(1738–1805), British soldier

Favored with distinguished ancestry and a good education, Cornwallis rose rapidly in the British army. By age twenty‐nine, he was colonel of the 33rd Regiment, having performed with éclat in Europe during the Seven Years' War. In the Revolutionary War, with Henry Clinton at Charleston in June 1776, he joined Sir William Howe in New York for the Battle of Long Island, 7 August, and a series of campaigns in New Jersey in the winter of 1776–77. In 1777, he campaigned in Pennsylvania, and performed well at Monmouth, 28 June 1778. He served under Clinton at the capture of Charleston on 12 May 1780. Although he and Clinton despised each other, Clinton nonetheless placed him in command in the South before returning to New York. Routing Horatio Gates at Camden on 16 August 1780, Cornwallis pursued Nathanael Greene into North Carolina the following year, winning, but failing to destroy Greene's army. Ordered by Clinton to Virginia, and then entrapped at the battle of Yorktown because of his own lackluster performance, he surrendered on 19 October 1781. Back in England, Cornwallis blamed Clinton for the disaster. Later, he redeemed his reputation by serving with distinction in India.

Bibliography

• William B. Wilcox, Portrait of a General: Sir Henry Clinton in the War of Independence, 1964.
• Franklin and Mary Wickwire, Cornwallis: The American Adventure, 1970

Cornwallis, Charles (1738-1805) commanding general of British forces in the southern campaign in the Revolutionary War, born in London. He was the 2nd earl Cornwallis, later marquis. In the Revolutionary War, Cornwallis was victorious at New York and White Plains (both 1776) but unsuccessful at Trenton (1776), Princeton (1777), and Monmouth (1778). More outstanding as a field commander than as a strategist, he defeated American forces at Brandywine (1777). Invading South Carolina, he defeated Gen. Horatio Gates at Camden (1780); and was defeated in turn by Nathanael Greene at Guilford Court House (1781). Ordered by Henry Clinton to establish a defensive base, he marched into Virginia. Despite reinforcements and fortifications at Yorktown, Cornwallis was forced to surrender his besieged army to George Washington (1781), effectively ending the war in America.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis (1738-1805), was a British soldier and statesman. Although remembered best because of his defeat at Yorktown in the American Revolution, Cornwallis was more often successful in his military activities in India and Ireland.

The Cornwallis family traced its roots to the 14th century in England and its titles back to Stuart times. Charles Cornwallis was educated at Eton, received his ensign's commission in the Grenadier Guards in 1756, then briefly attended a military academy at Turin. During the Seven Years War he participated in many engagements on the Continent. His rise to positions of military and political influence was rapid: he went to the House of Commons from the family borough in 1760, became a lieutenant colonel of the 12th Regiment the following year, and upon the death of his father the next year joined the Lords as the 2d Earl Cornwallis.

In the years of peace Cornwallis was a friend and supporter of Lord Shelburne. Critical of ministerial harshness toward the Colonies, he associated with the Whig peers. Nevertheless, he enjoyed favor at the court: the earl was made constable of the Tower of London in 1770 and promoted to major general 5 years later.

American Revolution

Even though he had opposed Lord North's American policy, Cornwallis was trusted with the command of reinforcements sent to Gen. William Howe in 1776. He participated in the New York campaign and in the occupation of New Jersey. His failure to catch George Washington at this time and later before the Battle of Princeton led to some criticism by Sir Henry Clinton and a feeling that Cornwallis was too cocksure. In 1777 Cornwallis commanded one of Howe's divisions in the Battle of Brandywine. When Clinton took command in the American theater, Cornwallis rapidly became disgruntled over his limited policy. Relations between the two generals were complicated by the fact that Cornwallis held a dormant commission as Clinton's successor; Clinton regarded this as a threat to his position. Thus the two generals were hardly happy companions in arms, and Cornwallis in pique submitted his resignation just as Clinton tried to do. In 1778 Cornwallis commanded one of the forces in the Battle of Monmouth during Clinton's retreat from Philadelphia. For much of the succeeding year he was in England attending to his dying wife.

In mid-1780 after the siege of Charleston, S.C., Cornwallis received a semi-independent command in the southern states. Nominally still subordinate to Clinton, he was at such a distance from his commander and enjoyed such political favor with George Sackville Germaine (the English secretary of state for the Colonies) in London that he could conduct operations without worrying about restrictions from above. The consequence was Cornwallis's march through the Carolinas - with some real victories, as at Camden, and some Pyrrhic ones - that ultimately led him to Yorktown. His notion was that the best defense of British reconquests in the south was an offensive against Virginia. Lacking sufficient troops, subject to conflicting whims, failing to rally the great loyalist support he had hoped for, and using every loophole in his orders from Clinton and Germaine, he was responsible for the loss of about one-quarter of the British forces in America when he surrendered his command to Washington in October 1781. Cornwallis surrendered in bad grace: he was "sick" and absent from the public ceremonies. While he has had later defenders of his American conduct, Cornwallis undertook far too ambitious a campaign for the means at his disposal and left the British cause in the south in disastrous condition.

