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"THE only time I ever heard Washington swear," Lafayette once remarked, "was
when he called General Charles Lee a 'damned poltroon,' after the arrest of that
officer for treasonable conduct." Nor was Washington the only person of
self-restraint and good manners whose temper and angry passions were roused by
this same erratic General Lee.
Lee was an Englishman, born in Cheshire in 1731. He entered the British army at
the age of eleven years, was in Braddock's expedition, and was wounded at
Ticonderoga in 1758. He also served for
a time in Portugal, but certain infelicities of temper hindered his advancement,
and he never rose higher in the British service than a half-pay major. As a
"soldier of fortune" he was vastly more successful. In all the pages of American
history, indeed, it would be difficult to find anybody whose career was more
interestingly and picturesquely checkered than was his.
Lee's purpose in coming to America has never been fully explained. There are
concerning this, as every other step of his career, two diametrically opposed
opinions. The American historians have for the most agreed in thinking him
traitorous and selfseeking, but for my own part I find little to justify this
belief, for I have no difficulty whatever in accounting for his soldierly
vagaries on the score of his temperament, and the peculiar conditions of his
early life. A man who, while still
a youth, was adopted by the Mohawk Indians, who bestowed upon him the
significant name of Boiling Water, who was at one time aid-de-camp and
intimate friend of the King of Poland, who rendered good service in the Russian
war against the Turks, all before interesting
himself at all in the cause of American freedom, could scarcely be
expected to be as simple in his us-ward emotions as an Israel Putnam or a
General John Stark might be.
General Lee arrived in New York from London, on November 10, 1773, his avowed
object in seeking the colonies at such a troublous time being to investigate
the justice of the American cause. He travelled all over the country in
pursuance of facts concerning the fermenting feeling against England, but he was
soon able to enroll himself unequivocally upon the side
of the colonies. In a letter written to Lord Percy, then stationed at Boston,
this eccentric new friend of the American cause himself, it must be
remembered, still a half-pay officer in the English army expressed with great
freedom his opinion of England's position: "Were the principle of taxing America
without her consent admitted, Great Britain would that instant be ruined." And
to General Gage, his warm personal friend, Lee wrote: " I am convinced that the
court of Tiberius was not more treacherous to the rights of mankind than is the
present court of Great Britain."
It is rather odd to find that General Charles Lee, of whom. we know so little,
and that little scarcely to his credit, occupied in the military court of the
American army a position second only to Washington; he was appointed a
major-general on June 17,
1775, a date marked
for us by the fact that Bunker Hill's battle was then fought. Not long after his
arrival at the camp, General Lee, with that tendency to independent action which
was afterward to work to his undoing, took up his quarters in the Royall house.
And Lee it was who gave to the fine old place the name Hobgoblin Hall. From this
mansion, emphatically remote from Lee's command, the eccentric general was
summarily recalled by his commander-in-chief, then, as ever after, quick to
administer to this major-general what he conceived to be needed reproof.
The house in which
General Lee next resided is still standing on Sycamore Street, Somerville. When
the place was occupied by Lee it had one of those long pitched roofs, descending
to a single story at the back, which are still occasionally met with in our
interior New England towns. The house was,
however, altered to its present appearance by that John Tufts who occupied it
during postRevolutionary times. From this lofty dwelling, Lee was able to
overlook Boston, and to observe, by the aid of a strong fieldglass, all the
activities of the enemy's camp.
GENERAL LEES HEADQUARTERS, SOMERVILLE, MASS.
Lee himself was at this time an object of unfriendly espionage. In a "separate
and secret despatch," Lord Dartmouth instructed General Gage to have a special
eye on the ex-English officer. That Lee had resigned his claim to emolument in
the English army does not seem to have made his countrymen as clear as it should
have done concerning his relation to their cause.
Meanwhile, General Lee, though sleeping in his wind-swept farmhouse and watching
from its windows the movements of the British, indulged when opportunity
offered in the
social pleasures of the other American officers. Rough and unattractive in
appearance, he seems to have been a kind of Cyrano de Bergerac, "a tall man,
lank and thin, with a huge nose," he had, when he chose, a certain amount of
social grace, and was often extremely entertaining.
