To George Washington from Lieutenant Andrew Lee, 14 June 1780
From Lieutenant Andrew Lee
Camp June 14th 1780
Sir
I beg leave to Call your Excellency’s attention one moment to my particular Situation, I was appointed a second Lieutenant in Coll Hazens Regiment in November 1776 from which time I was Mustered paid and did duty as Such at which time I was unfortunate enough to be made prisoner upon Staten Island the Relative Rank of the Subaltern officers was not Settled untill the Close of the Campaign, when Several officers who had appointments of Second Lieutenants of the Same date with myself were promoted to the Rank of first Lieutenant and two Gentlemen Messieurs Stewart & Walden who were Serjeants in the Regiment when I did duty as before mentioned were promoted Over me1 I beg your Excellency would point out a method by which I may have an opportunity to Convince the world that however meritorious those Gentlemen might Have been it was not demerit in me that occasioned Such preference and also that I may hold that Rank In the Regiment wherein I think myself Justly Intitled to.2 I am with the greatest Respect your Excellency’s most obedient & Hbe Servant
Andrew Lee Lieut. in Coll Hazens Regiment
ALS, NHi.
Pennsylvanian Andrew Lee joined Col. Moses Hazen’s 2d Canadian Regiment as a lieutenant in November 1776. Taken prisoner during Maj. Gen. John Sullivan’s raid on Staten Island on 22 Aug. 1777, Lee was exchanged and again mustered with the regiment in August 1779. He served until Congress disbanded Hazen’s regiment in June 1783.
1. William Stewart (Stuart; c.1759–1831), a Maryland native, served as a captain of New York militia in 1775 and 1776 before accepting a commission as a lieutenant in Hazen’s 2d Canadian Regiment in November 1776. Appointed regimental adjutant in February 1778, Stewart held the position until June 1779. He left the army in June 1783. After the war, he served as state’s attorney for New York’s western district and as a county judge.
Ambrose Walden (c.1752–1840), of Caroline County, Va., served ten months as a minuteman in the militia before joining the 2d Canadian Regiment in February 1777 as a sergeant. He became a lieutenant the following May. After his resignation in October 1778, he traveled to Kentucky and joined the troops serving with Col. George Rogers Clark. Following his return to Caroline County, Walden received a lieutenant’s commission in the Virginia militia and served at the siege of Yorktown in September and October of 1781.
2. GW wrote Brig. Gen. Edward Hand from headquarters in Springfield on 17 June: “I inclose You a Letter which I have received from Lt Andrew Lee of Colo. Hazen’s Regiment, by which he complains that he has been superseded in his rank, by irregular promotions of Other Officers in the Regiment. I request that You will by an Order, appoint a Board of Three Field Officers belonging to your Brigade, to hear the Complaint of Mr Lee and to examine his pretensions, who will report the same, and their Opinion of the rank he may be intitled to and from what time. You will transmit me their proceedings in the case. It will be best that the B⟨oar⟩d should be composed of Other Field Officers than those of the Regiment to which Mr Lee belongs” (LS, in Robert Hanson Harrison’s writing, DLC:GW; Df, DLC:GW; Varick transcript, DLC:GW). No letter from Hand to GW on this subject has been found.