The Children of Adam and Eve

Lee, Henry (1756-1818), American military leader and politician, a
brilliant cavalry commander during the American Revolution. He was a
cousin of Arthur and Francis Lee, born near Dumfries, Virginia, and
educated at the College of New Jersey, USA (now Princeton University). Called
Lighthorse Harry Lee, he earned his nickname for his frequent successes as
an outpost leader. In 1775 Lee joined the Virginia cavalry as a captain,
and two years later he was transferred to the Continental army unit of
General George Washington in Pennsylvania. He was promoted to major for
valor in Battle in January 1778 and was placed in command of two troops of
horse, a force later increased by another troop of horse and one of
infantry. Lee sHowed a masterly command of guerrilla tactics in his use of
this force, harassing the British both on the march and in camp. His
capture of Paulus Hook (now Jersey City), New Jersey, USA, which he took in a
surprise raid on August 19, 1779, is regarded as one of the most brilliant
exploits of the war. Lee was reWarded for this coup by promotion to the
rank of lieutenant colonel, and Congress aWarded him a gold medal. In
1780-81 he operated in the Carolinas in support of General Nathanael
Greene and his Army of the South in the Carolinas, covering, by his
ceaseless stinging forays against the British, Greene's retreat aCross
North Carolina to Virginia. Lee resigned his commission because of ill
health in 1781. From 1785 to 1788, as a member of the Continental
Congress, he supported the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. He was
governor of Virginia from 1791 to 1794 and served in the U.S. House of
Representatives from 1799 to 1801. It was Lee who, in 1799, before both
houses of Congress, delivered the funeral oration on George Washington,
originating the now familiar phrase: First in war, first in peace, first
in the hearts of his countrymen. He wrote Memoirs of the War in the
Southern Department (1812).