The Descendants of John Heywood of Concord, Massachusetts

Page 220, et. seq.

SAMUEL LEE, born March 8, 1767, died Oct. 17, 1839. In the year 1780 he enlisted in the three month's service, war of the Revolution, being at that time but thirteen years of age. He was marched to West Point and placed in the Regiment of Col. Rand and in the company commanded by Capt. (afterwards Col.) Ephraim Stevens of Petersham. It was during his stay at this important post that the trying time of Arnold's treachery came. The affair in every detail was firmly impressed on the mind of the young soldier. At the expiration of his term he was discharged and came home being yet in his fourteenth year.

In the January following (1781) he enlisted in the three years service. Provisions were made against the enlistment of any under the age of sixteen but our youthful patriot relied on his size and appearance to sustain him in the very pardonable misrepresentation of his true years. He measured when examined at Springfield where his whole figure was minuted, five feet and yen inches in height, and the more than two years deficiency in his age was not suspected. In March 1781 he joined the Army at West Point and was assigned to the Regiment of Col. Henry Jakcson and immediately put under drill.

It was determined to raise a Flying Regiment as it was called of Infantry. To effect this, a selection was made from the New England troops of the most athletic and hardy persons, who should be best capable of performing and sustaining active and arduous duties. Young Lee came within the description. The regiment was placed under the command of Col. Alexander Scammel a bold and tried soldier from the New Hampshire line. This body was then marched down to the American lines in New Jersey, and placed upon active duty. It was its province to detect and suppress the depredations of the British and the Tories, and as their incursions were mostly in the night, the duty was arduous and fatiguing. Scammel's regiment became a terror in name and deed.

In July having recrossed the Hudson under Gen. Lincoln with a view to attack the enemy, this regiment was engaged in a skirmish with a body of Yager riflemen, where Silas Smith, one of Lee's townsmen fell by his side. The next move was for the southern campaign, the result of which was the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Scammel's regiment was engaged in storming the first gun battery which was attacked. After its surrender Scammel was treacherously slain, and the command of the regiment devolved upon Col. Alexander Hamilton. It was assigned to this regiment to make the attack upon the British redoubt, which at the time, on account of the great doubt of success in the undertaking, was called the "Forlorn Hope." This redoubt was stormed and taken by the regiment Sept. 15, and the life of its commander Maj. Campbell came near being sacrificed by a Captain Fry of New Hampshire, in retaliation for the treacherous death of Scammel; Hamilton interposed and saved the disgrace. During the whole of this famous siege the regiment to which young Lee belonged sustained an active and honorable part.

After peace was ratified, in Oct., 1783, our young hero took his discharge and returned to his native place, then in his sixteenth year, bearing with him the honorable praise of a faithful patriot and soldier.

He then attended school and qualified himself for a teacher, and surveyor of land; spending several winters as school teacher. On the first organization of the militia after the war, Mr. Lee was elected a subaltern officer and rose through various grades to the rank of Brigadier General, then a post of honor, to which he was commissioned in 1808.

In the course of his life he held various places of trust and distinction in the civil and military service of the state, with honor to himself and fidelity to the public.

List of offices held:

• In 1798 appointed under General Government an assessor in the 8th district of Mass., for the assesment of a direct tax.

• Surveyor of Revenue, 1799.
• Commissioned Justice of the Peace, 1812.
• Selectman, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812.

• Assessor, 1800, 1802, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, 1821.

• Representative, 1812, 1816, 1834, 1835, 1836.
• Moderator, forty-five times.

• School Committee, 1818, 1810, 1811, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1824, 1825, 1835.

• Senator, 1832, 1833.
• Presidential Elector, 1832, 1836.
• Commissioned Brigadier General, 1808.

"But the list of offices to which Gen. Lee was called cannot be more honorably crowned than by the respect and esteem in which he was always held by his immediate neighbors and townsmen.

In advising or assisting the humble and distressed, the friend of the widow and orphan, or in lending his countenance ot the prosecution of more public measures he secured and sustained the heart-felt confidence and esteem of all around him.

"The tokens of these while he lived, and the remembrance of them when he has departed, compose but a grateful tribute to his memory.

"General Lee was endowed by nature with a superior understanding, and supplied by assiduity in after years the want of early advantages. His character was deeply marked by firmness, strict integrity and singleness of purpose, tempered with courtesy, benevolence, and a scrupulous regard for the rights, feelings, and opinions of others."

