General Charles Lee

Charles Lee was born in 1732 in Cheshire, England, to a military family, and entered the British army as a teenager. He served in the French and Indian War alongside George Washington, was wounded at Braddock's defeat, and spent subsequent years fighting in Portugal and Poland before retiring to Virginia on half pay. His military experience was genuinely extensive by American standards, and when the Revolution began, the Continental Congress appointed him as one of Washington's four major generals — second in seniority and, in his own estimation, far better qualified than the commander-in-chief to direct American strategy.

During the 1776 New York campaign, Lee commanded a substantial force in the Hudson Highlands that Washington needed desperately as the British pressed south and west. Washington ordered Lee to cross the Hudson and march to his support; Lee delayed for weeks, writing letters questioning Washington's decisions and maneuvering to position himself as the more capable general. The delays left Washington dangerously weak during the retreat across New Jersey, a crisis from which Washington escaped only through the Trenton-Princeton campaign. In December 1776, before Lee could join Washington, British cavalry surprised him at a tavern far from his troops and captured him — a humiliation that removed him from the war for more than a year. His absence may paradoxically have helped the American cause.

Lee returned to American command in 1778 in time for the Battle of Monmouth, where he ordered a disastrous retreat that Washington famously overturned by taking direct command of the field. Court-martialed and suspended from command, Lee spent the rest of the war in retirement, writing increasingly bitter letters attacking Washington and the Continental officer corps. He died in 1782, never reconciled to the subordinate role the Revolution had assigned him. Historians have debated for generations whether Lee was a strategic genius undone by personal failings or simply a self-promoting officer whose reputation exceeded his actual capacity.