.
It was Lee who, in 1799, before both houses of Congress,
delivered the funeral oration on George Washington, originating
the now familiar phrase: "First in war, first in peace,
first in the hearts of his countrymen."
He wrote Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department
(1812). |
Henry "Lighthorse Harry" Lee