Henry Lee III

This article is about Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, the American Revolutionary War officer. For other individuals with similar names, Harry Lee (disambiguation) or Henry Lee (disambiguation).

Henry Lee III
9th Governor of Virginia
In office 1791–1794
Preceded by	Beverley Randolph
Succeeded by	Robert Brooke
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 19th district
In office 1799–1800
Preceded by	Walter Jones
Succeeded by	John Talifierro
Personal details
Born	January 29, 1756 Dumfries, Virginia, British America
Died	March 25, 1818 (age 62) Cumberland Island, Georgia, United States
Political party	Federalist
Spouse(s)	Matilda Ludwell Lee Anne Hill Carter
Alma mater	College of New Jersey
Military service
Branch/service	Continental Army United States Army
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel Major General
Battles/wars	American Revolutionary War Whiskey Rebellion

Henry Lee III (January 29 1756–March 25 1818) was an early American patriot who served as the Governor of Virginia and as the Virginia Representative to the United States Congress. During the American Revolution, Lee served as a cavalry officer in the Continental Army and earned the name Light Horse Harry. He was also the father of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Biography

Lee was born near Dumfries, Virginia, the son of Maj. Gen. Henry Lee II (1730–1787) of "Leesylvania" and Lucy Grymes (1734–1792) the "Lowland Beauty". His father was first cousin once removed to Richard Henry Lee, sixth President of the Continental Congress. His mother was an aunt of the wife of Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson Jr. His great-grandmother Mary Bland was a great-aunt of President Thomas Jefferson and he descended once from King John of England, twice from King Edward I of England, once from King Jean de Brienne of Jerusalem, twice from King Edward III of England and once from King Pedro I of Castile..

File:Light horse restored.jpg

"Light horse Harry" Lee

Military career

Lee graduated from The College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1773, and began pursuing a legal career. With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, he became a Captain in a Virginia dragoon detachment, which was attached to the 1st Continental Light Dragoons. In 1778, Lee was promoted to Major and given the command of a mixed corps of cavalry and infantry known as Lee's Legion; with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops.

It was during his time as commander of the Legion that Lee earned the sobriquet of "Light Horse Harry" for his horsemanship. Lee was presented a gold medal–a reward given to no other officer below a general's rank–for the Legion's actions during the Battle of Paulus Hook in New Jersey, on 19 August 1779.

Lee was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned with his Legion to the southern theater of war. Lee's forces served at the Battle of Guilford Court House, the Battle of Camden and the Battle of Eutaw Springs. He was present at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, but left the Army shortly after due to an illness. During the infamous Whiskey Rebellion, Lee commanded the 13,000 militiamen sent to quash the rebels.

Marriages and children

Lee's house in Alexandria, Virginia.

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. They had six children, one of whom died in infancy in 1796.

• Henry Lee IV (28 May 1787 – 30 January 1837), the fourth child of Henry and Matilda, was a historian and author who also served as a speech writer for both John C. Calhoun and presidential candidate Andrew Jackson, also helping the latter to write his inaugural address.
• 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.

Politics

From 1786 to 1788, Lee was a delegate to the Continental Congress, and in the last-named year in the Virginia convention, he favored the adoption of the United States Constitution. From 1789 to 1791, he served in the General Assembly and, from 1791 to 1794, was Governor of Virginia.

In 1794, Lee accompanied Washington to help 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."

Death

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.

Published works

• Lee, Henry, and Robert E. Lee. Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States. Eyewitness accounts of the American Revolution. [New York]: New York times, 1969. (originally published 1812; 3rd ed. published in 1869, with memoir by his son Robert E. Lee)

See also

• United States Army Portal

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• United States Congress. "Henry Lee III (id: L000195)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2008-07-02

Baltimore Riot of 1812

• contemporary account
• a summary