An intriguing and important figure in the Revolutionary War, but one whom most people aren’t familiar with, is Charles Lee. He was British, but he was a major-general in the American army. He had a lot of military experience, and many people considered him vital to winning the war. But in December 1776, he made a simple yet disastrous mistake.
While marching his army through New Jersey, he for some reason decided to spend the night in a house at Basking Ridge, a couple of miles away from the rest of the army, with only about a dozen men to guard him. Somehow the British got word of it, and they sent a cavalry detachment rushing to capture him on the morning of Friday, December 13.
They almost missed him:
[He] was ready to mount, & would have been gone in five or ten minutes, when about Ten o’Clock they were surprized with about 50 horse, which came on the house from the Wood & Orchard at once & surrounding fired upon it. … Gen. Lee looked out of the Window to see how the Guards behaved, & saw the Enemy twice with his hanger cut off the arm of one of the Guards crying for quarter:—the Guard behaved well, fired at first, but were rushed upon & subdued. The General saw then that they must submit—& after walking the Chamber [perhaps] ten or 15 minutes, told his Aid de Camp to go down & tell them Gen. Lee submitted. … He whose Courage never failed before, when he walked out & surrendered himself lost all the Blood from his face & was pale…
A French colonel who was with Lee was also captured. Lee’s aid-de-camp, William Bradford, Jr., escaped by dressing as a servant. The remaining men managed to defend themselves against the British, who were in a hurry to get back to their camp.
The British were thrilled at having captured such a high-ranking and experienced rebel leader. According to one newspaper account (which I’m rather inclined to doubt), some of the British soldiers celebrated by getting Lee’s horse drunk. Some people on both sides — and maybe even Lee himself, who was not the humblest man in the world — thought that his capture would be disastrous for the American cause. But that same newspaper account hit the nail on the head with this comment: “Mistaken fools! to think the fate of America depended on one man.” By the end of the month, despite Lee’s capture, things would be looking brighter for the Americans than they had in quite some time.