Mrs. John Adams, who
first met General Lee at an evening party at Major Mifflin's house in Cambridge,
describes him as looking like a "careless, hardy veteran," who brought to her
mind his namesake, Charles XII. "The elegance of his pen far exceeds that of his
person," commented this acute lady. In further describing this evening spent at
Major Mifflin's
home, in the Brattle mansion, Mrs. Adams writes: "General Lee was
very urgent for me to tarry in town, and dine with him and the ladies present,
but I excused myself. The general was
determined that I should not only be acquainted with him, but with his
companions, too, and therefore placed a chair before me, into which he ordered
Mr. Spada (his dog) to mount, and present his paw to me for better
acquaintance."1 Lee was very fond indeed of dogs, and was constantly
attended by one or more of them, this Spada being a great, shaggy Pomeranian,
described by unbiassed critics as looking more like a bear than a harmless
canine. In this connection, it is interesting to know that Lee has expressed
himself very strongly in regard to the affection of men as compared with the
affection of dogs.
This love for dogs
was, however, one of the more ornamental of General Lee's traits. His
carelessness in regard to his personal appearance was famous, and not a few
amusing stories are told of the awkward situations in which this officer's
slovenliness involved him. On one of Washington's journeys, in which Lee
accompanied him, the major-general, upon arriving at the house where they were
to dine, went straight to the kitchen and demanded something to eat. The cook,
taking him for a servant, told him that she would give him some victuals
directly, but that he must first help her off with the pot, a request with
which he readily complied. He was then told to take a bucket and go to the well
for water, and was actually engaged in drawing it when found by an aid whom
Washington had despatched in quest of him. The cook was in despair when she
heard her assistant addressed by the title of "General." The mug fell from her
hands, and dropping on her knees, she began
crying for pardon, when Lee, who was ever ready to see the impropriety of his
own conduct, but never willing to change it, gave her a crown, and, turning to
the aid-de-camp, observed: " You see, young man, the advantage of a fine coat;
the man of consequence is indebted to it for respect; neither virtue nor
ability, without it, will make you look like a gentleman."2
Perhaps the most remarkable episode in all Lee's social career, was that
connected with Sir William Howe's famous entertainment at Philadelphia, the
Mischianza. This was just after the affair at Monmouth, in the course of which
Washington swore, and Lee was taken prisoner. Yet though a prisoner, the
eccentric general was treated with the greatest courtesy, and
seems even to have received a card for the famous ball. But, never too careful
of his personal appearance, he must on this occasion have looked particularly
uncouth.
Certainly the beautiful Miss Franks one
of the Philadelphia belles, thought him far from ornamental, and, with the keen
wit for which she was celebrated, spread abroad a report that General Lee came
to the ball clad in green breeches, patched with leather. To prove to her that
entire accuracy had not been used
in describing his garb at the ball, the general sent the young lady the very
articles of clothing which she had criticised! Naturally, neither the ladies nor
their escorts thought any better of Lee's manners after this bit of horse-play,
and it is safe to say he was not soon again invited to an evening party. Mrs.
Hamilton and Mrs. Mercy warren both call Lee "a crabbed man." The latter
described him in a letter to Samuel Adams as "plain in his person to a degree of
ugliness; careless even to impoliteness; his garb ordinary; his voice rough; his
manners rather morose; yet sensible, learned, judicious, and penetrating."
Toward the end of his life, Lee took refuge in an estate which he had purchased
in Berkeley County, Virginia. Here he lived, more like a hermit than a citizen
of the world, or a member of a civilised community. His house was little more
than a shell, without partitions, and it lacked even such articles of furniture
as were necessary for the most common uses. To a gentleman who visited him in
this forlorn retreat, where he found a kitchen in one corner, a bed in another,
books in a third, saddles and harness in a fourth, Lee said: "Sir, it is the
most convenient and economical establishment
in the world. The
lines of chalk which you see on the floor mark the divisions of the apartments,
and I can sit in a corner and give orders and overlook the whole without moving
from my chair."3
General Lee died in
an obscure inn in Philadelphia, October 2, 1782. His will was characteristic: "I
desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or churchyard, or
within a mile of any Presbyterian or Baptist meetinghouse; for since I have
resided in this country I have kept so much bad company that I do not choose to
continue it when dead." In this will, our singular hero paid a tribute of
affectionate remembrance to several of his intimate friends, and of grateful
generosity to the humble dependents who had adhered to him and ministered
to his wants in his retirement. The bulk of his property for he was a man of
no small means was bequeathed to
his only sister, Sydney
Lee to
whom he was ever devotedly attached.
1
Drake's "Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlesex." Little, Brown & Co.,
publishers.
2
Drake's "Historic Fields and Mansions
of Middlesex."
3
Sparks's "Life of Charles Lee." Little, Brown
& Co.
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