1779 Henry Lee at Paulus Hook medal. Betts-575, Julian MI-5. Pewter. Original dies. Philadelphia Mint. 49.7 x 51.4 mm, 966.2 grains. 3.6 - 3.9 mm thick. Technical Extremely Fine.Irregular uncollared edge. An unattractive medal of singular importance, the only original Henry Lee medal in private hands anywhere and the only one extant that marries both of Joseph Wrights original dies. The surfaces are attractive and glossy leaden gray, free of corrosion or discoloration. The planchet is crude, out of round, and slightly split from striking pressure atop the obverse. The obverse impression is fairly sharp, lacking just the last few letters of AMERICANA and otherwise complete. The portraits relief is rounded and well realized, the peripheral legends are all legible, and Wrights signature is very sharp. The fields and devices are peppered with marks, most significantly in the upper right obverse field where a series of injuries are found in the space between the profile and the rim above EQUIT. R of HENRICO shows impressions from a circular punch, and a casting pit from when this crude planchet was made has not been completely struck out between the fourth and fifth button of Lees waistcoat.<p>The reverse is somewhat softer than the obverse, disadvantaged by its lower relief. The legends are all present, however, somewhat obscured by the variety of nicks and marks but struck up well enough to read every letter (except, perhaps those of DEVINXIT). There are lots of marks and scratches, all small and all old, none of which change the fact that this is the only ownable impression of this die known anywhere on the planet.<p>The obverse is unbroken, unlike the state seen on the restrikes made from this obverse after 1874. The reverse has many distinctions from William Barbers replacement die, including the fact that the date is rendered in Roman numerals rather than an Arabic 1779. Wrights spacing was well planned enough that his lines are all straight, rather than curved at the ends like Barbers.<p>Though noted by Alan Stahl in his corpus on Comitia Americana medals in the ANS COAC volume entitled Coinage of the American Confederation Period, most everyone else seems to have missed that James Ross Snowden, writing in 1860, described the original Lee reverse as having an "engravers error," namely the year 1779 was rendered as MDCLXXIX (1679). On the present piece, crudely struck as it is, the date is quite evidently correct: MDCCLXXIX. On the only other surviving original reverse impression that your cataloger has ever heard of (namely the one in the Massachusetts Historical Society), the date is just as evidently rendered with the error Snowden described. Michael Hodder may have left this Easter Egg for others to discover when he wrote, describing the piece here offered in the Ford XIV sale, "there are some subtle differences in the inscription that are rewarding when found." Perhaps he meant the differences in line breaks that make this original reverse quite distinctive from the later copies. Or perhaps he understood that this impression, given its different date, is quite literally unique.<p>There was no original Lee in Bushnell, nor Wilson, nor LaRiviere. There is none at the Smithsonian, or Colonial Williamsburg, or in any cabinet in Europe. This is the sole survivor from these dies and the only numismatic object with any pretension to the title of an original Henry Lee Comitia Americana medal. Its lack of an obverse die crack firmly dates it to before Joseph Wrights death, as Jefferson himself noted in several places that these dies cracked in hardening and failed. This is a trial strike in its truest sense and represents a form of this medal that even Lee himself may never have seen. Its survival is a miracle. Its inclusion in a numismatic collection is a triumph.<p><strong>The Battle of Paulus Hook</strong><p><strong>The Action: </strong><p>The question "what does Robert E. Lees father have to do with Jersey City, New Jersey?" may be answered succinctly: the Battle of Paulus Hook, a small action of the Revolutionary War that took place on August 19, 1779.<p>Henry Lee III was a Virginia aristocrat, a wealthy planter whose horseback swashbuckling in command of his cavalry unit earned him the nickname Light-Horse Harry Lee. His cousin was Richard Henry Lee, the statesman who initially proposed a motion for independence in the Continental Congress. His son was Robert E. Lee. Light-Horse Harry himself would later serve Virginia as governor (1791-1794) and member of the U.S. House of Representatives.<p>When the Revolution began, Lee was commanding a troop of Virginia dragoons. Serving in the Philadelphia campaign in 1777, their quickness and horsemanship became famous. In the spring of 1778, Lee was promoted to major and given his own unique fighting force: Lees Legion, a mobile body of cavalry and infantry that worked independently as security, reconnaissance, and skirmishers where speed and spontaneity were ultimate advantages. Lee flourished in the command, and while his raids and actions in the Southern Campaigns gave him a lasting military legacy, his Congressional medal came from an attack on a British position in the shadow of occupied New York City.