the morning of the 13th of December, dispersed the guard, and captured the commander. * Lee had just finished a letter to General Gates when the dragoons appeared. So sudden was the arrest, and so quick was the departure, that he was hurried away on horseback, bare-headed, nothing but slippers on his feet, and a blanket coat on his back, and conveyed in safety to New York. General Sullivan, who was taken prisoner at the battle on Long Island, in August previous, had been exchanged, and was now with Lee's division of the army.
On the capture of Lee the command devolved on Sullivan, and he soon afterward crossed the Delaware and joined Washington.
General Lee was an able and efficient officer, and his loss, at that time, was very severely felt. The estimation in which the enemy held his services may be understood by the declaration, "We have taken the American palladium." His disobedience is indefensible; yet, viewing subsequent events in their various relations, that very disobedience was probably instrumental in working out greater good than compliance would
* Mr. James the English novelist, now (1851) residing in this country, informed a friend of the writer that he possesses a manuscript drawing of Colonel Harcourt, and of the horse which he rode on that occasion. The horse lived to the extraordinary age of fifty years.
** Charles Lee was born in Wales in 1731. He was the son of General John Lee of the British army. He was a commissioned officer in the army of George II. at a very early age (some say eleven years), and ardently pursued military knowledge. He acquired many of the Continental languages. He came to America in 1756, and distinguished himself in the wars with the French and Indians. He dwelt, for a time, with the Mohawks, and was made a chief of the tribe, under the name, in the Mohawk dialect, of Boiling Water. In 1762 he bore a colonel's commission, and served under Burgoyne in Portugal. After engaging for a while in political strife in England, he went to the Continent, and during three years, from 1770, he rambled all over Europe. He was received with favor by the great, and finally became aid to Poniatowski, kin" of Poland. For two years he basked in that monarch's favor, and then went, with the king's embassador, to Turkey. From Constantinople he went to Paris, and in 1773 again came to America. He became acquainted with General Gates, and, through his persuasions, purchased a tract of land in Berkley county, Virginia. Resigning a commission which he held in the British army, he accepted one from Congress when the Continental army was organized in the summer of 1775. He accompanied Washington to Cambridge, and from that period until his capture in December, 1776, he was engaged in very active service, particularly at the South. In May, 1778, he was exchanged for General Prescott, who was captured on Rhode Island, and within a month afterward he was engaged in the fierce battle of Monmouth. In that conflict he was disobedient to the commands of the chief, and was arrested for his misconduct. His trial resulted in his suspension, a verdict which gave general satisfaction, for it was believed that he was aiming at supreme command. The verdict was confirmed by Congress in 1780, and he left the army. He lived a while at Berkley, morose and secluded. He finally went to Philadelphia, and took lodgings in a house now known as the "Slate-roof House," once the residence of William Penn, where he died, soon afterward, in poverty and obscurity. His death occurred on the 2d of Oetober, 1782, at the age of fifty-one. General Lee was a brilliant man in many things, but his life exhibited a most perfect specimen of antitheses of character. He was bad in morals and manners, profane in language, and neither feared or loved God or man. He wrote his will a few days before his death, in which he bequeathed his soul to the Almighty, and his body to the earth, saying, "I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or churchyard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting-house; for, since I have resided in this country, I have kept so much bad company when living, that I do not choose to continue it when dead." His last words on his death-bed were, "Stand by me, my brave grenadiers!" He was buried in Christ Church-yard, Philadelphia, with military honors. Quite a large concourse of citizens attended his funeral. Mrs. Mercy Warren seems to have formed a correct estimate of Lee's character from her own observations on the occasion of his dining with herself and husband at Watertown, while the army was at Cambridge. In a letter to Samuel Adams, she speaks of him as "plain in his person to a degree of ugliness; careless even to unpoliteness; his garb ordinary; his voice rough; his manners rather morose; yet sensible, learned, judicious, and penetrating." Such is the character of Lee which I received from the lips of Mrs. Hamilton, who expressively called him "a crabbed man."
The Delaware between Washington and Cornwallis.—Weakness of the American Army.—Gloomy Aspect of Affairs.
have done. Let us return to the consideration of the movements of the two armies upon the Delaware.