CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN LEE AND WASHINGTON RELATIVE TO THE AFFAIR OF
MONMOUTH—LEE ASKS A TRIAL BY COURT-MARTIAL—THE VERDICT—LEE’S
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY.
Having brought the army to a halt, we have time to notice a
correspondence between General Lee and Washington immediately subsequent
to the affair of Monmouth. The pride of the general had been deeply
wounded by the rebuke he had received on the field of battle. On the
following day (June 29th) he addressed a note to Washington on the
subject. By mistake it was dated July 1st. “From the knowledge I have of
your Excellency’s character,” writes he, “I must conclude that nothing
but the misinformation of some very stupid, or misrepresentation of some
very wicked person, could have occasioned your making use of so very
singular expressions as you did on my coming up to the ground where you
had taken post. They implied that I was guilty either of disobedience of
orders, want of conduct, or want of courage. Your Excellency will
therefore infinitely oblige me by letting me know on which of these
three articles you ground your charge. I ever had, and hope ever shall
have, the greatest respect and veneration for General Washington. I
think him endowed with many great and good qualities; but in this
instance, I must pronounce that he has been guilty of an act of cruel
injustice towards a man, who certainly has some pretensions to the
regard of every servant of this country. And I think, sir, I have a
right to demand some reparation for the injury committed; and, unless I
can obtain it, I must in justice to myself, when this campaign is
closed, which I believe will close the war, retire from the service at
the head of which is placed a man capable of offering such injuries. But
at the same time, in justice to you, I must repeat that I from my soul
believe that it is not a motion of your own breast, but instigated by
some of those dirty earwigs, who will for ever insinuate themselves near
persons high in office: for I really am convinced that when General
Washington acts from himself, no man in his army will have reason to
complain of injustice or indecorum.”
The following was Washington’s reply:
“Sir,—I received your letter (dated through mistake the 1st of July),
expressed as I conceive in terms highly improper. I am not conscious
of making use of any very singular expressions at the time of meeting
you, as you intimate. What I recollect to have said was dictated by
duty and warranted by the occasion. As soon as circumstances will
permit, you shall have an opportunity of justifying yourself to the
army, to Congress, to America, and to the world in general; or of
convincing them that you were guilty of a breach of orders, and of
misbehavior before the enemy on the 28th instant, in not attacking
them as you had been directed, and in making an unnecessary,
disorderly, and shameful retreat. I am,” &c., &c.
To this Lee rejoined, in a note, misdated 28th June. “Sir, you cannot
afford me greater pleasure than in giving me the opportunity of showing
to America the sufficiency of her respective servants. I trust that
temporary power of office, and the tinsel dignity attending it, will not
be able, by all the mists they can raise, to offuscate the bright rays
of truth. In the mean time, your Excellency can have no objection to my
retiring from the army,” &c.
Shortly after despatching this note, Lee addressed another to
Washington. “I have reflected on both your situation and mine,” writes
he, “and beg leave to observe, that it will be for our mutual
convenience that a court of inquiry should be immediately ordered: but I
could wish that it might be a court-martial; for, if the affair is drawn
into length, it may be difficult to collect the necessary evidences, and
perhaps might bring on a paper war betwixt the adherents to both
parties, which may occasion some disagreeable feuds on the continent;
for all are not my friends, nor all your admirers. I must entreat,
therefore, from your love of justice, that you will immediately exhibit
your charge, and that on the first halt I may be brought to a trial.”
Washington in reply acknowledged the receipt of the two last notes, and
added, “I have sent Colonel Scammel and the adjutant-general, to put you
under arrest, who will deliver you a copy of the charges on which you
will be tried.”
The following were the charges.
1st. Disobedience of orders, in not attacking the enemy on the 28th
June, agreeably to repeated instructions.
2d. Misbehavior before the enemy on the same day, by making an
unnecessary, disorderly, and shameful retreat.
3d. Disrespect to the commander-in-chief in two letters, dated the 1st
of July, and the 28th of June.
A court-martial was accordingly formed on the 4th of July, at Brunswick,
the first halting place. It was composed of one major-general, four
brigadiers, and eight colonels, with Lord Stirling as president. It
moved with the army, and convened subsequently at Paramus, Peekskill,
and Northcastle, the trial lasting until the 12th of August. From the
time it commenced, Washington never mentioned Lee’s name when he could
avoid it, and when he could not, he mentioned it without the smallest
degree of acrimony or disrespect.
