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Bible Encyclopedias
Henry Lee
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or HENRY LEE (1756-1818), American general, called "Light Horse Harry," was born near Dumfries, Virginia, on the 29th of January 1756. His father was first cousin to Richard Henry Lee. With a view to a legal career he graduated (1773) at Princeton, but soon afterwards, on the outbreak of the War of Independence, he became an officer in the patriot forces. He served with great distinction under Washington, and in 1778 was promoted major and given the command of a small irregular corps, with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops. His services on the outpost line of the army earned for him the soubriquet of "Light Horse Harry." His greatest exploit was the brilliant surprise of Paulus Hook, N.J., on the 19th of August 1779; for this feat he received a gold medal, a reward given to no other officer below general's rank in the whole war. He was promoted lieutenant-colonel 1780, and sent with a picked corps of dragoons to the southern theatre of war. Here he rendered invaluable services in victory and defeat, notably at Guilford Court House, Camden and Eutaw Springs. He was present at Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, and afterwards left the army owing to ill-health. From 1786 to 1788 he was a delegate to the Confederation Congress, and in the lastnamed year in the Virginia convention he favoured the adoption of the Federal constitution. From 1789 to 1791 he served in the General Assembly, and from 1791 to 1794 was governor of Virginia. In 1794 Washington sent him to help in the suppression of the "Whisky Insurrection" in western Pennsylvania. A new county of Virginia was named after him during his governorship. He was a major-general in 1798-1800. From 1 799 to 1801 he served in Congress. He delivered the address on the death of Washington which contained the famous phrase, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." Soon after the War of 1812 broke out, Lee, while helping to resist the attack of a mob on his friend, A. C. Hanson, editor of the Baltimore Federal Republican, which had opposed the war, received grave injuries, from which he never recovered. He died at the house of General Nathanael Greene on Cumberland Island, Georgia, on the 25th of March 1818.
Lee wrote valuable Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department (1812; 3rd ed., with memoir by Robert E. Lee, 1869).
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Henry Lee'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/h/henry-lee.html. 1910.
