A Life of Gen. Robert E. Lee | Page 5

the father of General Robert E. Lee.
He was born in 1756, in the county of Westmoreland--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's 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 skilful
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 ear" of Greene's army, whose movements it accompanied
everywhere, preceding its advances and covering its retreats. Few pages
of military history are more stirring than those in Lee's "Memoirs"
describing Greene's retrograde movement to the Dan; and this alone, if
the hard work at the Eutaws 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 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 nor 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. The movements of Greene
in face of Cornwallis are described with a precision which renders the
narrative valuable to military students, and a picturesqueness which
rivets the attention of the general reader. From these memoirs a very
clear conception of the writer's character may be derived, and
everywhere in them is felt the presence of a cool and dashing nature, a
man gifted with the mens aequa in arduis, whom no reverse of fortune
could cast down. The fairness and courtesy of the writer toward his
opponents is an attractive characteristic of the work,[1] which is written
with a simplicity and directness of style highly agreeable to readers of
judgment.[2]
[Footnote 1: See his observations upon the source of his successes over
Tarleton, full of the generous spirit of a great soldier. He attributes
them in no degree to his own military ability, but to the superior
character of his large, thorough-bred horses, which rode over Tarleton's
inferior stock. He does not state that the famous "Legion" numbered
only two hundred and fifty men, and that Tarleton commanded a much
larger force of the best cavalry of the British army.]

[Footnote 2: A new edition of this work, preceded by a life of the
author, was published by General Robert E. Lee in 1869.]
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 came into possession of the old
family estate of Stratford; and a second time, June 18,1793, to Miss
Anne Hill Carter, a daughter of Charles Carter, Esq., of "Shirley," on
James River.
The children of this second marriage were three sons and two
daughters--Charles Carter, Robert Edward, Smith, Ann, and Mildred.
[Illustration: "STRATFORD HOUSE." The Birthplace of Gen. Lee.]

IV.
STRATFORD.
Robert Edward Lee was born at Stratford, in Westmoreland County,
Virginia, on the 19th of January, 1807.[1]
[Footnote 1: The date of General