Lee, on the contrary, indulged his natural irritabilty of temper and
sharpness of tongue. When put on his guard against any intemperate
railings against Washington, as calculated to injure his cause, he
spurned at the advice. “No attack, it seems, can be made on General
Washington but it must recoil on the assailant. I never entertained the
most distant wish or intention of attacking General Washington. I have
ever honored and respected him as a man and a citizen; but if the circle
which surrounds him chooses to erect him into an infallible divinity, I
shall certainly prove a heretic; and if, great as he is, he can attempt
wounding every thing I ought to hold dear, he must thank his priests if
his deityship gets scratched in the scuffle.”[140]
In the repeated sessions of the court-martial and the long examinations
which took place, many of the unfavorable impressions first received,
concerning the conduct and motives of Lee, were softened. Some of the
officers in his detachment, who had made accusations against him to the
commander-in-chief previous to the trial, especially Generals Wayne and
Scott, were found not to have understood all the circumstances of the
case in which he was placed in his encounter with the rear division of
Sir Henry Clinton, and that that division had been largely reinforced by
troops from General Knyphausen.
Lee defended himself with ability. He contended that after the troops
had commenced to fall back, in consequence of a retrograde movement of
General Scott, he had intended to form them on the first advantageous
ground he could find, and that none such presented itself until he
reached the place where he met General Washington; on which very place
he had intended to make battle.
He denied that in the whole course of the day he had uttered the word
retreat. But this retreat, said he, though necessary, was brought about
contrary to my orders, contrary to my intention; and, if any thing can
deduct from my credit, it is, that I did not _order_ a retreat which was
so necessary.[141]
Judge Marshall observes of the variety of reasons given by Lee in
justification of his retreat, “if they do not absolutely establish its
propriety, they give it so questionable a form, as to render it probable
that a public examination never would have taken place, could his proud
spirit have stooped to offer explanation instead of outrage to the
commander-in-chief.”
The result of the prolonged and tedious investigation was, that he was
found guilty of all the charges exhibited against him; the second
charge, however, was softened by omitting the word _shameful_, and
convicting him of making an “unnecessary, and in some instances a
disorderly retreat.” He was sentenced to be suspended from all command
for one year: the sentence to be approved or set aside by Congress.
We must again anticipate dates, to dispose briefly of the career of
General Lee, who is not connected with subsequent events of the
Revolution. Congress were more than three months in coming to a decision
on the proceedings of the court-martial. As the House always sat with
closed doors, the debates on the subject are unknown, but are said to
have been warm. Lee urged for speedy action, and regretted that the
people at large could not be admitted to form an audience, when the
discussion was entered into of the justice or iniquity, wisdom or
absurdity of the sentence that had been passed upon him. At length, on
the 5th of December, the sentence was approved in a very thin session of
Congress, fifteen members voting in the affirmative and seven in the
negative.
From that time Lee was unmeasured in his abuse of Washington, and his
reprobation of the court-martial, which he termed a “court of
inquisition.” He published a long article in the newspapers relative to
the trial and to the affair at Monmouth, calculated to injure
Washington. “I have neither the leisure nor inclination,” observes the
latter, “to enter the lists with him in a newspaper; and so far as his
production points to personality, I can and do from my inmost soul
despise it. * * * * It became a part of General Lee’s plan, from the
moment of his arrest, though it was an event solicited by himself, to
have the world believe that he was a persecuted man, and party was at
the bottom of it. But however convenient it may have been for his
purposes to establish this belief, I defy him, or his most zealous
partisans, to adduce a single instance in proof of it, unless bringing
him to trial, at his own request, be considered in this light. I can do
more; I will defy any person, out of my own family, to say, that I have
ever mentioned his name, if it was to be avoided; and when not, that I
have not studiously declined expressing any sentiment of him or his
behavior. How far this conduct accords with his, let his own breast
decide. * * * * * As I never entertained any jealousy of him, so neither
did I ever do more than common civility and proper respect to his rank
required, to conciliate his good opinion. His temper and plans were too
versatile and violent to attract my admiration; and, that I have escaped
the venom of his tongue and pen so long, is more to be wondered at than
applauded; as it is a favor of which no officer, under whose immediate
command he ever served, has had the happiness, if happiness can be thus
denominated, of boasting.”[142]
Lee’s aggressive tongue at length involved him in a quarrel with Colonel
Laurens, one of Washington’s aides, a high-spirited young gentleman, who
felt himself bound to vindicate the honor of his chief. A duel took
place, and Lee was wounded in the side.
Towards spring he retired to his estate in Berkley County in Virginia,
“to learn to hoe tobacco, which,” observes he with a sarcastic innuendo
at Washington, “is the best school to form a consummate _General_. This
is a discovery I have lately made.”
