[leadpenny]

A couple photos at the link.

[hershey]

Wonderful post, thanks! Their legacy is America so a marble tombstone or statue doesn't really matter. And they'd probably prefer vines and fields of wildflowers...(I would.) So Happy Independence Day!

[cripplecreek]

My one verrry distant relative who was a signer of the Declaration was Lyman Hall. I believe he was Governor of Georgia.

[freema]

This is a lovely Independence Day story, thank you.

[Rte66]

Richard Henry Lee was the first cousin of Light Horse Harry Lee, Henry Lee III. Light Horse Harry has a few stories of his own, as does his son.

I've been to their home in the Tidewater - Stratford Hall, in Stratford, VA. It's just a few miles from Geo Washington's birthplace, which has a national monument and possibly a National Park honoring it.

When I visited Stratford Hall, many many years ago, it had not been restored and was somewhat of a morose place. Not grand at all. Very plain - large and seemingly grand in a former lifetime, but had fallen into disrepair at the time.

They were gathering funds for a restoration and I believe that has been done, but I haven't visited there again.

You can probably guess, if you didn't already know, who Light Horse Harry's son was ... General Robert Edward Lee.

Harry married his cousin Mathilda first, then she died, after they had a several children. He was grief-stricken, but carried on as a patriot and became governor of VA. He remarried, this time to a lady whose aunt was the mother of another signer of the Declaration ... can't think of his name right now - maybe Thomas Nelson?

They had five sons, one died ... and then the 6th son - the 5th living son, was born right there in Stratford Hall (which was why I was visiting there) ... as his father was being taken to jail in Montross to the debtors' prison. Things did work out for the better and that son, Robert E., went on to West Point and to later lead the Confederate Army. He was married to one of Martha Washington's kinfolk, a Custis, from a neighboring plantation. I've been to all their houses, too.

[PistolPaknMama]

Wonderful story, thanks for the post. Made a lump in my throat. God bless America!

[savedbygrace]

John Adams called those Lees, "That band of brothers, intrepid and unchangeable, who like the Greeks at Thermopylae, stood in the gap in defense of their country, from the first glimmering of the Revolution on the horizon, through all its rising light, to its perfect day."

Is this the source of the phrase "Band of Brothers" made 'famous' by Spielberg's series? Or is it unrelated?