George Washington Papers

[Diary entry: 16 April 1775]

16. At home all day. Genl. Lee Mr. Harry Lee Junr. Mr. Geo. Mason, Mr. Thompson, & Mr. McDonald came to Dinner. The three last went away afterwards. Colo. Mason came in the Afternn.

Charles Lee was returning north from Williamsburg to be present in Philadelphia when the Second Continental Congress convened there in May. Henry Lee (1756–1818), later known as Light Horse Harry Lee for his exploits as a cavalry officer in the Revolution, was the eldest son of Col. Henry Lee of Leesylvania and no relation to Charles Lee. He had graduated in the fall of 1773 from the college at Princeton, N.J., where he had acquired a lifelong passion for Latin classics, and now he was developing a second great passion: soldiering. Much impressed by Charles Lee, he was soon to write him, requesting the privilege of serving under him and learning the art of war (ALDEN description begins John Richard Alden. General Charles Lee: Traitor or Patriot? Baton Rouge, La., 1951. description ends , 72).

Mr. Thompson is probably William Thompson, a merchant, originally from King George County but established in Colchester by 1773.

Mr. McDonald is probably Angus McDonald (c.1726–1778) who immigrated to America from Scotland after the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In the 1760s he built his home, Glengary, near Winchester in Frederick County, where he was a rent collector for Lord Fairfax and in 1774 performed a similar service for GW (MCDONALD description begins Cornelia McDonald. A Diary with Reminiscences of the War and Refugee Life in the Shenandoah Valley, 1860–1865. Nashville, 1935. description ends , 357–76).

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