Light Horse- Harry Lee: Overreaching Hero of the Revolution
By Robert M. Poole
8/8/2017 • American History Magazine
AS THE CIVIL WAR heated up in the winter of 1862, Robert E. Lee took a moment from inspecting coastal defenses to visit Cumberland Island, Ga. There, amid the rustling saw grass and live oaks bearded with Spanish moss, he found the grave he was looking for, stood alone before it and paid tribute to Henry “Light Horse Harry†Lee, the father he never really knew.
“The spot is marked by a plain marble slab,†Lee wrote his wife, Mary, “with his name, age, & date of his death.†Filial duty discharged, he switched to other details of his Cumberland visit, describing the roses, ripe tomatoes, olive groves and stunted oranges on the grounds of nearby Dungeness mansion. “The garden was beautiful, enclosed by the finest hedge I have ever seen,†he wrote. “It was of the wild olive.†And then…not another word about his difficult, elusive father, whom he had last seen as a small boy. A witness recalled that Lee fell into a long silence as he walked back to the steamer that would return him to war.
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