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This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's experience as a prisoner at the hands of the British. At New Brunswick, Lee languished in a small jail cell for more than a month. Some British officers were sympathetic to his plight, but others were not. Lee's fate rested with General William Howe, who faced a legal quandary on whether the prisoner should be subjected to a military trial for desertion, where punishment was death, This chapter examines the dispute between George Washington and the Continental Congress over Lee's situation before the former authorized a formal prisoner exchange to secure the release of Lee. It also considers Lee's proposal that he claimed would help Howe capture Philadelphia and crush the rebellion, along with the release of Lee after he was exchanged for General Richard Prescott.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's last days. By the spring of 1779, Lee, then forty-seven years of age, prepared to leave Philadelphia for Prato Rio, the country estate he had purchased in Hopewell, Virginia. He had grown weary of the petty squabbling that was taking place in Congress and among the Continental officer corps. He thought that too many delegates were hungry for personal influence and regional ambitions, while military officers fought for recognition, promotion, and political advantage. This chapter discusses Lee's essay, written in March 1779, that was intended to damage George Washington's and Joseph Reed's reputations; his plan for a utopian republic in which he imagined a well-ordered, simple agrarian community of soldiers and their families in America; his critique of the American Revolution and its leaders; his dismissal from the Continental Army; his physical and mental deterioration; and his death on October 3, 1782.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's court-martial that was initiated due to his actions in the Battle of Monmouth. On July 4, 1778, Lee was in a makeshift courtroom in New Brunswick to hear the charges against him. Judge Advocate General John Lawrence read the three distinct charges: disobedience of orders in not attacking the enemy; misbehavior by making an unnecessary, disorderly, and shameful retreat; and disrespect to the commander-in-chief, George Washington, in two letters dated June 30, 1778. Lee pled not guilty in all three charges. This chapter discusses Lee's military trial and the court's guilty verdict, along with his unsuccesful bid to convince the Continental Congress to reverse the court's decision.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's actions in Virginia during the American Revolution and his disappointment with the Virginians' indecisiveness in declaring independence from the British. The Continental Congress created the Southern Department based on concerns that the southern colonies were extremely vulnerable to a British attack. Lee was chosen to take the command of the Continental forces in the Southern Department, which covered Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. During Lee's last days in New York, he worked on the city's defenses and also found time to dine with Thomas Paine. This chapter examines Lee's military campaign in Virginia, the conflict between the state's white and black revolutionaries, Lee's criticism of Virginia's revolutionaries for their timidity about the Loyalists in their colony, and his efforts to see a declaration of American independence from Britain.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's military victory in the South during the American Revolution. In February 1776, North Carolina militiamen defeated a Loyalist army recruited by royal governor Josiah Martin at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge near Wilmington. The defeat of the Loyalists at Moore's Creek Bridge convinced British General Henry Clinton that he needed to make a bold move to solidify royal authority in the South. He set his sights on capturing Charleston, South Carolina. This chapter discusses Lee's successful defense of Charleston against Clinton's forces, his reaction to the Declaration of Independence, and his military operation against the Cherokee in the southern frontier.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's ambition to get a promotion in the British army during the American Revolution. In June 1758, Captain Charles Lee and the 44th Regiment were at a staging area on the southern end of New York's Lake George. The 44th was attached to the largest army assembled in America, commanded by Major General James Abercromby. The British planned to attack the French Fort Carillon (Fort Ticonderoga), which protected the northern end of Lake George and the southern end of Lake Champlain. This chapter discusses the British attempt to capture Carillon, the British retreat from Ticonderoga, Abercromby's replacement by Major General Jeffrey Amherst, and Lee's conflict with one of the 44th Regiment surgeons. It also considers Lee's experience at Niagara, his acquaintance with Robert Morris and David Franks in Philadelphia, his return to Britain to promote his military service and to personally defend his reputation, his petition to George III for a military promotion, his involvement in the Canada–Guadeloupe controversy, and his political views.