He Was Extremely Frugal With Money

Light Horse Harry Lee, one of the heroes of the American Revolution, was a spendthrift and an unsuccessful businessman who had depleted the Lee estate. He was the father he had hardly known. Lee developed a mindset of extreme austerity and meticulous accounting with money after hearing enough tales about his father and witnessing enough of the repercussions of his spending habits on his mother. He once complained in writing to his bank about a $1.20 difference in his account balance of $841.77.

He acquired another poorly managed estate, Arlington House, through his marriage to Mary Custis, a George Washington relative, and it was in a bad state of repair. He put forth a lot of effort over a number of years to make Arlington profitable. Lee was cautious about paying off all of his debts, and at one point during the conflict, he even sent money over the border to pay a blacksmith the $2 he was due.