Preface to James Wilkinson’s Account of General Charles Lee’s Capture
The following account comes from General James Wilkinson’s Memoirs of My Own Times, published in 1816, and provides a remarkable first-person description of the events surrounding the capture of General Charles Lee at Widow White’s Tavern in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, on December 13, 1776. Although he wrote it decades after the Revolution, Wilkinson wasn’t simply repeating a story—he was there.
Serving with General Horatio Gates, Wilkinson was sent ahead on December 12 to locate Washington’s army and determine the route Gates and his troops should follow. After learning at Sussex Court House that Washington had already crossed the Delaware, Wilkinson sought out General Lee. Riding through the night, he reached Lee’s quarters at White’s Tavern at approximately four o’clock on the morning of December 13. He found Lee still in bed, personally delivered Gates’s letter, and remained at the tavern through the morning.
At about ten o’clock, as Lee and his officers finished breakfast and Lee prepared a response to Gates, Wilkinson looked out a window and suddenly spotted British cavalry approaching the house. He sounded the alarm as Lieutenant Colonel William Harcourt’s dragoons surrounded the tavern. Lee was forced to surrender and was carried away, while Wilkinson and several others escaped capture when the British failed to thoroughly search the house.
Once the British withdrew, Wilkinson mounted the first available horse and rode at full speed to General John Sullivan with news of Lee’s capture. Sullivan assumed command of Lee’s troops and continued their march toward Washington’s army. Wilkinson later rejoined Gates, making him an important eyewitness and messenger connecting the dramatic events at Basking Ridge with the larger American movements that preceded the Trenton campaign.
What follows is Wilkinson’s own account of that extraordinary December morning and its immediate aftermath, reproduced from Volume I of his Memoirs of My Own Times. You can find the entire memoir here, starting on page 112.
