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HENRY LEE 303 at Paulus Hook, took 160 prisoners, and effect- ed his retreat with the loss of only two men killed and three wounded. For the "pru- dence, address, and bravery" which he dis- played in this affair, congress voted him a gold medal. In January, 1781, he marched his le- S'on to the south, and joined the army of reene, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. In the great retreat of Greene before Lord Corn- wallis, Lee's legion formed the rear guard of the American army, the post of greatest dan- ger. The pursuit was hot, and at one time the rear guard came in contact with the troopers of Tarleton. Lee charged Tarleton, killed 18 of his men, and took one captain and several privates prisoners. When Greene had effected his retreat, he despatched Lee and Col. Pickens into North Carolina, to watch and harass the movements of Cornwallis. On their march they fell in with a couple of messengers from Col. Pyle, commander of a body of 400 tories, to Cornwallis. The messengers, supposing from the accoutrements of the troopers that Lee was Tarleton, communicated to him the substance of their instructions, which embraced full information of Pyle's intended movements. Lee did not undeceive them, personated Tarle- ton throughout, and despatched one of the messengers back to Pyle, directing him to post himself with his force at a place which he in- dicated. The tories accordingly took their po- sition, and the troopers came up with them, and charged and defeated them, killing 90, and taking others prisoners. At the battle of Guilford Court House Lee performed very important services, and greatly distinguished himself. On the morning of the day of battle he encountered Tarleton's celebrated troop of cavalry, and drove them back with consider- able loss. In the main engagement he was stationed with his legion on the left wing of Greene's army ; and although the body of mi- litia which composed the principal force at- tached to his position abandoned him at the very commencement of the action, Lee obsti- nately held his ground, and kept the enemy at bay until he received the order to fall back upon the main body, whose retreat he covered. It was by the advice of Lee that Greene came to his celebrated and daring decision not to follow Cornwallis into Virginia, but to leave that province to its fate, and march southward, with the view of ending the conflict in South Carolina and Georgia. The praise or blame attached to this extreme step must therefore be shared between the two commanders. The result is known, and fully vindicated the ex- pediency of the movement, cruel as it appeared to Virginia in her prostrate condition. In pursuance of his plan of operations, Greene detached Lee with his legion to join the body of partisans under Marion, and fall upon the lesser posts of the enemy. By a series of vigorous operations, Forts Watson, Motte, and Granby were speedily compelled to surrender ; and Lee was then ordered to join Pickens, and 487 VOL. x. 20 assist in the attack upon Augusta. On his way he surprised and took Fort Galphin. The de- fences of Augusta consisted of Fort Cornwallis and Fort Grierson. The latter was taken by assault, and the former at the end of a siege of 16 days. Col. Brown, its commander, was par- ticularly obnoxious to the Americans, and his life was only preserved by the interposition of Lee. That officer marched with his prisoners to rejoin the army of Greene, which had sat down before Fort Ninety-Six. Lee was in- trusted with an important position when the attempt was made to take the place by storm. He led the assault with his habitual daring, and was completely successful ; but the other division failed in its object, and the advance of Lord Rawdon compelled Greene to abandon the siege. His gallantry at the battle of Eutaw Springs contributed largely to the result of that action. His legion covered the right flank, and when the militia gave ground before the enemy, he obstinately maintained his position unsup- ported. His order to Capt. Rudolph, of the in- fantry corps attached to his legion, to turn the enemy's flank, and give them a raking fire, re- sulted in the retreat of the left wing of the British forces, which were completely broken, and driven from the field. The charge upon the enemy's right was not so fortunate, and the Americans were compelled to retire. It is more than probable that Lee's impetuous charge alone saved the army from defeat. The revolutionary struggle was now drawing to a close. Greene had rightly supposed that the main army under Washington was more than a match for the force of Cornwallis. In October, soon after the battle of Eutaw, Lee was sent on a special mission to Washing- ton, with the request from Greene that he would prevail on the count de Grasse to af- ford naval assistance in the proposed siege of Charleston ; and he arrived at Yorktown about the period of the surrender of Cornwallis. Lee's relations with Greene have been misrep- resented by the partisan adherents of that great and excellent man. Lee fancied that he had been injured by the neglect of Greene to speak of him in his general reports as his services deserved; and a correspondence en- sued upon the subject in 1782. The general declared that Lee's wish to retire originated, he believed, in "distress" rather than the injuries which his health had undergone, and combated his resolution in a tone of affectionate remonstrance. He had been under obligations to Lee, he said, which he could " never cancel." As to his military services, Greene wrote : "I believe that few officers, either in Europe or America, are held in so high a point of esti- mation as you are. . . . Everybody knows I have the highest opinion of you as an officer, and you know I love you as a friend. No man in the progress of the campaign had equal merit with yourself." The friendly relations afterward subsisting between these two emi- nent men, and the manner in which Lee speaks