He led a kind of hermit life on his estate: dogs and horses were his
favorite companions. His house is described as being a mere shell,
destitute of comforts and conveniences. For want of partitions the
different parts were designated by lines chalked on the floor. In one
corner was his bed; in another were his books; his saddles and harness
in a third; a fourth served as a kitchen.
“Sir,” said he to a visitor, “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 any corner
and overlook the whole without moving from my chair.”
In this retirement he solaced his mortification and resentment by
exercising his caustic pen in “Queries Political and Military,” intended
to disparage the merits and conduct of Washington, and which were
published in a Maryland newspaper. His attempts, it is needless to say,
were fallacious, and only recoiled on his own head.
The term of his suspension had expired, when a rumor reached him that
Congress intended to take away his commission. He was in bodily pain at
the time; his horses were at the door for an excursion of business; the
intelligence “ruffled his temper beyond all bounds.” In his hurry and
heat, without attempting to ascertain the truth of the report, he
scrawled the following note to the President of Congress: “Sir, I
understand that it is in contemplation of Congress, on the principle of
economy, to strike me out of their service. Congress must know very
little of me, if they suppose that I would accept of their money, since
the confirmation of the wicked and infamous sentence which was passed
upon me. I am, sir,” &c.
This insolent note occasioned his prompt dismissal from the service. He
did not complain of it; but in a subsequent and respectful letter to the
president, explained the mistaken information which had produced his
note, and the state of body and mind in which it was written. “But,
sir,” added he, “I must entreat, in the acknowledging of the impropriety
and indecorum of my conduct in this affair, it may not be supposed that
I mean to court a restoration to the rank I held; so far from it, that I
do assure you, had not the incident fallen out, I should have requested
Congress to accept my resignation, as, for obvious reasons, whilst the
army is continued in its present circumstances, I could not serve with
safety and dignity,” &c.
Though bitter in his enmities, Lee had his friendships, and was warm and
constant in them as far as his capricious humors would allow. There was
nothing crafty or mean in his character, nor do we think he ever engaged
in the low intrigues of the cabal; but he was a disappointed and
embittered man, and the gall of bitterness overflowed his generous
qualities. In such a discordant state of feeling, he was not a man for
the sweet solitude of the country. He became weary of his Virginia
estate; though in one of the most fertile regions of the Shenandoah
Valley. His farm was mismanaged; his agents were unfaithful, he entered
into negotiations to dispose of his property, in the course of which he
visited Philadelphia. On arriving there, he was taken with chills,
followed by a fever, which went on increasing in violence, and
terminated fatally. A soldier even unto the end, warlike scenes mingled
with the delirium of his malady. In his dying moments he fancied himself
on the field of battle. The last words he was heard to utter were,
“Stand by me, my brave grenadiers!”
He left a will and testament strongly marked by his peculiarities. There
are bequests to intimates of horses, weapons, and sums to purchase rings
of affection; ample and generous provisions for domestics, one of whom
he styles his “old and faithful servant, or rather, humble friend.” His
landed estate in Berkley was to be divided into three equal parts, two
of them between two of his former aides-de-camp, and the other third
between two gentlemen to whom he felt under obligations. All his
residuary property to go to his sister Sidney Lee and her heirs.
Eccentric to the last, one clause of his will regards his sepulture: “I
desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or
churchyard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist
meeting-house; for, since I have resided in this country, I have kept so
much bad company while living, that I do not choose to continue it when
dead.”
This part of his will was not complied with. He was buried with military
honors in the cemetery of Christ church; and his funeral was attended by
the highest civic and military characters, and a large concourse of
citizens.
The magnanimity exhibited by Washington in regard to Lee while living,
continued after his death. He never spoke of him with asperity, but did
justice to his merits, acknowledging that “he possessed many great
qualities.”
In after years, there was a proposition to publish the manuscripts of
General Lee, and Washington was consulted in the matter, as there might
be hostile articles among them which he might wish to have omitted. “I
can have no request to make concerning the work,” writes he in reply. “I
never had a difference with that gentleman but on public grounds; and my
conduct towards him on this occasion was such, only, as I felt myself
indispensably bound to adopt in discharge of the public trust reposed in
me. If this produced in him unfavorable sentiments of me, I can never
consider the conduct I pursued, with respect to him, either wrong or
improper, however I may regret that it may have been differently viewed
by him, and that it excited his anger and animadversions. Should there
appear in General Lee’s writings any thing injurious or unfriendly to
me, the impartial and dispassionate world must decide how far I deserved
it from the general tenor of my conduct.”