and sixty wounded. It was the most spectacular victory of the war.

Knowing that Cornwallis would soon be in motion with his whole army to retrieve this disaster to the doughty Tarleton, Morgan hastened to cross the Catawba with his prisoners and spoils. Fortunately heavy rains just afterwards swelled the river, and when Cornwallis reached its banks he was forced to halt for several days. Morgan continued his retreat to the Yadkin, which was also swollen with mountain rains just after he crossed, and the impatient Cornwallis was again delayed.

General Greene was meanwhile hastening to Morgan's aid and the two forces came together on February 9 at Guilford Court-House, in North Carolina, Cornwallis being then twenty-five miles distant. The Americans were not in condition to face his strong forces and the retreat continued, Cornwallis being drawn in the end to the borders of Virginia, where the river Dan ran between the two armies. Such was the brilliant retreat already spoken of in our sketch of General Greene. It led Cornwallis hundreds of miles from his base, and brought him into a position of danger from which he did not find it easy to escape.

The brave Morgan was now near the end of his military career. Frequent and severe attacks of rheu matism soon after forced him to retire from the army and he withdrew to private life on his Virginia farm. The remainder of his story is soon told. He left his farm in 1794 to take part in the expedition to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, and he was elected to Congress in 1795, serving there as a Federalist till 1799. He settled at Winchester, Va., in 1800, and died there on the 6th of July, 1802.

HENRY LEE, THE "LIGHT-HORSE

HARRY" OF '76

In the youthful correspondence of George Washington, then a susceptible young man, he speaks of a "lowland beauty" with whom he had fallen in love but who would have none of him. A more attractive youth of the illustrious Virginia family of the Lees had won her maiden heart and she accepted his hand. Twenty years later the son of this "lowland beauty was captain of a troop of light horse under Washington's command, and by his daring and alertness during the war of the Revolution won the popular title of "Light-Horse Harry." In his later years he had the honor of delivering the funeral oration over his old commander and of applying to Washington a phrase which has become historical. It is of this dashing cavalry leader that we have next to speak.

Henry Lee was born in Leesylvania, Virginia, January 29, 1756. Sent to the College of New Jersey to be educated, he graduated in 1773, and was on the point of completing his studies by a tour in Europe when the excited state of the country and the imminent danger of war with England caused him to pause. An ardent patriot, he followed with boyish enthusiasm the trend of events, and when the tocsin of war was sounded in 1775 he was one of the first to respond.

Then just past his nineteenth year, he went ardently to work to raise a troop of "light horse," was quickly afterwards made captain in Colonel Bland's legion, and in 1777, at the age of twenty-one, became a member of

Washington's army. He soon showed an alertness and vigor which Washington highly appreciated and his gallantry in battle won him the rank of major in January, 1778. This gave him the command of two troops, to which he soon added a third troop and a company of infantry, forming an independent partisan corps known as Lee's Legion. Admired for his dashing courage, and a favorite in the army, some one gave him the sobriquet of "Light-Horse Harry," a title of distinction which ever afterwards clung to him.

The duty of Lee and his men was to hang on the flank of the British army and annoy them in every possible way, whether on the march or in camp. This was done in a manner that won him high distinction. His most brilliant exploit came in August, 1779, shortly after Anthony Wayne's daring capture of Stony Point. The purpose of this movement was to show Washington's alertness to the British commanders at New York and draw them back from their invasion of Connecticut. Immediately afterwards he gave them a second example of his vigilance, of which Major Lee was the hero.

At a point on the site of the present Jersey City, opposite New York, a long, low neck of land known as Paulus Hook stretched out into the Hudson River. A sandy isthmus connected it to the main land, across which flowed a barely fordable creek. This narrow peninsula had been strongly fortified by the British. Within the line of the creek a deep ditch had been dug across the sandy neck, passable only by a drawbridge. Farther in two intrenchments had been raised, and the place was garrisoned by a force of five hundred

men.

The commander of this stronghold and his men,

trusting to the strength of their works and the distance of the Americans, had grown somewhat careless. This the active Major Lee discovered and made known to Washington, volunteering to attempt to take the fort by surprise. There was no advantage to be gained by this. The fort could not be held for a day even if taken. It lay under the guns of the British fleet in the Hudson. But its capture would have a strong moral effect alike in alarming the enemy and in encouraging the patriots at home, and Washington readily gave Lee the privilege of making the attempt.

The time fixed for the perilous enterprise was the night of August 18, 1779, three hundred picked men being chosen for the daring exploit. During the day Lee succeeded in concealing his men without discovery in the vicinity of the works, and when the night had sufficiently advanced led them to the creek, which was crossed without difficulty or alarm to the enemy.

By good fortune a foraging party had been sent out from the fort that day, and the sentinels mistook the men they saw approaching for the returning foragers. Favored by this mistake the Americans seized and crossed the drawbridge without their identity being discovered, and by the time the sentinels learned their mistake the alert stormers were swarming into the intrenchments. In a twinkling they were masters of the fort, having taken it with as impetuous a dash as that which made Wayne master of Stony Point, only two or three men being lost in the enterprise. Of the garrison a number fell and one hundred and fifty-nine were taken prisoners, the remainder, with their commander, escaping to a blockhouse on the extremity of the fort.

Lee had no time to seek their capture. The firing

had given the alarm to the ships in the stream and the forts on the New York side, and a hasty withdrawal was necessary. But the prisoners were taken with them and carried in safety to the highlands. The skill and daring shown in this exploit in the very teeth of the British army, added greatly to the reputation of "Light-Horse Harry," and Congress rewarded him for his brilliant enterprise by voting him a gold medal. In the following year Lee attempted an exploit which, if successful, would have added immensely to his reputation, no less a one than the capture of the traitor, Benedict Arnold, in the midst of the British army in New York. Washington had learned, through his spies in New York, that Arnold was occupying quarters near the river, with no precautions against danger, of which he did not dream. He thought it possible to seize him and carry him away from the midst of his friends, if a sufficiently shrewd agent could be found to manipulate the work.

Washington confided his project to Lee, asking him if he knew a man suitable for the delicate task. Lee suggested his sergeant-major, John Champe, a man of the greatest courage and persistence, of few words and a high sense of honor, safe to trust with any secret, and the most capable man he could think of for the work in view. The point to be overcome was his high sense of military honor. He must appear to desert and that he would object to most seriously. Lee, however, offered to see what could be done with him.

His task was a difficult one. Champe vigorously refused even to appear a traitor to his country and to win the scorn and hatred of his fellows by a show of desertion. Lee's powers of persuasion were almost exhausted before the worthy fellow would consent to