Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/233

 VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

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Cornwallis and as the rear guard performed meritorious service. They participated in many battles in the Carolinas and Georgia, "Light Horse Harry," a name that has ever clung to him. winning fame for himself and for his command a reputation as the most efficient corps in the American army. In 1781 he retired on furlough to Virginia and was happily present at the surrender of his old adversary, Cornwallis, on October 19. After the war, he was successively chosen to the state legislature, the \'irginia conven- tion that ratified the constitution of the United States, governor of \'irginia, 1892- 95. and Congressman, ^^'hile in Congress iie drew up the set of resolutions formally announcing the death of ^\"ashington to Congress containing the memorable words "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." He was selected to deliver the oration before Congress in honor of the great \\'ashington, and on De- cember 26. 1799, delivered the eulogy in the German Lutheran Church. Fourth, above Arch street, in Philadelphia, then the largest church in the city. He held the rank of major-general, commissioned July 19, 1798, and of him it has been said, "he seemed to have come out of his mother's womb, a sol- dier." He was a man of letters (Princeton, 1773) a scholar, of dazzling genius with an eloquence which seemed to flow unbidden. In 1801 he retired from public life and in 1809 wrote his interesting "Memoirs of the war in the Southern Department of the United States." In June, 1812, he was ser- iously injured by a mob in Baltimore while attempting to defend the home of a friend and later voyaged to the West Indies in search of health. On his way home he landed at Cumberland Island, on the coast of Georgia, the home of his old commander and. friend. General Greene, where he died March 25, 1818. He was there buried, the captain and crew of a war vessel that hap- jiened to be anchored there assisting at his funeral and paying the last military honors "to the dead patriot.

General Lee married ffirst) Matilda, daughter of Philip and Elizabeth fSteptoel Indwell. He married (second) June 18, 1793, Anne Hill, daughter of Charles and Anne Buller (Moore) Carter, of "Shirley." She was born in 1793, died in 1829.

Charles Carter Lee. second son of General Henry (3) Lee. and his second wife, Anne Hill (Carter) Lee, was born at historic

Stratford. Westmoreland county, X'irginia, November 8. 1798, died March 21. 1871, and was Inined at his home, "Windsor Forest," m Powhatan county. He was graduated from Harvard College, second in the class of 1819, and became a lawyer, first practicing in Washington, D. C, then in Floyd county, Virginia, next in Mississippi, where he re- mained for several years, then in Hardy and finallv in Powhatan county, Virginia. He possessed a mind of a superior order, had a most retentive memory and a keen wit. He was an omnivorous reader and a brilliant conversationalist, greatly sought after at all social gatherings.

Charles Carter Lee was incapacitated by age from entering the military service of the Confederate States. His brothers, Sidney Smith Lee and Robert Edward Lee, one a commander in the LTnited States navy, and the other a veteran of the Mexican war and an officer of the United States army, both resigned their commissions and entered the Confederate army, both for four years, serv- ing the Confederacy with the same ardor, energy and unselfishness that they had pre- viouslv given the whole country. Sidney Smith Lee, a graduate, had been command- ant of the United States Naval Academy and of the Philadelphia navy yard. Robert E. Lee, a graduate of West Point Military Academy, class of 1829, had been superin- tendent of the academy, 1832-55. For thirty years he served the LTnited States with fidel- ity and was pronounced by General Scott to be "not only the greatest soldier of America but the greatest soldier now living in the v.'orld," concluding his eulogy by saying, "if he ever gets the opportunity he will prove himself the greatest captain of history." This was when General Lee was Colonel Robert E. Lee of the United States army. When the opportunity came, although he was opposed to secession, he promptly re- signed his commission when it became a question whether he should fight for or against his native state, acting in strict ac- cordance with the principals of his honored father, who, ardent Federalist that he was, had said. "Virginia is my country: her will I obev, however lamentable the fate to which it may subject me." General Lee enter- tained no illusions such as each side pro- fessed to hold that the war would be a short one. In casting his lot with Virginia, he acted with full consciousness of the gravity of the crisis. He said, "Make your plans for