FROM GENERAL LEE.
October, 1778.
DEAR SIR,
As you are so kind as to interest yourself so warmly in my favour, I cannot resist the temptation of writing you a few lines. Till these two days, I was convinced the Congress would unanimously have rescinded the absurd, shameful sentence of the court-martial; but, within these two days, I am taught to think that equity is to be put out of the question, and the decision of the affair to be put entirely on the strength of party; and, for my own part, I do not see how it is possible, if the least decency or regard for national dignity has place, that it can be called a party business.
I wish I could send you the trial, and will the moment I can obtain one. I think myself, and I dare say you will think on the perusal, that the affair redounds more to my honour, and the disgrace of my persecutors, than, in the warmth of indignation, either I or my aid-de-camps have represented it. As I have no idea that a proper reparation will be made to my injured reputation, it is my intent, whether the sentence is reversed or not reversed, to resign my commission, retire to Virginia, and learn to hoe tobacco, which I find is the best school to form a consummate general. This is a discovery I have lately made. Adieu. Dear sir, believe me to be your most
Sincerely obliged servant,
C. LEE.
After the battle of Monmouth, in June, 1778, Colonel Burr was constantly employed. His health, from the fatigues of that and the subsequent day, was greatly impaired. Early in October, he found himself, in a measure, unfit for active service. He left West Point, where his regiment was stationed, and repaired to Elizabethtown, in the hope that a few weeks of repose might prove beneficial; but in these hopes he was sorely disappointed. He then determined to ask a furlough, and retire from the army for a few months, provided the furlough was granted without his receiving pay. On this point he was very fastidious. By these feelings he was uniformly governed through a long life. He never sought nor accepted an office for the emolument it afforded. He wrote the commander-in-chief on the subject, as follows:—
TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.
Elizabethtown, 24th October, 1778.