In India

Yet Cornwallis's political connections and personal standing were high enough so that he was quickly given new and greater responsibilities. After repeated refusals, he was persuaded to accept the post of governor general of Bengal in early 1786. And in India he was successful enough both as a reform administrator and military leader to acquire a reputation as one of the foremost builders of British rule in Asia. He tried to reduce the corruption endemic in the services of the India Company and to improve the quality of the company's European levies or to reduce English dependence upon them. He was reasonably successful in improving the civil administration, less successful in devising a permanent system for collecting land revenues, and not at all successful in improving the quality of the company's troops. Nonetheless, compelled by threats from Tippoo, Sultan of Mysore, to turn away from his avowed policy of nonintervention in the relations of the native states, Cornwallis led a triumphant army in the Third Mysore War (1790-1792). While he stopped short of total victory, Cornwallis compelled the cession of much of Tippoo's territory and payment of a large indemnity and effectively eliminated this threat to the company's power.

Returning to England, Cornwallis was rewarded with the title of marquess. He subsequently was widely used as a diplomatic and military troubleshooter. He served in Flanders trying to coordinate efforts against the French and next in the Cabinet, preparing England against an expected French invasion, and then was ready to set off for India against as governor general. Compromise in India and new threats from Ireland changed his direction. As the Irish troubles deepened, Cornwallis was called to act as viceroy and commander in chief of British forces there. In mid-1798 he disrupted the plans of Irish rebels, compelled the surrender of a small French invading force, and pacified the countryside with - for the time and place - a moderate policy of punishing only the rebel ringleaders. He then sought reforms for Ireland which would prevent future outbreaks. He proposed Catholic emancipation and the abolition of the unrepresentative Irish Parliament in favor of an Act of Union with Great Britain itself. While Cornwallis - with the free use of bribery - was able to push the Act of Union through the Irish Parliament, he was unable to gain royal acquiescence to Catholic emancipation in Ireland and resigned in protest.

Still Cornwallis continued his services to the government. He was British plenipotentiary during the negotiations at Amiens that led to the brief peace of 1802-1803 with France. Then, in 1805, he was sent off again to Bengal; he died shortly after his arrival. A gentleman born to wealth and influence, he had possessed a sense of duty that led him to serve his country well for many years.

Further Reading

The standard source on Cornwallis's life is Charles Ross, ed., Correspondence of Charles, First Marquis Cornwallis (3 vols., 1859). Evaluations of Cornwallis's American activities are found in books dealing with military aspects of the American Revolution. Especially recommended are Piers Mackesy, The War for America, 1775-1783 (1964), and William B. Willcox, Portrait of a General: Sir Henry Clinton in the War of Independence (1964). For another aspect of Cornwallis's career see W.S. Seton-Karr, The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule (1890), vol. 9 of Rulers of India.

Additional Sources

Wickwire, Franklin B., Cornwallis, the imperial years, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1980.

For more information on Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis, visit Britannica.com.

Cornwallis, Charles, 1st Marquis Cornwallis (1738-1805). Soldier and administrator. Cornwallis served during the American War of Independence and from 1780 commanded the British forces in South Carolina. Though an able general, he was cut off at Yorktown by American forces. He was forced to surrender on 19 October 1781 thus ending the war. In 1786-93 Cornwallis acted as governor-general and commander of the army in Bengal. He introduced the permanent settlement, concerning landownership, and judicial and revenue reforms. He also gained victory over Tipu Sahib of Mysore at the battle of Arikera (13 May 1791). In 1798 Cornwallis left for Ireland as lord-lieutenant and succeeded in subduing the Irish Rebellion. He presided over the Act of Union (1800) but resigned a year later after the government's refusal to grant catholic emancipation. Cornwallis died at Ghazipur shortly after resuming his former post in India.

Marquess (côrnwäl'ĭs) , 1738–1805, English general and statesman. He was commissioned an ensign in the British army in 1756 and saw service in Europe in the Seven Years War. As a member of Parliament (which he entered in 1760), he opposed the tax measures that helped bring on the American Revolution. When the war came, however, he placed himself at the king's service and was sent (1776) to America. He served under Gen. William Howe at the battle of Long Island, in the New Jersey campaigns, and at the battle of Brandywine, acquitting himself with credit in all the engagements. In 1778, Cornwallis became second in command to Sir Henry Clinton, British commander in America. Two years later Cornwallis began the fateful Carolina campaign, which led directly to the Yorktown campaign and the major British defeat that in 1781 ended the fighting. Cornwallis was not held responsible for the disaster and in 1786 became governor-general of India. There he reformed the civil service and the judiciary and distinguished himself in the campaigns against Tippoo Sahib of Mysore. He was created a marquess in 1792 and returned to England in 1794. In 1798, Cornwallis was sent to Ireland as viceroy and commander in chief, and he was stern in repressing the rebellion there in the same year. He worked to achieve the Act of Union (1800), which initiated the unhappy experiment of uniting the Irish and British parliaments, but he resigned (1801) with William Pitt when George III refused to accept Catholic Emancipation. Cornwallis was then commissioned British minister plenipotentiary and helped to draw up the Treaty of Amiens (1802), which temporarily halted the war with Napoleonic France. In 1805 he was again appointed governor-general of India, but he died two months after his arrival there.

Bibliography

See his correspondence (ed. by C. Ross, 3 vol., 1859); A. Aspinall, Cornwallis in Bengal (1931); F. and M. Wickwire, Cornwallis: The American Adventure (1970).

(kawrn-wah-lis, kawrn-waw-lis)

A British nobleman and general who commanded British forces in the Revolutionary War. The surrender of Lord Cornwallis to George Washington at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 ended the hostilities of the revolution.

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