19 January 1807,
Stratford Hall Plantation, Virginia
It is a cold and grey Monday afternoon in
Eastern Virginia where the Stratford Hall Plantation lies near the
banks of the Potomac River. In the Southeast corner bed room of
the main house Ann Hill Carter Lee lies "travailing in birth and
pained to be delivered" of her fourth child. This room is
situated less than eight miles from the birth place of George
Washington and is the same room where three generations of the Lee
women have given birth to their children.
Two signers of the Declaration of Independence
were born in this room. These facts are far from the mind of Mrs.
Lee at this time for she is suffering from a severe cold
contracted while riding in an open carriage on her way home from
her father's plantation. These are not happy times for Ann Lee.
She has been home only a short while from a visit to her ancestral
home because of her father's death last year. Her husband though a
famous war hero and three time governor of Virginia is deeply in
debt and is losing his fortune. He has forfeited much of his land
and possessions to satisfy his creditors and Ann has even lost her
carriage and thus travels in an old open carriage with leather
flaps to guard against the cold January wind. She is depressed,
smarting from "the pinch of poverty", grieving, and sick. Surely
she like few others must say, "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth
children".
Ann Hill Carter is the daughter of Charles
Carter by his second wife, Anne Butler Moore. She has thirteen
brothers and sisters and eight half brothers and sisters. Ann's
father was the richest man in Virginia and he reared his children
on "Shirley", his James River plantation. She knew neither want
of any material need nor luxury as a young woman. When she was
twenty she was courted by Henry Lee (Light Horse Harry) the
governor of Virginia and a famous war hero from the American War
of Independence. He fell in love with the young beauty and she
with him despite the fact that he was seventeen years her senior.
He was "a gentleman of impeccable manners and flashing
conversation" she told her father when he objected to their
courtship, and "was he not the governor of Virginia, and a hero of
the revolution?" It is said that the former officer and future
husband began to take interest in his future bride the first time
they met which was in the kitchen of Shirley Plantation. Ann was
engaged in a tremendous and potentially disastrous struggle with a
very large bowl of straw berries when they first saw each other's
face. "Colonel Lee" rescued the damsel in distress, saved the day
and the bowl of fruit. They were married 30 June 1793.
Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee, who was born in
1756, is the oldest son of Henry Lee and Lucy Grymes of Prince
William County Virginia. He has the high intelligence of his
father's people and the physical good looks and charm of his
Mother's. After graduating from Princeton with a renowned
reputation in 1773 he prepared to go to England to study law when
his plans were interrupted by the War for American Independence.
So then before he was twenty-one years of age he entered the army
as a captain. It was during this war he distinguished himself in
the eyes of George Washington and the entire continent with valor
and accomplishments so that it was said of him that "he is a
vigorous man with strength and endurance for the most arduous of
Washington's campaigns", and also that" he seems to have come out
of his mother's womb a soldier". He became like a son to General
Washington and their special relationship grew and deepened for
the rest of Washington's life. By the time he was transferred to
the Southern theater of the war under General Nathaniel Greene, he
was only twenty-five years old yet already one of the most
renowned soldiers of the American Army. He had been awarded a
gold medal from Congress and the only medal of its kind awarded
by any officer below the rank of General. He also planned, and
chose the agent for a surprise capture of Benedict Arnold which
did not succeed. Before the close of the war he had risen to the
rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
When he resigned from the Army in 1782 after
the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, General Green wrote to
Congress of him saying, he was "more indebted to this officer than
any other for the advantages gained over the enemy, in the
operations of the last campaign". He then ran for and was elected
to the Virginia House of Delegates, and later to the Continental
Congress where he served until the end of the old confederation.
He also served as a delegate to the Virginia convention which
ratified the new United States Constitution. This new Constitution
and Federation will stand until it will be destroyed by force of
arms in 1865. In 1791 he was elected Governor of Virginia in
which office he served three terms. It was Colonel Henry Lee who
wrote the farewell address on behalf of his neighbors when George
Washington departed for New York to be inaugurated as President of
the new compact. It was Colonel Lee who eulogized Washington on
the occasion of his funeral with the famous description,"First in
war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen".
Ann Lee gazes at her husband with special
affection. She knows that he cannot rescue her from her troubles
this day as he did on that first day of budding love in her
mother's kitchen, but she loves Henry Lee with an undying love and
devotion and he loves her with the same everlasting love. Their
love has grown stronger during these hard times. As his wife's
labor intensifies, Henry reflects on the early days of their
marriage when even George Washington wrote them congratulations on
their wedding saying, "We are told that you have exchanged the
rugged and dangerous field of Mars for the soft and pleasurable
bed of Venus. I do in this wish you all imaginable success and
happiness".
Soon the child will be born an "unblemished
boy". At age eleven he will meet the famous French General
Lafayette who was a friend of his father during the War of
independence. He will be recommended to West point by the
granddaughter of Martha Custis Washington (among others) and he
will marry the great granddaughter of Martha Custis Washington. He
will distinguish himself on the field of battle in the great cause
of liberty so that it will be said of him that he is "without any
exception the very greatest of all the great captains that the
English speaking peoples have produced". Ann will name him Robert
Edward after two of her brothers.
