88 CHARLES LEE 



Whether he can also have had any secret understand- 

 ings with the enemy, it is hard to say. A very friendly 

 letter from a British gentleman, George Johnson, dated 

 at Philadelphia, the lyth of June, and addressed to 

 General Lee at Valley Forge, observes in its post- 

 script, " Sir Henry Clinton bids me thank you for 

 your letter." 1 What this letter may have referred to, 

 or whether it is still anywhere in existence, or whether 

 there was any further correspondence between Clinton 

 and Lee, we do not know. Sir Henry had, at any 

 rate, probably seen and heard enough to confirm the 

 declared opinion of Sir Joseph Yorke, that such a man 

 as Charles Lee was "the worst present the Americans 

 could receive." In the campaign just beginning he 

 proved himself to be such. 



When, in June, Sir Henry Clinton evacuated Phila- 

 delphia, it was his purpose to retreat across New 

 Jersey to the city of New York without a battle, if 

 possible. It was Washington's object to attack Clin- 

 ton on his retreat, cut to pieces the rear division of his 

 army, and thus essentially cripple him. Lee at first 

 endeavoured to dissuade Washington from making 

 such an attack. Then, when it was resolved to make 

 the oblique attack upon the rear division, with the 

 purpose of cutting it asunder from the advanced divi- 

 sion, Lee showed such unwillingness to undertake the 

 task that Washington assigned it to Lafayette. Each 

 of the opposing armies numbered about fifteen thou- 

 sand men, and since the arrival of Steuben, with his 

 Prussian tactics and discipline, the quality of the 

 American troops had been signally improved. Each 

 army was marching in two divisions, three or four 



1 Lee Papers, 11.406. 



