General Charles Lee

Charles Lee was among the most unconventional and controversial senior officers in Continental service. Born in England in 1732, he had served in the British Army during the French and Indian War and in European conflicts before immigrating to America in 1773. His military experience — genuine, if sometimes exaggerated — made Congress eager to appoint him a major general when the Continental Army was organized in 1775. He was ranked second behind Washington in the initial list of general officers and genuinely believed he would have been the better choice for supreme command.

In the summer of 1776, Lee was sent south to organize the defense of the Carolinas and Virginia against a British expedition. When the fleet under Commodore Peter Parker appeared off the Carolina coast and the British army under General Henry Clinton planned a joint attack on the newly constructed fort on Sullivan's Island in Charleston Harbor, Lee surveyed the fortification and concluded it was indefensible. He urged Colonel William Moultrie and the local commanders to abandon the half-finished palmetto-log structure before it became a trap. Moultrie, backed by Governor John Rutledge, refused. On June 28, 1776, the British fleet subjected the fort to a nine-hour bombardment and was effectively repulsed; the soft palmetto logs absorbed cannonballs rather than shattering, and the fort's guns savaged the Royal Navy. Lee's objections to the plan were largely forgotten in the celebration that followed, and the successful defense became one of the most celebrated American victories of the early war.

Lee's subsequent career proved far more damaging to his reputation. He was captured by British cavalry at Basking Ridge, New Jersey, in December 1776, and spent time as a prisoner during which he reportedly provided the British with a plan for defeating the Continental Army. After his exchange in 1778, he was court-martialed for his behavior at the Battle of Monmouth, where he ordered a retreat without adequate cause, and was suspended from command for a year. Further insubordination led to his permanent dismissal. He died in 1782, his once-promising reputation largely in ruins.