HISTORY MYSTERY- -FINDING PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON AND MR. BILLY LEE

 

                                                                           Mr. Billy Lee
WHY BOTHER?

If you knew that something isn't right would you try to right the ship?  The United States is the ship and it is listing, taking on water, or trimming (tips backwards or forwards) in either case it needs a corp of engineers.  I'm not an engineer,  but a teacher who became an artist and author.

Because I wrote about the American Revolution I had to read  dusty old history books and discovered two heroes, President George Washington and Warrant Officer Mr. Billy Lee.  When I was in the lower grades I wasn't taught much about President Washington, and I bet you didn't either.  OK, if we agree on that then you didn't learn about Mr. Billy Lee either.  Our historians sort of glossed over these two or overlooked what really happened back when we broke loose from our English moorings--and tyranny.

Our text books didn't cover very much of these two, cut out some parts too.  Here are some facts I found;

l.  You know that painting of Commander Washington and the man in the red turban (Mr. Billy Lee painted by Col. John Trumbull, well he graduated from Harvard and our historians say the time of the painting is 1780).  Well, Col. Trumbull was sitting in a  British jail cell awaiting to be tried for treason in 1780.  Lucky for him he was released and worked on that painting in 1817--from memory.  You see Washington and Lee were a team, Commander and Warrant Officer.  The Warrant Officer was the son of Col. John Lee and the Colonel realized that William Lee, Billy, was very smart so he taught him two languages, how to ride a horse, and the art of accounting.  Washington inherited Billy and his brother,  Frank, on Col. Lee's passing.  These two brothers were probably related to Martha Washington. Trumbull was an excellent painter but he painted Mr. Billy Lee as a slave and he stereotyped him as a slave.

2.  Officer and Aide Mr. Billy Lee was a celebrity, the best horseman in the country.  Washington was a fine rider but Lee was better on his famous horse Chinkling, a leaper, so after the war Americans came to Mount Vernon to see Mr. Lee and Chinkling  leap over fences and ride through the jungle of a virgin forest.  People were aghast at this ability--Mr. Lee, in short,was a celebrity.

3.  Warrant Officer Mr. Billy Lee saved the Commander's life more than once with his carbine and Washington wouldn't go anywhere without him.

4.  Well here is the thing, the English had warrant officers since the 1600s and they held the title of "Mr." the rest of their lives.  Waashington insisted  that all visitors address Lee as Mr. Billy Lee and Washington wrote in his journal that Lee received an Honorable Discharge from the War.  To repeat--Mr. Lee carried a carbine and saved Washington's life more than once.  He and Alexander Hamilton were  his Aides and acted as bodyguards too.  Mr. Billy Lee was not a slave, and sometimes wore a fancier uniform than Washington and Washington applauded this.  Slaves did not carry guns.

5.  Well if Trumbull missed the mark on Lee's portrait, Charles Wilson Peale in 1779 got it right.  He is handsome and dressed in a uniform.

6.  German Artist Emanual Leutze gave Mr. Billy Lee his dues when he painted Washington Crossing the Delaware, Lee is the tall soldier behind standing next to the flag.  Painted it in 1851.

7.  I'm curious as to why historians of the Revolution and our school systems, past and present, didn't have the curiosity to try to dig up these facts.

8.  Mr. Lee was Washington's huntsman, meaning he was in charge of the horses, dogs, (a dalmatian,  named Madam Moose) who was with them in the war to warn the Commander of wolves.

9.  I want to shoutout Mr. Ron Chernow and Mr. Bill O'Reilly for digging up facts and writing about the story of this strong relationship because Mr. Billy Lee was a black forefather that should be right up there next to his war buddy, Commander-in-Chief George Washington.

We are a young republic, founded on freedom from tyranny,  we have to know the real story.

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