Later Life
Lee tried to get Congress to overturn the court-martial's verdict, and when this failed, he resorted to open attacks on Washington's character. Lee's popularity then plummeted. Colonel John Laurens, an aide to Washington, challenged him to a duel, one in which Lee was wounded in his side. He was challenged to many more duels. He was released from his duty on January 10, 1780. He retired to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was stricken with fever and died.
Lee was very fond of dogs, and was seldom seen without half a dozen at his heels.
Fort Lee, New Jersey, on the New Jersey side of the Hudson river, across the river from Fort Washington, was named for him, as were Lee, Massachusetts, Lee, New Hampshire and Leetown, West Virginia.
Read more about this topic: Charles Lee (general)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“For my part, I would rather look toward Rutland than Jerusalem. Rutland,—modern town,—land of ruts,—trivial and worn,—not too sacred,—with no holy sepulchre, but profane green fields and dusty roads, and opportunity to live as holy a life as you can, where the sacredness, if there is any, is all in yourself and not in the place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!—
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1809–1882)