Henry Lee III Henry Lee III ( January 29 , 1756 – March 25 , 1818 ) , also known as Light - Horse Harry Lee , was an early American patriot who served as the ninth Governor of Virginia and as the Virginia Representative to the United States Congress . During the American Revolution , Lee served as a cavalry officer in the Continental Army and earned the nickname " Light - Horse Harry " . Lee was the father of Confederate general Robert E . Lee . Life and career . Lee was born near Dumfries , Virginia , the son of Henry Lee II ( 1730 – 1787 ) of " Leesylvania " and Lucy Grymes ( 1734 – 1792 ) the " Lowland Beauty " . His father was the second cousin of Richard Henry Lee , twelfth President of the Continental Congress . His mother was an aunt of the wife of Virginia Governor Thomas Nelson , Jr . His great - grandmother Mary Bland was also a grand - aunt of President Thomas Jefferson . Lee was the grandson of Henry Lee I , a great - grandson of Richard Bland , and a great - great - grandson of William Randolph . He was also a descendant of Theodorick Bland of Westover and Governor Richard Bennett . Military career . Lee graduated from the College of New Jersey ( now Princeton University ) in 1773 , and began pursuing a legal career . With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War , he became a captain in a Virginia dragoon detachment , which was attached to the 1st Continental Light Dragoons . In 1778 , Lee was promoted to major and given the command of a mixed corps of cavalry and infantry known as Lee ' s Legion , with which he won a great reputation as a leader of light troops . At that time , such military groups would engage the enemy using what is now known as guerrilla tactics . It was during his time as commander of the Legion that Lee earned the sobriquet of " Light - Horse Harry " for his horsemanship . On September 22 , 1779 the Continental Congress voted to present Lee with a gold medal — a reward given to no other officer below a general ' s rank — for the Legion ' s actions during the Battle of Paulus Hook in New Jersey , on August 19 of that year . Lee was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and was assigned with his Legion to the southern theater of war . Lee ' s Legion raided the British outpost of Georgetown , South Carolina with General Francis Marion in January 1781 and helped screen the American army in their Race to the Dan River the following month . Lee united with General Francis Marion and General Andrew Pickens in the spring of 1781 to capture numerous British outposts in South Carolina and Georgia including Fort Watson , Fort Motte , Fort Granby , Fort Galphin , Fort Grierson , and Fort Cornwallis , Augusta , Georgia . They conducted a campaign of terror and intimidation against Loyalists in the region , highlighted in Pyle ' s Massacre . Lee and his legion also served at the Battle of Guilford Court House , the Siege of Ninety - Six , and the Battle of Eutaw Springs . He was present at Cornwallis ' s surrender at Yorktown , but left the Army shortly after claiming fatigue and disappointment with his treatment from fellow officers . During the infamous Whiskey Rebellion , Lee commanded the 13 , 000 militiamen sent to quash the rebels . Marriages and children . Between April 8 and 13 , 1782 , at Stratford Hall , Lee married his second cousin , Matilda Ludwell Lee ( 1764 – 1790 ) , who was known as " the Divine Matilda " . Matilda was the daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee , Sr . , and Elizabeth Steptoe . Matilda had three children before she died in 1790 : On June 18 , 1793 , Lee married the wealthy Anne Hill Carter ( 1773 – 1829 ) at Shirley Plantation . Anne was the daughter of Charles Carter , Esq . , of Shirley , and his wife Ann Butler Moore . She was also a descendant of King Robert II of Scotland through the 2nd Earl of Crawford . They had six children : Politics . From 1786 to 1788 , Lee was a delegate to the Continental Congress , and in the last - named year in the Virginia convention , he favored the adoption of the United States Constitution . From 1789 to 1791 , he served in the General Assembly and , from 1791 to 1794 , was Governor of Virginia . In 1794 , Lee accompanied Washington to help the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania . A new county of Virginia was named after him during his governorship . Henry Lee was a major general in the U . S . Army in 1798 – 1800 . From 1799 to 1801 , he served in the United States House of Representatives of the Congress . He famously eulogized Washington to a crowd of 4 , 000 at the first President ' s funeral on December 26 , 1799 : " first in war , first in peace , and first in the hearts of his countrymen . " The Panic of 1796 – 1797 and bankruptcy of Robert Morris reduced Lee ' s fortune . He served one year in debtor ' s prison in Montross , Virginia , when his son Robert E . was two . Death . On July 27 , 1812 , Lee received grave injuries while helping to resist an attack on his friend , Alexander Contee Hanson , editor of the Baltimore newspaper , " The Federal Republican " . Hanson was attacked by Democratic - Republican mob because his paper opposed the War of 1812 . Lee and Hanson and two dozen other Federalists had taken refuge in the offices of the paper . The group surrendered to Baltimore city officials the next day and were jailed . Laborer George Woolslager led a mob that forced its way into the jail , removed the Federalists , beating and torturing them over the next three hours . All were severely injured , and one Federalist , James Lingan , died . Lee suffered extensive internal injuries as well as head and face wounds , and even his speech was affected . Lee later sailed to the West Indies in an effort to recuperate from his injuries . He died on 25 March 1818 , at Dungeness , on Cumberland Island , Georgia . Lee was buried with full military honors provided by an American fleet stationed near St . Marys . In 1913 his remains were removed to the Lee family crypt at Lee Chapel , on the campus of Washington & Lee University in Lexington , Virginia . In popular culture . The fictional character of Colonel Harry Burwell in the film " The Patriot " is thought to have been inspired by the historical exploits of Lee . In the musical " 1776 " Lee ' s nickname is mentioned ( anachronistically ) during the song " The Lees of Old Virginia " .