Charles Cornwallis

Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805), British general and statesman, whose defeat at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, was decisive in ending the American Revolution.

Cornwallis was born in London on December 31, 1738, and educated at Eton College and the University of Cambridge. He received his first military commission in 1756 and later studied at the military academy in Turin, Italy. During the early part of the Seven Years' War he served with the British army in Germany. In 1760 he was elected to the House of Commons, and two years later, having inherited the title Earl Cornwallis, he entered the House of Lords.

Cornwallis generally opposed the policies that led to the American Revolution, but in 1775 he accepted a military command as a major general. He took part in the Battle of Long Island, New York, and later in the campaigns in New Jersey. On December 26, 1776, at Trenton and on January 3, 1777, at Princeton, his forces were defeated by General George Washington. Cornwallis was responsible for the British victory at Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania, in September 1777, and later in the same month he occupied Philadelphia. Displeased at the failure of the two successive British commanders in chief, Sir William Howe and Sir Henry Clinton, to be more aggressive in the war, Cornwallis tried to resign. The resignation was not accepted, but Cornwallis's plan to blockade the South was approved. Clinton conquered Charleston, South Carolina, on May 12, 1780, and Cornwallis, in command of British forces in the South, achieved a great victory over General Horatio Gates at Camden, South Carolina, on August 16, 1780. After a bloody battle against Major General Nathanael Greene at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina, in March 1781, Cornwallis was forced to retreat to the coast. Washington decided to move against Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. Clinton failed to send help, and the Americans were aided by a French fleet under Admiral François Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse. Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781. With his surrender the American victory was assured.

After the war Cornwallis returned to Britain, and in 1786 he was appointed governor-general and commander in chief in India. He instituted land reforms and reorganized the British army and administration. In 1792 he defeated Tipu Sahib, the powerful sultan of Mysore. Cornwallis was given the title marquis in 1792 and returned to England the following year. As viceroy of Ireland (1798-1801), he quelled a rebellion in 1798. He established order in a manner that gained him the goodwill of the Irish people. As plenipotentiary to France in 1802, he negotiated the Treaty of Amiens, ending one phase of the Napoleonic Wars. He was reappointed governor-general of India in 1805, but died on October 5 of that year, soon after arriving in India.