"In personal appearance he was a large, well proportioned man, wieghing over two hundred, pale fair complexion; dignified and commanding in manner, yet unaffected and affable. He was prudent and careful, yet of exceeding openness and frankness in heart and hand. He reasoned well and quickly and with marked decision; possessed of a ready and retentive memory and a mind stored alike with the fruit of early adventure and later observation and reading, his conversation had charms for old or young of every party or sect."

:He was guided by a religious faith founded upon broad, liberal, and elevated views of the duties of man, and the attributes of Deity."

In 1848 his sons Artemas and David erected a monument to his memory and that of his son Charles, thus described.

The structure consists of two parts: The monument proper and a square portico designed both to protect the monument and to give a more imposing character to the whole work. The portico is throughout of massive Quincy granite, is eleven feet square and fourteen feet high. The roof rests upon tour plain Doric columns, each of which is eighteen inches in diameter at the base, and including plinth and capital, eleven feet high. The entablature is plain and massive and in harmony with the general design. the monument stands directly beneath the roof of the portico. It is a marble obelisk resting upon a granite plinth and is ten feet high. On the west face of the obelisk is a medallion of white Carrara marble having on it a likeness of Gen. Samuel Lee. The obelisk itself is of a delicate blue Italian marble. Around the medallion is a wreath of oak leaves and acorns. Directly above in bas-relief is a spread eagle, grasping in one talon a bundle of arrows, and in the other an olive branch; underneath which is a sword crossed upon its sheath. Above, near the top are inscribed the lines:

"To Freedom's cause his ardent youth was given
His riper years to rural cares and heaven.'.

Below the medallion, in bas-relief, is a plough with a sheaf of wheat and sickle. Then follows an inscription giving a short sketch of his life and services.

On the east face of the obelisk is a medallion head of Charles Lee, son of Gen. Lee, and at the time of his death one of the principal merchants and most influential citizens of this town. The medallion is surrounded by a wreath of cypress, denoting disappointed hopes. Above is the figure of an angel in bas-relief moving over billowy waters, with one hand raised aloft, and the following inscription:

"With pity touched at suffering mortal's awful fate below, help imploring from above, o'er the waves moved the spirit of Mercy."

Beneath this medallion is a bas relief representation of a steamboat in flames. Then follows the inscription:

Charles Lee, born at Barre, May 24, 1796, and at the age of 43, perished on board the steamer 'Lexington,' which was burned on the eve of Jan. 13, 1840, on her passage from New York to Stonington.

In his extensive business and social relations he was distinguished for integrity and urbanity; while method, order and neatness in all his arrangements, and great industry and perseverance in the accomplishment of his purposes, united with a high moral sense of the duties and obligations of life were prominent characteristics. No tomb shall plead to his remembrance; no human power can redeem his form. The white foam of the waves was his winding sheet, the winds of ocean shall be his eternal dirge."

On the south face of the monument are the following inscriptions:

"Mehitabel, wife of Gen. Samuel Lee, died Aug. 25, 1803, aged thrity-four years.

Walter, born May 5, 1790, died March 23, 1795. James born Feb. 16, 1803, died Nov. 6, same year, sons of Samuel and Mehitable Lee."

Below this follows an epitaph to Gen. Lee, the substance of which has been given in the sketch.

On the north and south faces are wreaths of the leaves and fruit of the olive, signifying "After a storm comes a calm."

The work is executed in the most finished style of art.

It stands in the burial place near the residence of the late David Lee, Esq., about two miles from Barre village, and cost about $2,000.

The following inscriptions have since been added:

David Lee, died Aug. 31, 1861.
Adelaide, wife of David, died Jan. 30, 1865.
Geo. H. Lee, son of David and Adelaide, died Aug. 8, 1858.
Mary, wife of Gen. Samuel Lee, died Oct. 18, 1864.

In 1813 Gen. Lee compiled that part of this genealogy which has reference to the Wrocester and Barre branches.

Samuel married July 5, 1789, Mehitable, daughter of Benjamin and Mehitable (Jenkins) Lee, of Barre. She was born 1769, d. Aug. 5, 1803. Mrs. Lee Was a dark eyed, vivacious, handsome woman of brilliant wit.