- Title: Henry Lee
- Author: Johnson, Fry & Co.
- Date: c.1861
- Condition: A crisp steel engraving on a very clean sheet. Superb.
- Inches: 8 1/4 x 10 3/4 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 20.95 x 27.30 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308728
Dashing Revolutionary Cavalryman and Eloquent Eulogist
Steel-engraved portrait from National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Americans, after a painting by Alonzo Chappel. A fine steel engraving printed on wove paper, issued as part of Johnson, Fry & Co.’s ambitious patriotic series celebrating notable figures in the nation’s political and cultural history.
Henry “Light‑Horse Harry” Lee (1756–1818) was one of the Continental Army’s most celebrated cavalry commanders, renowned for his speed, daring, and skill in reconnaissance and raiding. A Virginia gentleman educated at the College of New Jersey (Princeton), Lee joined the Revolutionary cause early and quickly distinguished himself in light horse and legionary service, earning his nickname for the rapid, hard‑hitting mounted operations that made him a favorite of George Washington and Nathanael Greene. His “Legion,” a mixed corps of cavalry and light infantry, became famous for surprise strikes, intelligence gathering, and the kind of fluid, mobile warfare that complemented the slower movements of the main army.
Lee’s postwar life intertwined military glory with political prominence and personal difficulty. He served in the Confederation Congress, later as governor of Virginia, and delivered Washington’s famous eulogy in 1799 that coined the phrase “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” In his later years, however, speculative financial ventures failed, and he suffered both debt and declining health, dying in relative obscurity in 1818. To 19th‑century Americans, and to the publishers who issued his engraved portrait in “eminent American” series, Lee embodied the dashing Revolutionary cavalryman—brilliant in the field, eloquent in tribute to Washington, and a romantic, if ultimately tragic, figure in the young republic’s memory.