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's views about monarchy and absolute power by focusing on his trip to Eastern Europe. In early December 1764, Lee made plans for his trip to Poland, where he hoped to find military employment and repair his damaged reputation. He obtained several recommendations from prominent British citizens and secured passage on a packet ship bound for the Netherlands. After a few days in Brunswick, Lee traveled to Berlin, the capital of Prussia, where he gained an audience with Frederick II. He arrived in Warsaw in March 1765 determined to obtain an important position in the military from King Stanislaus II Augustus Poniatowski of Poland. This chapter examines Lee's political radicalism and George III's rejection of his request for a promotion in the British army.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's support for America's fight for freedom against Britain. On August 16, 1773, Lee left for New York. His arrival coincided with the escalation of protests in the city against British imperial policy by the Liberty Boys. In Philadelphia, Lee met with radicals such as Charles Thomson, who would become the secretary of the Continental Congress. In Boston, he met with Samuel Adams and other Massachusetts radicals. This chapter examines Lee's political radicalism, his call on Americans to act decisively to protect their liberties, his rejection of the idea that the British could easily subdue America, and his appointment as George Washington's second-in-command in the Continental Army during the early years of the American Revolution.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's military campaign during the American Revolution and his eventual capture by the British. On November 30, 1776, Lee sent a private letter to Colonel Joseph Reed, George Washington's aide-de-camp, thanking him for his “most obliging flattering letter” of November 21, in which Reed said that the American officers and soldiers had confidence in Lee and portrayed Washington as an indecisive leader. The correspondence confirmed that by late 1776, some revolutionaries believed Lee was better suited to lead the army than Washington. This chapter discusses Lee's public criticism of Washington, especially for the disastrous New York campaign, and his determination to prove that he was a better soldier and commander than Washington. It also considers Lee's surrender to Lieutenant Colonel William Harcourt in Basking Ridge, Morris County, New Jersey, as well as the reactions in both America and Britain to his capture.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's court-martial after the Battle of Monmouth in 1778, mainly remembered as the longest one-day battle of the American Revolution. After his release, Lee lobbied the Continental Congress to promote him to lieutenant general. Unfortunately for Lee, the Continental Army had changed considerably during his sixteen months in captivity, as had the politics of the Continental Congress and of George Washington's headquarters. The Continental Congress approved treaties of commerce and alliance between the United States and France that bound together the two nations until American independence was won. This chapter examines Lee's important role in the Battle of Monmouth as well as his confrontation with Washington that would ultimately end his career.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's military radicalism as well as the romantic rejection he experienced in Eastern Europe. Lee's first trip to Eastern Europe transformed him into a political radical, but emerged a military radical from his next foray into the region. Despite witnessing and experiencing the brutality of war in North America and Portugal, Lee was unprepared for the slaughter in Eastern Europe, where warfare was shaped by unconventional tactics more than conventional strategies. This chapter considers the political turbulence in Poland and goes on to discuss Lee's interest in unconventional warfare, his views about Britain's imperial policy, and his love for a young Polish woman named Louisa.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's involvement in the American Revolution as an officer on the side of the Americans fighting for independence against Britain. Lee was confident that a successful war against Britain could lead to American independence and was ready to make it happen, even if the Continental Army, the Continental Congress, and many Americans were not. He believed that the American soldiers were far superior to those of their British counterparts in terms of courage and marksmanship. This chapter examines the combat strategies employed by Lee and George Washington against the British, Lee's correspondence with General John Burgoyne, his diplomatic response to John Adams's comments about Lee's affection for dogs, and the question of whether American rights and liberties could be effectively protected within the British Empire.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's mission to defend New York against the British during the American Revolution. Lee headed for New York on January 8, 1776, escorted by a group of Virginia riflemen until he reached New Haven, Connecticut. He learned that an American expedition against Canada commanded by General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold had met a disastrous end at Quebec in late December. The failure of the Canada expedition made Lee's mission to defend New York more urgent. At New Haven, Lee met with the New York revolutionary Isaac Sears and found two regiments of Connecticut militia. This chapter considers the dispute between civilians and the military in New York before discussing Lee's plans for the city's defense, the criticism he received for his handling of the defense of Staten Island, and the difficulties he encountered in trying to secure New York.

