Charles Lee

Charles Lee 1731-82, American Revolutionary army officer, b. Cheshire, England. He first came to America to serve in the French and Indian War and took part in General Braddock's disastrous campaign (1755), in the unsuccessful campaign against Ticonderoga (1758), and in the capture of Montreal (1760). His duties as a British officer later took him to Portugal under Gen. John Burgoyne (1762) and to Poland. In 1773 he went to Virginia to live and became a supporter of colonial independence. At the start of the American Revolution his military experience won him a commission as major general in the Continental army. After directing the fortification of New York City early in 1776, he went to Charleston, S.C., and received credit for the successful defense of that city, despite his having advised William Moultrie to abandon the fort that saved the city. Returning to New York, he repeatedly disregarded General Washington's command to cross the Hudson River in the retreat after the battle of White Plains, in the hope that he could win a personal success and replace Washington as commander in chief. When he did cross he was captured (Dec. 13, 1776) by the British at Basking Ridge, N.J. As a captive he gave Gen. William Howe a plan for defeating the Americans, but his treason was not discovered. Lee was exchanged and joined Washington at Valley Forge (1778). At the battle of Monmouth (1778) he ordered a retreat of his forces and thus prevented an American victory. The rout was stemmed only by Washington, Baron von Steuben, and Nathanael Greene. A court-martial resulted in a year's suspension from command for Lee, who continued to criticize Washington abusively. In 1780 he was finally dismissed from service. His papers have been published by the New-York Historical Society (1872-75).

Bibliography: See biographies by J. R. Alden (1951) and S. W. Patterson (1958).

Lee, Charles (1731–82) Revolutionary War general, born in Chester, England. His ineffective leadership early in the battle of Monmouth (1778) led to his being reprimanded by George Washington. He was later court-martialed, and after repeated open and public attacks on the commander in chief, dismissed from the army. Lee had previously commanded patriot forces that repelled a British assault on Fort Moultrie in South Carolina (1776), and a year earlier he had been in Boston with Washington, engaged in constructing entrenchments and training troops. During the French and Indian War (1754–63), he had seen service in America with a British regiment.

Lee, Charles (1731–1782), British army officer, Revolutionary War general.Born in Cheshire, England, Lee fought in the French and Indian War, serving from Edward Braddock's ill‐fated campaign against Fort Duquesne to the 1760 conquest of Montréal.

Siding with America's revolutionaries, the politically radical Lee became the Continental army's third‐ranking general in 1775. He improved coastal fortifications and helped George Washington's army escape from a precarious position on Manhattan. A student of war and society, Lee advocated a mass guerrilla conflict because he believed that Americans, accustomed to liberty, lacked the discipline necessary to defeat professional soldiers in conventional battle.

Late in 1776, Lee's career began to deteriorate. Having lost faith in Washington and hoping to sustain popular resistance in New Jersey, he defied the commander in chief's orders to move his detachment west of the Delaware River. Captured and imprisoned, he submitted military plans to the British that could be construed as treasonous. Exchanged in April 1778, he commanded 5,000 Continentals at the Battle of Monmouth, where his decision to order a retreat resulted in an angry exchange with Washington. Lee demanded a court‐martial. Found guilty of disobedience, disrespect, and misbehavior before the enemy, he was suspended from the army for a year, then dismissed. His outspoken opposition to Washington, not incompetence or disloyalty, caused his downfall.
[See also Braddock's Defeat; Revolutionary War: Military and Diplomatic Course; Treason.]

Bibliography

John Richard Alden , General Charles Lee, Traitor or Patriot?, 1951.
John Shy , Charles Lee and the Radical Alternative, in Shy, A People Numerous and Armed, 1976.

Stuart Leibiger