78 CHARLES LEE 



subordinate officer. Perhaps it was hardly to be ex- 

 pected of him that he should frankly confess that the 

 victory was won through neglect of his own scientific 

 advice. On the departure of the discomfited British 

 fleet, the " hero of Charleston," as he was now called, 

 prepared to invade Florida; but early in September 

 he was ordered to report to Congress at Philadelphia. 

 The question of his indemnification had been laid 

 before Congress in a letter from Mr. Rutledge, dated 

 the 4th of July, and action was now taken upon it. 

 The bills for ^"3000 drawn upon his agent in England 

 to repay the sum advanced by Robert Morris for the 

 purchase of the Virginia estate had been protested for 

 lack of funds, as Lee's property in England had been 

 sequestrated. Congress accordingly voted, on the yth 

 of October, to advance $30,000 to General Lee by way 

 of indemnification. Should his English estate ever 

 be recovered, he was to repay this sum. 



This point having been made, he went on to New 

 York, where he arrived on the I4th of October, and took 

 command of the right wing of Washington's army 

 upon Harlem Heights. By the resignation of General 

 Ward in the spring, Lee had become senior major- 

 general, and in the event of disaster to Washington 

 he might hope at length to realize his wishes and be- 

 come commander-in-chief. The calamitous fall of 

 Fort Washington, on the i6th of November, seemed 

 to afford the desired opportunity. At that moment 

 Washington, whose defensive campaign had from the 

 outset been marked in every particular by most con- 

 summate skill, had placed half of his army on the New 

 Jersey side of the river, in order to check any move- 

 ment of the British toward Philadelphia. He had left 



