Gen. "Light House Harry" Lee

NJGenWeb ~ Morris County, New Jersey

Source: J. Percy Crayon, Rockaway Records of Morris County, N. J. Families, (Rockaway, N.J., Rockaway Publishing Co., 1902)

This celebrated soldier, who largely occupied the public eye in the Revolution, is worthy of notice, both as an eminent member of the LEE family, and as the father of General Robert E. LEE.

He was born in 1756, in the county of Westmoreland, VA, which boasts of being the birthplace of WASHINGTON, MONROE, Richard Henry LEE, General Henry LEE and General Robert E. LEE. Presidents, statesmen and soldiers – and, after graduating at Princeton College, entered the army in 1776, as captain of cavalry, an arm of the service afterward adopted by his more celebrated descendant, in the United States Army. He soon displayed military ability of high order, and, for the capture of Paulus’ Hook, received a gold medal from Congress. In 1781 he marched with his "Legion" to join GREENE in the Carolinas, carrying with him the high esteem of WASHINGTON, who had witnessed his skillful and daring operations in the Jerseys. His career in the arduous campaigns of the South against CORNWALLIS, and the efficient commander of his cavalry arm, Colonel TARLETON, may be best understood from General GREENE’s dispatches, and from his own memoirs of the operations of the army, which are written with as much modesty as ability. From these it is apparent that the small body of the "Legion" cavalry, under its active and daring commander, was the "eye and the ear" of GREENE’s army, whose movements it accompanied everywhere, preceding its advance, and covering its retreats. Few pages of military history are more stirring than those of LEE’s memoirs describing GREENE’s retrograde movement to the Dan; and this alone, if the hard work at the Entaws and elsewhere were left out, would place LEE’s fame as a cavalry officer upon a lasting basis. The distinguished soldier, under whose eye the Virginian operated, did full justice to his courage and capacity.

"I believe," wrote Gen. GREENE, "that few officers either in Europe or America, are held in so high a position of admiration as you are. Everybody knows I have the highest opinion of you as an officer, and you know I love you as a friend. No man in the progress of the campaign, had equal merit with yourself." The officer who wrote those lines was not a courtier or a diplomatist, but a blunt and honest soldier, who had seen LEE’s bearing in the most arduous straits, and was capable of appreciating military ability. Add Washington’s expression of his "love and thanks" in a letter written in 1789, and the light in which he was regarded by his contemporaries will be understood.

His "Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department" is a valuable military history and a very interesting book.

After the war General Henry LEE served a term in Congress; was then elected governor of Virginia; returned in 1799 to Congress, and in his oration upon the death of Washington, employed the well known phrase, "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen." He died in Georgia in the year 1818, having made a journey thither for the benefit of his health.

General Henry LEE was married twice; first, as we have said, to his cousin Matilda, through whom he became in possession of the old family estate of Stratford, VA; and to the second time, June 18, 1793, to Miss Anne Hill CARTER, a daughter of Charles CARTER, Esq., of "Shirley" on James River. The children of his second marriage were three sons and two daughters: Charles Carter, Robert Edward, Smith, Ann, and Mildred.

Transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003)