<p>Little was happening militarily in the Northern Theatre by the summer of 1779. The small battle at Stony Point that June was taken as a great victory in the absence of something more significant. The naval expedition against Penobscot, Maine in July was an abject disaster. Washington was encamped at West Point, watching the British in New York from the north. Smaller bodies of troops watched their positions from New Jersey, to the south and west. Perhaps out of boredom, or perhaps borne of a hope that incursions against local militia and patriots would cease, Light-Horse Harry Lee decided to put his independent body of roughly 300 men to use with a nighttime raid against one of British New Yorks perimeter defenses: a fort on the peninsula overlooking New York Harbor called Paulus Hook in modern day downtown Jersey City.<p>The 14-mile march south from New Bridge, along the banks of the Hackensack River, included crossing the swampy Meadowlands near modern-day Secaucus. It was 3 AM by the time Lees dismounted troops arrived at the landmark Priors Mill, today in the middle of a neighborhood in Jersey City. In the next half hour, they moved about a mile toward the fort, forded a flooded canal, overcame the earthwork, and took the fort. There was little opposition in the predawn hours of August 19. The exhausted American forces took 159 prisoners, losing just two dead and three injured, but could not afford to hold the fort with the British Navy able to float in, cannons ready, from the harbor as soon as the sun came up. A hasty retreat was made, returning to their base that afternoon.<p>The British retook Paulus Hook the day after, leading to accusations that Lee had prepared improperly for his sneak attack. He faced a court martial on September 2, 1779 on eight charges, was acquitted on all eight, and congratulated for his conduct. His good name was cleared within a weeks time.<p>Lees daring exploits were well-received at Congress in Philadelphia, a room full of his friends and fellow equestrian-loving aristocrats, even though the battle was ultimately all but meaningless. It took just a few weeks for Lee to receive one of the greatest honors of the entire war: the sole gold medal awarded by Congress to someone below a Generals rank.<p><strong>The Resolution:</strong><p><em>Resolved, That the thanks of Congress be given to his Excellency General Washington, for ordering, with so much wisdom, the late attack on the enemys fort and works at Powles Hook.</em><p><em>Resolved, That the thanks of Congress be given to Major General Lord Stirling, for the judicious measures taken by him to forward the enterprize and to secure the retreat of the party.</em><p><em>Resolved, That the thanks of Congress be given to Major Lee, for the remarkable prudence, address and bravery displayed by him on the occasion; and that they approve the humanity shewn in circumstances prompting to severity, as honourable to the arms of the United States, and correspondent to the noble principles on which they were assumed.</em><p><em>Resolved, That Congress entertain a high sense of the discipline, fortitude and spirit manifested by the officers and soldiers under the command of Major Lee, in the march, action and retreat; and while with singular satisfaction they acknowledge the merit of these gallant men, they feel an additional pleasure by considering them as part of an army, in which very many brave officers and soldiers have proved, by their cheerful performance of every duty under every difficulty, that they ardently wish to give the truly glorious examples they now receive.</em><p><em>Resolved, That Congress justly esteem the military caution so happily combined with daring activity by Lieutenants MCallister and Rudolph, in leading on the forlorn hope.</em><p><em>Resolved, That a brevet and the pay and subsistance of captain be given to Lieutenant McCallister and to Lieutenant Rudolph.</em><p><em>Resolved, That the sum of $15,000 for every prisoner be put into the hands of Major Lee, to be by him distributed among the Sergeants, Drums Rank File non-commissioned officers and soldiers &c. of his Detachment, in such manner as the Commander in Chief shall direct.</em><p><em>Resolved, That a medal of gold, emblematical of this affair, be struck, under the direction of the Board of Treasury, and presented to Major Lee.</em><p><em>- Continental Congress Resolution of September 24, 1779</em><p><p><p><strong>Henry Lee at Paulus Hook</strong><p><strong>The Acquisition:</strong><p>The Henry Lee medal is the only Comitia Americana medal to have not been executed in Paris, an anomalous oversight out of character with the high regard in which Lee was held. Benjamin Franklin was first tasked with obtaining six medals authorized by Congress by the beginning of 1780: Washington, Gates, Wayne, De Fleury, Stewart, and Lee. He started work on De Fleurys medal first, saw it to completion, and never attempted another. When he handed the project off to David Humphreys upon the latters arrival in Paris, Humphreys was never assigned the Lee medal; it had simply been omitted from the list that Robert Morris gave Humphreys in June 1784. Humphreys moved the football a bit, seeing the Gates and Greene medals through to their final production, but left the rest for Jefferson.<p>Despite Jeffersons many connections to Lee - both would serve their native state of Virginia as governor - he never once mentioned Lees medal while in Paris.