By Harry Schenawolf, author of the Shades of Liberty Series about African American soldiers in the American Revolution.
In the spring of 1776, Lt. General Charles Cornwallis sailed from England with his beloved 33rd Regiment of Foot, labeled England’s Immortals, and landed near Charleston, South Carolina. On June 28th, he took part in the year’s first major contest between rebel forces and combined British navy and army at the Battle of Sullivan Island. The first time that the Continental Army and the British Army crossed swords in and around New York City (August 27th, 1776), in the Battle of Long Island, General Charles Cornwallis commanded a major division in the British troops sent to quell the rebellion.
For six long years he would become Washington’s nemesis. Throughout 1776, in battle after battle, he pushed the American Army out of New York City, chased them across New Jersey, rushed in after the Hessian debacle at Trenton and almost snared the fox before Washington slipped away, having shoved aside the British at the Battle of Princeton. At the battles of Brandywine Creek and Germantown, in the fall of 1777, Cornwallis was at the forefront of his troops, driving them forward and pressing the Americans in their retreat. At Monmouth, on June 28th, 1778, he held firm against Washington’s newly trained Continentals, attacking and only relinquishing the battlefield to continue the British march to New York City. He sailed with Commanding General Henry Clinton in Dec. of 1779 to lay siege to Charleston, South Carolina, capturing the southern American Army led by General Benjamin Lincoln on May 12, 1780. Clinton would soon return to New York City leaving Cornwallis in command of the British army to propagate the war in the southern colonies.
An aristocratic earl, Eaton educated scholar, and highly trained and experienced officer, Cornwallis was considered the best in the British army. In the war for independence, he would pursue his objective, the defeat of the American rebellion, with all the zeal of a professional soldier dedicated to the good of his country. However, in the early 1770’s, as dissent grew in the thirteen colonies, he soon became one of America’s staunchest allies. While a member of the House of Lords in Parliament and a Whig, he did not agree with the path his King and country were taking towards dealing with colonial discord in America. He soon became a champion of the American cause and joined five of his peers to support repealing the Stamp Act. He even went so far to argue that the colonists not be taxed at all. After one defeat after another in Parliament, he dismally witnessed the escalation of discontent in America until a spark ignited colonial passions in which there was no going back. Once violence erupted and war was inevitable, he, one of England’s preeminent military leaders, was called upon to help distinguish the flames and restore British power over the rebellious partisans. And given that task, politics aside with a mindset of ‘my country, right or wrong’, he did so with a firm commitment and with all the tireless energy he could muster. Time and again, commanding General Richard Howe and later General Henry Clinton turned to the impeccable commander to spearhead attack after attack.
Lieutenant General Lord Charles Cornwallis 1st Marquis, Governor-General of India, Viceroy of Ireland, was born on December 31st, 1737, New Year’s Eve. He was the first son, with five older sisters, born to Charles, the 5th Baron of Eye and the 1st Earl and Viscount Brome and Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Townsend. He was a member of the English ruling class, with the pedigree to prove it. Like so many of the British nobility, he attended Eton in the shadow of the Royal Residence at Windsor Castle. After concluding his studies at Eton, Cornwallis continued his education at Clare College, Cambridge. Just before he turned eighteen, Cornwallis’ father purchased an Ensign’s commission in the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards, now known as the Grenadier Guards. His military education was continued as he spent the next two years studying at the military academy in Turin, Italy.
At age 21, on August 6th, 1758, he was appointed as the Aide-de-Camp to Lieutenant General John Manners, Marquis of Granby, with the rank of Captain. His regiment was deployed to Germany, during the Seven-Year War (French & Indian War in America). On August 5th, 1759 he transferred to the 85th Regiment of Foot. He served in Germany for the next three years, when on May 1st, 1761 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel of the 12th Regiment of Foot. He participated in the battle at Minden in 1759 with the 12th and proved to his superiors his unique abilities as a competent field commander. He participated in several European battles during the Seven Years War, but found time to obtain a seat in the House of Commons in 1760 representing his region of Suffolk. In 1762, Cornwallis received word from England that his father had died and as his eldest son and heir, he now became Earl Cornwallis and took his seat in the House of Lords. In 1765 he was named as the Aide de-Camp to King George III. The following year he purchased the Colonelcy in the 33rd Regiment of Foot, one of the finest in the army and labeled the Immortals.
On July 14, 1768, Charles Cornwallis married Jemima Tulikens Jones (1747-1779 – some sources state her birth to be 1741). They would have one son (Charles 1774-1823) and one daughter, (Mary 1769-1740). In 1770, King George made him constable of the Tower of London and the Vice-Treasurer of Ireland. After blood was shed at Lexington & Concord on April 19, 1775 and the humiliating retreat by the British forces back to Boston, England began to send additional troops to America. The Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, in which a significant number of British soldiers had been killed and wounded, proved that England would be embroiled in a long and costly war. Both military and diplomatic talents would be needed to resolve the dilemma and in December, 1775, Cornwallis was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and ordered to America.
