Lee’s father, a hero of the Revolution, “Light Horse Harry” Lee, was the model of the type. Commanding his troops like a feudal baron, dispensing personal punishment and favor, he once had a deserter’s head displayed on a pike as a warning to others until George Washington told him it might make a bad impression; on another occasion he rallied a detachment of horsemen under his command caught in a British ambush by promising that, if they refused to surrender, he would “consider their future establishment in life as his particular care.” They carried through.
