Half red morocco; initialled by Jefferson at sigs. I and T in vol. II only; some passages underlined; pencil notes are not by Jefferson.

This book was one of an order sent by Jefferson to Samuel Pleasants, Richmond, on May 21, 1813.

Several references to Jefferson as Governor of Virginia occur in the text, including a mention of his escape from General Tarleton’s troops; a letter from Cornwallis to Tarleton is quoted, written from “Jefferson’s Plantation”, June 9th, 1781.

Jefferson in his notes on the affair, written at a later date, thus criticized Lee’s history: “ . . . And here it is but proper to notice the parody of these transactions which Gen ^l. Lee has given as their history. he was in a distant state at the time, and seems to have made up a random account from the rumors which were afloat where he then was. it is a tissue of errors from beginning to end.

" The nonsense which has been uttered on the coup de main of Tarlton on Charlottesville is really so ridiculous, that it is almost ridiculous seriously to notice it. I will briefly however notice facts and dates . . . ”

Jefferson then gave an account of his escape, ending: “ Would it be believed, were it not known, that this flight from a troop of horse, whose whole legion too was within supporting distance, has been the subject, with party writers, of volumes of reproach on me, serious or sarcastic? that it has been sung in verse, and said in humble prose that, forgetting the noble example of the hero of La Mancha, and his windmills, I declined a combat, singly against a troop, in which victory would have been so glorious? forgetting, themselves, at the same time, that I was not provided with the enchanted arms of the knight, nor even with his helmet of Mambrino. these closet heroes forsooth would have disdained the shelter of a wood, even singly and unarmed, against a legion of armed enemies.

" Here too I must note another instance of the want of that correctness in writing history, without which it becomes romance. Gen ^l. Lee says that Tarleton, in another enterprise some time after, penetrated up the South side of James river to New London, in Bedford county. to that neighborhood precisely, where I had a possession, I had carried my family, and was confined there several weeks by the effects of a fall from my horse, and I can assure the readers of Gen ^l. Lee’s history that no enemy ever came within 40. miles of New London. ”

Henry Lee, 1756-1818, “Light-Horse Harry” Lee, wrote this work whilst undergoing imprisonment for debt.