This is the story of Light Horse Harry Lee, the dashing Cavalier of the American Revolution, and how he helped win the War for American Independence through his talented command of Lee’s Legion. It is the tale of how he developed his skills as a horseman and leader in his Leesylvania estate, studied the Classics at Princeton and won renown as a scholar, built himself into a brilliant cavalier of a military leader, and won great morale-boosting victories at Spread Eagle Tavern and Paulus Hook before masterminding a strategy that defeated Lord Cornwallis in the South. He led with bravery before quitting in pique over the jealousies of other officers and marrying Matilda Lee of Stratford Hall before the conclusion of the war.
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Henry Lee III was born in 1756 at Leesylvania in Virginia as the eldest son of Henry Lee II and Lucy Grymes. Raised among the Virginia gentry, he learned riding, command, and social confidence from family life, estate management, and contact with local political leaders.
He entered Princeton in 1770, where John Witherspoon turned Nassau Hall into a rigorous center for classical learning and Whig ideas. Harry Lee studied alongside such great contemporaries as James Madison and Aaron Burr while a student of Princeton, and he excelled in Latin, Greek, mathematics, history, and literature, and graduated in 1773 with a public oration and a reputation as both scholar and gentleman. At first Lee planned to study law in England, but rising conflict with Britain changed that course. After Lexington and Concord, he returned to Virginia, joined the militia, and in 1776 received a commission as captain of the 5th Troop of Virginia Light Dragoons.
Lee organized his troop with unusual care, using family resources to equip it with fine horses and strict discipline. In winter 1778, his small command won fame at Spread Eagle Tavern near Valley Forge, where ten dragoons held off a much larger British cavalry force. In the wake of this morale-boosting victory, George Washington offered Lee a position as his aide de camp, but Harry Lee refused, saying he was “wedded to my sword.” Washington, who loved the young man, then helped secure him an independent partisan command, later known as Lee’s Legion, a combined arms force of light cavalry and light infantry. Light Horse Harry Lee designed its distinctive green-and-crimson uniform and led it in raids, scouting, and surprise attacks in both the northern and southern campaigns, helping win the war by wearing down the British.
In August 1779, Lee carried out a night assault on Paulus Hook, leading a difficult march through swamps before taking the fort by bayonet attack and withdrawing with few casualties. The victory brought praise but also a court-martial from jealous officers, which Lee defeated by defending himself. Congress awarded him a gold medal for the morale effect of his victory; he was the only non-general to be awarded such a prize.
Sent south in 1780, Light Horse Harry Lee fought alongside General Greene and the famous Francis Marion, better known as “The Swamp Fox”, in the Carolinas and developed a strategy he compared to Scipio Africanus: bypass Lord Cornwallis, strike British posts in South Carolina, and cut off their support from Southern Tories. This approach helped Greene and Lee dismantle British control in the interior and support the path to Yorktown, helping win the American Revolution. By the end of the war, Lee was exhausted and bitter. He resigned in early 1782, married Matilda Lee of Stratford Hall, and became lord of the estate. This was his last moment of true triumph before the decline began.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 Light Horse Harry Lee: Cavalier of the American Revolution
2:55 What Light Horse Harry Learned at Leesylvania
9:11 Harry Becomes a Noted Princeton Scholar
15:49 Light Horse Harry Leaps into the War for American Independence
18:18 Lee’s Legion Takes Shape
31:12 The Paulus Hook Masterstroke
36:59 Light Horse Harry and Lee’s Legion Fight the Southern Campaign
45:24 Yorktown and Bitter Triumph
50:18 Stratford Hall and the Divide Matilda: Glory Before the Fall
Sources Referenced in this Episode:
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Cole, Ryan, Light-Horse Harry Lee: The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero, https://amzn.to/4wiZOy3
Evans, Emory G., A Topping People: The Rise and Decline of Virginia’s Old Political Elite, https://amzn.to/4z2x6nL
Freeman, Douglas Southall, R. E. Lee: A Biography, https://amzn.to/4gkaqrx
Hendrick, Burton J., The Lees of Virginia, https://amzn.to/4xshjNe
Lee, Cazenove Gardner, Jr., Lee Chronicle: Studies of the Early Generations of the Lees, https://amzn.to/4q7GiTI
McGaughy, Kent J., Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Portrait of an American, https://amzn.to/4xn1qaS
Middlekauff, Robert, The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789, https://amzn.to/4cbhg05
Nagel, Paul C., The Lees of Virginia: Seven Generations of an American Family, https://amzn.to/4wUxkfi
Royster, Charles, Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution, https://amzn.to/3TKWspX
Sydnor, Charles S., Gentlemen Freeholders: Political Practices in Washington’s Virginia, https://amzn.to/4ggLJfH
Unger, Harlow Giles, First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee and the Call to Independence, https://amzn.to/4hWbm6D
Transcript