<p>Jefferson wrote a post-mortem on the medal project, called "Jeffersons Notes on the History of the Medals" by the editors of his papers. It was written in early 1794 after he left the office of Secretary of State, and included the only words he ever drafted about the resolution of the Lee medal issue.<p><em>After I returned to America, Genl. Lee applied to me for the medal voted him by Congress, which Mr. Morriss list had by mistake omitted, and producing to me the resolution of Congress for the purpose I put it in hand with Wright to be executed in Philadelphia. Wright, as well as I recollect, would not agree to warrant against the quality of the steel. His dies broke after they were executed, so that this matter was not concluded when I left Philada.</em><p>he editor of the Jefferson Papers, Professor Julian Boyd, suggested this undated memo could have been written ca. July 1792, when Jefferson turned in his accounting, or "possibly after 31 Dec. 1793 when he left office." The latter is clearly the case. When Jefferson wrote his "Memorandum on State Department Business" on December 31, 1793, a guide to settling his accounts and handing over documents before leaving Philadelphia for the last time as a member of Washingtons cabinet, he references the above-cited medal memorandum in the last line: "Medals voted by Congress-of which Govr. Lees is one. I will prepare and send a special statement of this business, which will require time. I have among my Paris papers some relative to this Subject, which shall be sent with the Statement." The "special statement of this business" is the memo later entitled "Jeffersons Notes on the History of the Medals." <p>The 1794 date of this memo explains why Jefferson speaks with such finality regarding the Lee medal: the engraver was already dead. Joseph Wright, born in Bordentown, New Jersey and hired to be the first engraver of the United States Mint, was struck dead by Philadelphias Yellow Fever plague of 1793. On September 11, 1793, Wrights friend Mordecai Wetherill was dispatched from Wrights home with a notification that he was settling his accounts.<p><em>Joseph Wright being very ill and not expecting to recover, requested the subscriber to make a memorandum as follows: that the said Joseph Wright had presented an account against the United States for cutting a medal, amount fifty guineas. Two essays of a quarter dollars, cut by direction of David Rittenhouse, Esqr., and presented to him (broke in hardening) value about 40 guineas.</em><p>The parenthetical (broke in hardening) appears to have been misplaced, as it was Wrights dies for the Lee medal that had broken in hardening. Jefferson made mention of this a few months later in his December 31, 1793, after action memo as he left the State Department, listing among unfinished business "Wrights representatives to be paid for engraving the Medal of Govr. Lee and (that being broke in hardening) another to be engraved."<p>On January 13, 1795, the United States Treasury issued a warrant to Wrights estate for $233.33, the equivalent to the 50 guineas he billed, for "modeling the likeness and cutting two dies for a medal of Henry Lee Esq." <p>This leads to the ultimate question regarding the Lee medal: was a gold medal ever produced? A single trial is known from the unbroken obverse and the original reverse; it is in the present sale. The American Philosophical Society holds an obverse cliche made from the unbroken state of the die, and the Massachusetts Historical Society holds cliches of both original dies. Correspondence from employees of the Philadelphia Mint in the 1830s and 1840s suggests that no medal for Lee was ever struck there. Julian cites three letters from the Mint Director that said the medal had not been struck and one that said it, in Julians verbiage, "had been struck from cracked dies, " though the exact content of that letter is not more fully mentioned.<p><strong>The Presentation:</strong><p>Your catalogers best assessment of the available evidence - and there is quite a bit - is that Lee never received his gold medal, struck from these dies or any other dies. An engraved "medal" at Princeton that purports to be related to Henry Lee is a late 19th century fantasy.<p><strong>The Henry Lee at Paulus Hook Medal:</strong><p><strong>Obverse:</strong> A portrait of Lee to right in military dress, with a peripheral inscription reading HENRICO LEE LEGIONIS EQUIT. PRAEFECTO or "Henry Lee, officer of the mounted legion." COMITIA AMERICANA appears below. JWRIGHT is signed neatly under the truncation.<p><strong>Reverse: </strong>Two branches of laurel form a peripheral wreath, tied with ribbon and bow at the bottom, with an eight line inscription reading NON OBSTANTIB / FLUMINIBUS VALLIS / ASTUTIA & VIRTUTE BELLICA / PARVA MANU HOSTES VINCIT VICTOSQ. / ARMIS HUMANITATE / DEVINXIT / IN MEMPUGN AD PAULUS HOOK / DIE XIX / AUG. MDCCLXXIX. Loubats translation offers: "Notwithstanding rivers and ramparts, he conquered, with a handful of men, the enemy by skill and valor, and attached by his humanity those vanquished by his arms. In commemoration of the battle of Paulus Hook, August 19, 1779."<p><p><p>From the John W. Adams Collection. Acquired from our sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, Part XIV, May 2006, lot 206. Earlier, from Charles McSorley on October 5, 1962.
