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LEE, Henry, (brother of Richard Bland Lee and grandfather of William Henry Fitzhugh Lee),
a Delegate and a Representative from Virginia; born at
Leesylvania, in Prince William County, Va., January 29, 1756; pursued
classical studies and was graduated from Princeton College in 1773; served in
the Revolutionary War; commissioned captain of a company of Virginia Dragoons
June 18, 1776, that became attached to and part of the First Continental
Dragoons March 31, 1777; lieutenant colonel November 6, 1780, and served until
the close of the war; commissioned major general, United States Army, July 19,
1798; honorably discharged June 15, 1800; became universally known as Light
Horse Harry; Member of the Continental Congress 1786-1788; advocated the
adoption of the Federal Constitution in the Virginia convention of 1788;
Governor of Virginia 1791-1794; commanded the United States forces in the
Whisky Insurrection in 1794; elected as a Federalist to the Sixth Congress
(March 4, 1799-March 3, 1801); at the request of Congress pronounced the eulogy
upon President Washington before both branches of Congress, in which Washington
is characterized as the man first in war, first in peace, and first in the
hearts of his countrymen; died on Cumberland Island, Ga., March 25, 1818;
interment at Dungeness, Ga.; reinterment in the crypt, Lee Memorial Chapel,
Washington-Lee University, at Lexington, Va., May 30, 1913.
BibliographyRoyster, Charles.
Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American
Revolution. 1981. Reprint, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University
Press, 1994.
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