Note 44 — VII. MILITARY REVERSES—LOSS OF NEW YORK.

General Lee had been a British officer, and had engaged in the American service before the acceptance of the resignation of his commission. Sir William Howe, for this reason, pretended to view him as a traitor, and at first refused to admit him on his parole, or to consider him as a subject of exchange. Congress directed Washington to propose to General Howe to give six Hessian officers in exchange for him; but Howe still persisting in his refusal, Congress ordered that Lieutenant-colonel Campbell and five Hessian officers should be imprisoned, and treated as General Lee. This order was executed even with more rigor than it prescribed. The lieutenant-colonel, being then at Boston, was thrown into a dungeon destined for malefactors. Washington blamed this excess; he knew that Lee was detained, but not ill-treated. Lieutenant-colonel Campbell and the Hessians were not liberated until General Howe had consented to consider Lee as a prisoner of war.