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General Lee's unbounded ambition led him to envy the great fame of Washington,
and it was supposed his aim was to supersede him in the supreme command. He wrote
a pamphlet, filled with scurrilous imputations upon the military talents of the commander-in-chief.
In consequence, he was challenged by Col. Laurens, one of Washington's
aids, and was wounded in the duel which ensued. Degraded in the opinions of
the wise and virtuous, he retired to this section of country, where, secluded from society,
he lived in a rude hovel, without windows or plastering, or even a decent article
of furniture, and with but few or no companions but his books and dogs. In 1780,
Congress resolved that they had no further occasion for his services in the army. In
the autumn of 1782, wearied with his forlorn situation and broken in spirits, he went to
Philadelphia, where, in his lodgings in an obscure public-house he soon died, a martyr
to chagrin and disappointment. In his dying moments, he was, in imagination, on the
field of battle: the last words he was heard to utter were, "Stand by me, my brave
grenadiers!"

After the war, Gates lived about seven years on his plantation in Virginia, the remainder
of his life he passed near New York city. In 1800, he was elected to the
legislature of that state by the anti-federal party. He died in 1806, aged 78 years. "A
few years before his death, he generously gave freedom to his slaves, making provision
for the old and infirm, while several testified their attachment to him by remaining in
his family. In the characteristic virtue of a planter's hospitality, Gates had no competitor,
and his reputation may well be supposed to put this virtue to a hard test. He
had a handsome person, and was gentlemanly in his manners, remarkably courteous to
all, and carrying good humor sometimes beyond the nice limit of dignity." Both Lee
and Gates were natives of England, and all three, Lee, Gates, and Stephens, had command
of Virginia troops.

There is an interesting anecdote, related by Kercheval, in his account of Indian incursions
and massacres in this region, of a young and beautiful girl, named Isabella
Stockton, who was taken prisoner in the attack on Neally's fort, and carried and sold
to a Canadian in Canada. A young Frenchman, named Plata, becoming enamored
with her, made proposals of matrimony. This she declined, unless her parents' consent
could be obtained—a strong proof of her filial affection and good sense. The
Frenchman conducted her home, readily believing that his generous devotion and attachment
to the daughter would win their consent. But the prejudices then existing
against the French, made her parents and friends peremptorily reject his overtures. Isabella
then agreed to elope with him, and mounting two of her father's horses, they fled,

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The Hon. Felix Grundy was born on the 11th of Sept., 1777, in a log house on
Sleepy Creek, in this county. His father was a native of England. When Felix was
but two years of age, his family removed to what is now Brownsville, Penn., and in
1780 to Kentucky, where he lived from childhood to maturity, and in 1807 or 1808, removed
to Tennessee.

Mr. Grundy was one of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen of the western
states. When in the councils of the nation, he had but few superiors. He was always
a zealous and most efficient supporter of the democratic party. "His manners were
amiable, his conversation instructive, abounding in humor and occasionally sarcastic.
His cheerful disposition gained him friends among his political opponents, and rendered
him the delight of the domestic circle. His morals were drawn from the pure fountain
of Christianity, and, while severe with himself, he was charitable to others. Integrity
and justice controlled his transactions with his fellow-men."

"Col. Crawford emigrated from Berkeley county in 1768, with his family, to Pennsylvania.
He was a captain in Forbes' expedition, in 1758. He was the intimate
friend of Washington, who was frequently an inmate of his humble dwelling, during his
visits to the then west, for the purpose of locating lands and attending to public business.
Col. Crawford was one of the bravest men on the frontier, and often took the
lead in parties against the Indians across the Ohio. His records and papers were never
preserved, and very little else than a few brief anecdotes remain to perpetuate his fame.
At the commencement of the Revolution, he raised a regiment by his own exertions,
and held the commission of colonel in the continental army. In 1782, he accepted,
with great reluctance, the command of an expedition to ravage the Wyandott and Moravian
Indian towns on the Muskingum. On this expedition, at the age of 50, he was
taken prisoner, and put to death by the most excruciating tortures."