British soldier, born at Dernhall, Cheshire, England, in 1731. His early education, in England and on the Continent, revealed a proficiency in languages which, during his subsequent rambles in Europe, was of great service to him. He early developed a taste for military affairs, and in 1751 received a lieutenant’s commission in the Forty-fourth Regiment, shortly ordered to join General Braddock in America, in the disastrous expedition to Fort Duquesne. He entered with spirit into the campaigns which marked the French and Indian war, being wounded during the futile attack on Fort Ticonderoga in 1758. In 1760 the regiment to which he was attached joined General Amherst’s forces in the assault and capture of Montréal. In 1762, Lee having returned to England, the scene of his military service was transferred to Portugal, where he aided efficiently in repelling the Spanish invasion. Shortly after this he turned his restless thoughts to schemes of colonization in America, but estranged the parties upon whose approval success depended, by his arrogant and ungovernable temper—a trait already unhappily apparent, and destined to prove at least the proximate cause of his ultimate downfall. Failing in efforts looking to his advancement at home, he speedily sought and obtained a staff appointment in Poland, a few years later receiving a major-general’s commission in the Polish army. During this eventful period of his life his experience may be well styled that of an adventurer, subject to all the vicissitudes incident to such a career. One characteristic, however, had become pronounced, through indulgence as well as natural proclivity,—an overweening vanity, with insatiable ambition. Embittered by defeat in his cherished projects in England, he turned his attention to America a few years previous to the Revolution, arriving in New York during the agitation just preceding the outbreak of hostilities. Of his services to the American cause at this time, as is true of the early military career of Benedict Arnold, only praise can be recorded. Whatever may have been the secret motives by which he was actuated, his patriotic writings and utterances could but elicit the favor of the Continental Congress and the popular admiration. With the movements of the army besieging Boston in 1775, and the appointment of Washington as commander-in-chief, the first intimations of Lee’s ulterior designs are manifest. Though he fought bravely at Bunker Hill, it was evident that his animosity toward Washington was deep-seated, as it was to be abiding and fatal to his reputation. In his conduct during Moultrie’s repulse of Clinton’s expedition in 1776, and in the campaign preceding the occupation of the Jerseys, Lee’s inordinate self-love and impossible temper were frequently displayed. With the attainment of ranking major-general—by the death of Ward—his subtle purpose of self-advancement received fresh encouragement, and it was with the astounding assurance of final success that he ventured to disobey the orders of his commander in the campaign which followed the evacuation of New York by Washington’s main force. Only when the American position had become so hazardous as to compel Washington to cross the Delaware was the traitorous design of Lee thwarted, by the happy accident of his capture while distant four miles from the army upon which Washington had placed every reliance. It was during Lee’s imprisonment in New York that the incriminating correspondence with the Howes occurred, which, being first known to the world in 1857, have, in the general estimation of men, fully confirmed the treasonable conduct of the pretended patriot. Inscrutable as still appears his reinstatement in Washington’s army upon his exchange, Lee rejoined the American forces at Valley Forge, and had early opportunity to gratify his rankling hatred toward Washington, in the campaign which culminated in the battle of Monmouth. It is next to impossible to extenuate Lee’s behavior during that memorable conflict, when the American forces were saved from utter rout only by the presence of mind of their commander-in-chief. Of Lee’s dilatory movements in checking the onslaught of the British rear-guard, easily dispersed by Washington later in the day, there is but one possible explanation, and for Washington’s conviction, as manifested in his scathing rebuke to Lee upon the field, there is every justification; and we have Lafayette’s testimony that the commander’s speech was suitable to the occasion, rather than to wonted etiquette. When, afterward, Lee was ordered to the rear, his discomfiture was complete. Then followed his arrest, court-martial and conviction, evoking the grossly insulting personalities addressed to Washington, which led to his duel with Colonel Laurens, in which he was wounded, and finally to the intemperate letter libeling the Continental Congress, which resulted in his dismissal from the army. Retiring to his estate in the Shenandoah valley, Lee wore away the remainder of his life in solitude and disgrace, the cause he had secretly labored to defeat triumphing at last, while he, like Arnold, an Ishmaelite among his adopted countrymen, died miserably alone, in a tavern, while on a visit to Philadelphia, on the 2nd of October 1782.
