After reading the announcement that Ted sent and the two pages of material for me to read concerning Jesse Lee, I decided to print the whole thing hoping it will bring a response back to Ted. The only info I have seen is in To Hell with Honor: Custer and the Little Bighorn by Larry Sklenar that details information about the Benteen trial Ted already has. Custer is not my cup of tea, sorry Ted.

TRY AND HELP TED'S RESEARCH EFFORT

Ted Herbert of 53 Stoke Road, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire LU7 2SP, UK is writing a biography of Jesse Marcus Lee, who had a long US Army Career from the Civil War to the Philippines in 1906. There might be references to him in Civil War literature or in History of the Ninth US Infantry 1799-1909 by Captain Fred Radford Brown, published by RR Donnelley and Sons Co., Chicago, 1909, or The Ninth Regiment of Infantry by Captain Edgar Brooks Brown. Can any reader help with information on Lee? This would be greatly appreciated.

Jesse Lee - Who Was He?

Veteran members of the Skirmish Wargames Group will be aware of a character figure who has had a profound effect on games involving the US Army against Plains Indians. Major Jesse M Lee is renown as the officer who ordered his men to picket their horses in the midst of an Indian attack (to increase the numbers in the firing line, he said) and who then retired to the rear to inspect the picket lines personally. (In his defense, I emphasize the importance the US Army placed on picketing horses, as shown by a Board of Inquiry in 1867, which sharply criticized Lieutenant Ephrain Tillotson of the 27th Infantry for failing to picket or hobble his horses, mules and oxen under guard at a hay camp.) "Picket Pin" Lee has appeared in various games in various guises. But what is the historical basis for this enigmatic, cautious, pedantic and yet at the same time flexible (even plastic) wargames figure?

Court Recorder

There are various shadowy reports that Major Jesse M Lee had not a little experience in the Civil War. After the war he suffered the fate of many officers in losing his field rank; and the first firm historical record of Lee seems to be that as a Lieutenant he served as court recorder at the Reno Court or Inquiry, after the Custer "massacre" in 1876, and asked many detailed questions regarding ammunition expenditure (i.e. the number of spent cartridges) among Custer's men (source: R H Nicholls, 1983, privately published set of three volumes on the Court of Inquiry).

Indian Agent

Stephen Ambrose, in Crazy Horse and Custer, published by Purnell in 1975, states that Lieutenant Jesse Lee was the Indian agent at Spotted Tail Agency who persuaded Crazy Horse, accused of conspiracy to go on the warpath and to murder General Crook, to surrender himself at Camp Robinson on 6 September 1877. Lee said that he would arrange for Crazy Horse to see the commanding officer of the camp, Colonel Bradley. But Bradley refused to see Crazy Horse and told Lee to lock him up in the guardhouse for the night.

On seeing the three foot by six foot cell in which he was to be imprisoned, Crazy Horse went berserk, pulled out a concealed knife and rushed outside, slashing at anyone in his way. Despite being wounded on the wrist, Little Big Man, one of Crazy Horse's former warriors, grabbed Crazy Horse from behind in a bear hug; and soldiers standing guard, including a red-headed private of the 9th Infantry, began thrusting at the pinned man with their bayonets, wounding him so severely that he died an hour later on a bed in the Adjutant's office. Lee seems to have done nothing to prevent the bayoneting or to tend the wounded man.

Post Commander

We next see Lee, promoted to Captain in the 9th Infantry, taking ove command of Fort McKinney No 2, near Buffalo in Wyoming, during the period October 1879 to March1880, in the absence of the regular commanding officer, Major Verling K Hart of the 5th Cavalry. The garrison was composed of companies A, D, F, and K of the 9th Infantry and companies F, K, and M of the 3rd Cavalry. Captain Lee went into action immediately, ordering a large quantity of seeds from the DM Ferry Company of Detroit, Michigan, explaining that he wanted the very best quality, as this was the first significant attempt at gardening in the region. The gardens at the fort were an outstanding success; cabbages, onions, beets, turnips, carrots, and potatoes were the main crops. Lee was also energetic in complaining about the lawlessness of the region. No other post commander seems to have complained about this but Lee bombarded the civil authorities with complaints about houses of ill repute in the nearby town, the illegal cutting of wood by civilians on the military reservation, and the stealing of army equipment. He was particularly incensed by the theft of a Sibley stone, five lengths of piping and an iron bunk (source: Military Posts in the Powder River Country of Wyoming 1865-1894 by Robert A Murray, University of Nebraska Press).

Fame at Last

There is then a gap of 20 years before Jesse M Lee turns up in China, still in the 9th Infantry and having gained only one promotion in this lengthy period. At the Battle of Tientsin on 13 July 1900, Major Lee commanded a Battalion consisting of seven officers and 215 men from companies B, C, and D of the 9th Infantry, plus 12 men from company E. With the death of Colonel Liscum, command of the regiment fell on Lee, described as "a veteran of the Civil War, an officer of wide experience, and fitted for the responsible position to which he had so suddenly been called". Following several further actions, as a result of which he made several recommendations for the Medal of Honor, Lee was promoted to Brigadier-General and recalled by the War Department to Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, "as winter came on". The 9th Infantry had been hotly engaged and altogether had lost one officer and 16 men killed and four officers and 67 men wounded (source America in the China Relief Expedition by AS Daggett, Kansas City, 1903).

The Philippines

But the old warhorse was not done yet: retirement was not for him. He turns up again in 1906, in command of the US Army's 'Department of the Visayas" region in the Philippines during the Pulahane War. According to Russell Roth in Muddy Glory, published by the Christopher Publishing House in W. Hanover, Massachusetts, in 1981, General Lee again recommended the award of a medal of Honor to one of his men, this time to Corporal Seth L Weld, who stood over his wounded officer, Lieutenant Ralph P Yates of the Philippine Constabulary, and fought off the rebel bolomen until reinforcements came up. General Lee is quoted as saying: "His superb gallantry and sublime behavior reads like a romance." Was he seeing his past life by proxy?

And So...

As can be seen from the above, the military record of Jesse M Lee, spanning over 40 years, is somewhat sparse. We have attempted to fill in some of the gaps in our games. We surmise that he had something to do with the Fetterman expedition (clearly not too much, as he survived), was transferred for a time to the 2nd cavalry, and even served with the French Army in North Africa, where astonishingly, he led a charge of Chasseurs d'Afrique against marauding Arabs (unkind observers suggested that this was because his horse bolted.

Can any of our American readers throw some light on the Civil War record of Jesse Marcus Lee (he may possibly have used an alias) or on the missing years from1880 to 1900? He seems to have served with the 9th Infantry for at least 25 years and to have been involved on the periphery of many important developments on the Frontier during this time, before finally making his reputation in China. History of the Ninth US Infantry 1799-1909 by Captain Fred Radford Brown, published by RR Donelley and Sons Co. in Chicago in 1909, or The Ninth Regiment of Infantry by Captain Edgar Brooks Brown might be appropriate sources: unfortunately the spanking new British Library building in St. Pancras, described by Prince Charles as looking like "an academy for secret policemen" does not possess a copy of either book.

Note

The expression "to cast one's picket pin", meaning to depart, has passed into Frontier language. "To do a Lee" has the opposite meaning in certain nefarious circles, i.e. to arrive and picket your horse, mule, donkey, camel or ox (alternatively, to park your ass).