By 1780, war had raged throughout the fourteen colonies (Quebec being the 14th) for five years. Cornwallis had not been home since he left in the spring of 1776. His first scheduled leave for England was during the winter months of 1777, but it was postponed after Washington’s 1776 Christmas attack at Trenton. After the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, with the British main Army back in New York City, the newly promoted Second in Command of British Forces in America once more sought leave to go home. He soon received word that his wife Jemima was sick and was granted to set sail for England on Dec. 13, 1778. He arrived in mid-January, but after an absence of over three years, his time was sadly spent caring for his dying wife. Sources differ as to the exact month in which Jemima perished; some stating that it was on February 14, 1779 while others place the date as April 14th. The limited time they spent together as a couple prior to his assignment to America were considered pleasant years and as such, her death had a profound effect on Cornwallis. He later said of her passing that it ‘effectually destroyed all my hopes for happiness in this life.’ He would never remarry. By July, 1779, he was back in New York City, once more assuming second-in-command of the army. Heartbroken and focused on his work, he would pursue the war’s end with a demonic drive, pressing his men to extremes to achieve total and final victory.
With the war grinding on, England decided to lay all her cards on the table with one last desperate try at ending the expensive and now highly unpopular fiasco. The war would embroil the southern colonies and once more Cornwallis would lead the way. In December of 1779, a large force sailed from New York City under the command of General Clinton, with Cornwallis as second. Charleston, South Carolina was eventually captured along with General Lincoln’s army. Clinton went back to New York and Cornwallis was left with an army to conqueer rebel forces and bring the southern colonies back under British rule.
Cornwallis persevered past defeats at King’s Mountain and the Battle of Cowpens, actions in which he was not personally in command. Relentless at chasing the ever-elusive rebel force under General Nathanael Greene over hundreds of miles of swamps and countless rivers, he achieved victories, but at what cost? He could not afford another Guilford Court House. Troops lost to casualties and sickness could not be replaced. Supply lines were stretched to their limits and at one point he had to discard all baggage and sever his lines entirely in an attempt to cut off his enemy. Eventually, his reserves and manpower had been whittled down to bare bones and he was forced to make a desperate dash into Virginia. It was a maneuver that soon morphed into a trap in which there was no exit.
He was finally cornered on the James Peninsula where he hoped to meet up with the British fleet. However, British ships would never come to his aid as they were soon defeated by a strong French fleet. With little food, low on supplies, sickness, casualties mounting from a perpetual bombardment by American and French artillery, and no hope of rescue, he had no alternative but to surrender his army on October 19, 1781. Two months later, Lord Cornwallis was on board a ship bound for England after being exchanged for Henry Laurens, former President of the Continental Congress, who had been captured at sea while in route to Holland to negotiate a treaty.
In the years that followed, the public debate raged between Lord Cornwallis and Sir Henry Clinton. Each blamed the other for the loss of the American colonies, but in the end, Cornwallis was apparently judged innocent by the Government and the English people. In 1785, he was appointed to the court of Frederick the Great of Prussia as an envoy. The following year, 1786, he was promoted to the rank of Field Marshall and given the post of Governor General of India and the Commander-in -Chief of all its forces. He did so at a time of perpetual war and campaigning that extended throughout his nearly eight years in India. He returned to England in early 1794. After only a brief stay at home, he was asked to put down a rebellion in Ireland that involved French intervention. Once peace was restored in Ireland, in 1805, he would be asked, at age 66, to return to India, again as Governor General. He arrived in July, but within three months, he succumbed to a fever in which he never regained consciousness, dying on October 5th, 1805 at Ghazipur.
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Also of similar interest on Revolutionary War Journal
The Battle of Camden: American Defeat – But for the Continental Soldier, His Proudest Moment
The Southern War of the American Revolution, Dec. 1778 to the Battle of Camden, Aug. 16, 1780
British Defeat at Fort Sullivan – Charlestown, June 28, 1776
SOURCE
Harmon, Daniel E. Lord Cornwallis, British General. 2013: Chelsea Publishing, New York, NY.
Moran, Donald N. Lt. General Charles Earl Cornwallis. Editor’s Note: This article was reprinted from the April 2006 Edition of the Liberty Tree Magazine http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/cornwallis.html
Patterson, Benton Rain. Washington & Cornwallis, The Battle for America 1775-1783. 2004: Taylor Trade Publishing, New York, NY.
Stephens, Henry Morse. Charles Cornwallis, first Marquis and second Earl Cornwallis (1738-1805) 1887: On line at http://www.historyhome.co.uk/people/cornwall.htm