At the battle of Guilford Lee's legion distinguished itself. When
Cornwallis retired to Wilmington, it was by Lee's advice that Greene
moved at once into South Carolina. Lee, detached with his legion, joined
the militia under Marion. Several forts speedily surrendered. Lee now
joined Pickens, for the purpose of attacking Fort Augusta, which was
reduced. In the unfortunate assault upon Fort Ninety-Six, Lee was
entirely successful in the part of the attack intrusted to his care. At
the battle of the Eutaw Springs he bore a distinguished part; and
General Greene declared that his services had been greater than those of
any other man attached to the Southern army. As a partisan officer he
was unsurpassed. He was a soldier, an orator, and a writer; and in his
Memoirs has given a graphic picture of the war in the South. He was
about five feet nine inches high, well proportioned, of an open,
pleasant countenance, and of a dark complexion. His manners were frank
and engaging, his disposition generous and hospitable. He was twice
married: first to Matilda, daughter of Philip Ludwell Lee, by whom he
had a son, Henry, and a daughter, Lucy; and afterwards to Ann, daughter
of Charles Carter, of Shirley, by whom he had three sons, Charles
Carter, Robert, and Smith, and two daughters, Ann and Mildred. General
Henry Lee resided at Stratford. His statue is to be placed on the
Richmond Monument. Among the officers of Lee's legion were Armstrong,
Rudolph, Eggleston, and Carrington.

Washington, accompanied by Rochambeau and the Marquis De Chastellux,
reaching Yorktown on the fourteenth of September, and repairing on board
the Ville de Paris, the admiral's ship, arranged the plan of the siege.
By the twenty-fifth, the combined army, amounting to twelve thousand
men, together with five thousand militia under General Nelson, was
concentrated at Williamsburg. The allies advanced upon York and invested
it, the Americans forming the right below the town, the French the left
above it, and each extending from the borders of the river, so as to
completely circumvent the town. General De Choisy invested Gloucester
Point with three thousand men. The enemy's communication by water was
entirely cut off by ships stationed at the mouth of the river, some ten
miles below Yorktown. Cornwallis, some time before this, finding his
situation growing so critical, had anxiously solicited aid from Sir
Henry Clinton; and it was promised, but never arrived. Wash