This chapter focuses on Charles Lee's military campaign in the North during the American Revolution as well as his frustration with the Continental Congress and George Washington's management of the war. When Lee arrived in Philadelphia in early October 1776 on his way to New York, he was greeted with great joy and elation. He met with John Hancock and several other delegates, wrote reports about military affairs in the South, and attended dinner parties. The Continental Congress directed Lee to join Washington's army at Harlem Heights in northern Manhattan Island. On October 12, a fleet of 150 British warships carrying 4,000 troops under the command of General Henry Clinton managed to slip into Long Island Sound. This chapter examines Lee's disagreements with Washington on strategy, the loss of Fort Washington to British forces, and Lee's concern for the American war effort amid the British invasion of states like New Jersey.

This chapter provides an overview of Charles Lee's early life. Charles Lee was born in December 1731 to Colonel John and Isabella Bunbury Lee. The Lees had been living in Cheshire, enjoying the comfortable life of gentry. John Lee began his career in the military service as a captain of dragoons (or cavalry). Little is known of Charles' childhood, and he wrote very little about his parents, especially his mother, with whom he had a tense relationship. Charles had to contend with poor physical health all of his life, but it allowed him to travel in many parts of the world. This chapter also considers Charles Lee's formal education, his immersion in the ideas of the Enlightenment, his interest in the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and his entry into the British army.

This chapter focuses on the life lessons learned by Charles Lee from his early encounters as a British army officer on the American frontier during the American Revolution. Lieutenant Charles Lee was part of Britain's 44th and 48th regiments, commanded by Major General Edward Braddock, that sailed from Cork in October 1754 and arrived in America in early March 1755. The disaster along the Monongahela was Lee's first battle, and he learned a hard lesson in North American warfare that informed his military thinking for many years. This chapter considers the impact of Braddock's defeat on Anglo-American communities and goes on to discuss Lee's time in Philadelphia, the 44th regiment's winter quarters for 1755–1756 at Albany, and how wartime service on the American frontier gave British regulars unfamiliar with frontier life the chance to satisfy their curiosity and confront their preconceived notions about the Native Americans.

This book examines the life and ideas of Charles Lee, a former British army officer turned revolutionary, in the larger context of the Revolutionary era. Lee, who became one of the earliest supporters of American independence and served as George Washington's second-in-command and military confidant during the early years of the American Revolution, wrote a pamphlet in November 1774 in which he forcefully articulated American rights and liberties and urged Americans to emancipate themselves from Britain's imperial shackles. He argued that the crisis between Britain and America since the end of the French and Indian War in 1763 was part of the ongoing universal struggle for human freedom, rather than just a dispute between a mother country and her colonies. He also insisted that military service should be an obligation of citizenship, and that the citizen-soldier was the military bedrock of democracy. This book explores Lee's important contributions to the Revolutionary era as a propagandist and as a soldier, especially in the areas of military strategy and democracy.

This part studies the persistence of the old order of honor, dishonor, and the loss of virtue during the middle–late years of the war. It presents the varying conceptions of honor and virtue that existed, and the internal and societal battles between the old and new concepts. This chapter also notes contestation between within the martial and civilian society over who best exemplified America’s lofty principles—a conflict that remained until Benedict Arnold’s treason at West Point refocused the country. It advances a new claim that Arnold’s treason was vital to America’s winning the war by helping to formalize a unified image of dishonor and thereby revive the country’s focus on egalitarian ethics.

The notion of an independent judiciary that restrained the other branches was an infant with a questionable life expectancy when John Marshall stated in placatory dicta in Ex Parte Bollman (1807)—quite wrongly as a matter of both British history and American constitutional law— that the federal courts had no inherent authority to issue the writ of habeas corpus in the absence of legislation. The Suspension Clause, he claimed, was merely precatory, an injunction to Congress to pass such legislation. The highly political case involved Erick Bollman and Samuel Swartwout, alleged members of the Aaron Burr conspiracy, and pitted prominent federalists such as petitioners’ counsel Robert Goodloe Harper and Charles Lee against the administration of Thomas Jefferson. After reviewing the factual and political background, this chapter details the arguments of counsel in favor of inherent judicial authority to grant the writ and Marshall’s rejection of them. Judicial autonomy was under threat at the time and Marshall was trying to defend it But his words were a judicial sea mine that created a long-term danger: Congress could by simple inaction evade the bedrock prohibition against suspension of the writ.