As students of Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau are always reminding us, the age of reason
was really an age of sentiment. In this too, Washington was a man of his age. When he established the first general decoration in the American Army, the Purple Heart, it was not (as it became in the twentieth century) an award available to all soldiers wounded in the line of duty. Only privates and noncomissioned officers could win the original Badge of Military Merit,
a cloth-shaped heart sewn over the man’s actual heart, which allowed him to pass all guards and sentinels which officers are permitted to do.
The symbol was not of heart’s blood shed, but of virtue proceeding from the heart. Limiting the award to nonofficers was meant to indicate that great virtue can be shown regardless of rank — that in Washington’s words, the road to glory in a patriot army and a free country is thus open to all.
Lee, Henry III
Greensboro, NC — The 220-acre park commemorates the 1781 battle between British and Americans, led by General Nathanael Greene; includes 28 monuments.
Stratford, VA — Built by Thomas Lee in the late 1730s, Stratford was home to six sons and two daughters — with five sons who served in various ways during the Revolution. The 1,900-acre site includes nature trails, a gristmill, and formal gardens.
Cincinnatus: George Washington & the Enlightenment (1984)