Charles Lee

After a month of simply waiting and other missteps, the British Army finally began serious efforts to take over all of Manhattan Island and force the Americans to either retreat or fight.

Around the same time, General Charles Lee returned from the South.

Lee was probably at the height of his popularity following his victory at Fort Sullivan in South Carolina.

Washington, still keeping his army at Harlem Heights, assigned Lee to command the left flank of the Continental forces, which included the area along the East River that appeared to be where the British were launching their attack.

Were there any of like across all the tracks, were there any of like quick, like quick changes that you were always like, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, run, run, run, run, run.

uh charles lee going into charles lee every time so stressful and so quick it's just quick because you're doing like stuff on the surround just before that um so you're there's just so much to think about and then you you're running up and down these stairs as well to go on for that to come off of that you then quickly get changed and then you're straight on and the spotlight's on you and it's suddenly your whole big section yeah And then you go into the big rap, which is obviously, like, breath control.

You've got to try and, like, keep your breath down.

So it's just like...

And indeed, there is pretty good indication that he's not ordered to go fight here.

He sends a messenger to kind of go find Washington or probably more particularly Charles Lee to say, you know, hey, the British are landing in my sector.

Like, what are the orders? And that messenger doesn't return to him.

And so he's going kind of taking his own initiative to go down and fight.

So on the part of Clinton and Earl of Cornwallis and General Howe, the goal is break up essentially off of the coastline, off of Pell's Point, up into the mainland, seize a good campsite, and from there cut the Americans off on Manhattan.

That's the British perspective.

From the American perspective, again, without orders from Charles Lee, it's difficult to know exactly what commander's intent is, but at least John Glover says, hey, we need to fight.

We need to delay them.

Before they left Throgs Neck, several deserters slipped into the American lines and informed the Continentals of Howe's new plans.

To oppose Howe, General Charles Lee deployed what amounted to about two regiments under the command of Colonel John Glover.

This was the same officer who had ferried Washington's army from Long Island to New York, for the successful retreat from the Battle of Brooklyn.

Now Colonel Glover had a chance to prove himself on land.

He, he wasn't doing this for his career.

Uh, and I contrast him with a couple of other American generals, Charles Lee and Horatio Gates and ultimately, uh, Benedict Arnold, who were totally in it for their own careers.

They wanted to burnish their own reputation.

They wanted glory for them.

It proved the revolution was alive, that Washington, the immovable center of a fractured cause, could still cut deep when needed.

He endured betrayals, Benedict Arnold, Charles Lee, and conspiracies from within and without.

He faced down mutinies, starvation, the collapse of morale, and still he stood tall, always in uniform, always calm, always composed.

When the war ended in 1783, and the British finally evacuated New York, Washington entered the city in silence.

Thousands accepted Howe's offer of pardon, and they went home.

Charles Lee, the general that half the officers wanted in Washington's place, had been taken out of a tavern in his dressing gown because a Tory rode through the dark to say where he slept.

What was left fit for duty came something like three thousand men, and on New Year's Day, most of them were legally free to leave.

Washington had already written his brother the sentence that he was not about to say aloud on that bank.

He repeatedly questioned Jones's authority, ignored orders, and acted independently during the cruise.

It sounds like Charles Lee in a boat, basically, but

anyway.

Oh, yeah, we just can't.

We're going to look at the Cherokee Loyalist Theater of Operations in the South.

We're going to look at General Charles Lee's suspected betrayal.

And then we're going to move over to the Battle of White Plains, where Washington escaped William Howe before Fort Washington and Fort Lee fell.

We have a great show ahead, but before we jump into that, let's talk about VPNs.

It was a skirmish with Indians where five men from Colonel Thomas Neal's regiment in South Carolina claimed they were fired upon.

Two of the men make it back to camp, so I'm assuming three died.

And then Colonel Andrew Williamson leads a party to engage with the Natives and the loyalists at that time that they claimed were attacking but they couldn't find any attackers at that point So that kind of closed out a little bit of the theaters that were happening at that time In those two areas, but we did have more stuff going on in the northern area and it brings up another Potential person we mentioned I think last year which was General Charles Lee and I think he's worth noting that who he was and he was suspected as being a spy because he ends up getting captured in 1776 and he's held in New York as a prisoner and they find that he was communicating with General Howe and um It doesn't get known right away.

That's the other part, because he comes out of jail, gets recommissioned, and he's literally second under Washington.