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Charles Cornwallis Facts

Charles Cornwallis Facts
Charles Cornwallis was a British noble and army general who led military operations and foreign campaigns in Ireland, India, and America. During his service in the American colonies, Cornwallis fought in numerous battles against the Patriots, winning many, but is best known for his surrender to George Washington at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. Cornwallis was born on December 31, 1738 to Charles Cornwallis, the Fifth Baron of Cornwallis, and Elizabeth Cornwallis in London. Charles was born into a well-connected and privileged noble family that had members in the Church of England hierarchy and the British military. He was formerly educated in the prestigious schools of Eton College and Cambridge, before embarking on a military career. He saw action in the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War (1756-1763), which is where he first came into extensive contact with the Americas. He married Jemima 1768 and the couple would have a daughter, Mary, and a son, Charles.
Interesting Charles Cornwallis Facts:
Cornwallis served in the Parliament during the 1760s in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. He voted against the Stamp Act in 1765.
He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in 1776 and served in numerous successful British campaigns early in the American Revolutionary War.
One of Cornwallis' key victories in the war was at the Battle of Brandywine on September 11, 1777.
In the summer of 1779, Cornwallis led operations of Britain's "southern strategy," which was intended to invade the south under the assumption that loyalists would assist them.
During the Virginia Campaign, Cornwallis engaged the equally famous French commander, the Marquis de Lafayette, in a number of indecisive battles.
When Cornwallis surrendered to Washington at Yorktown, he did not do so in person and instead sent a subordinate. He would later claim he was too ill but many historians believed he was simply too ashamed at having essentially lost the war to Washingtong.
After the American Revolution, Cornwallis returned to England where he was knighted and made the governor-general and commander in chief of India.
His official title was "His Excellency General the Most Honourable the Marquess Cornwallis."
He introduced many British bureaucratic methods and laws to India, which became known as the "Cornwallis Code."
In 1798, Cornwallis became the lord lieutenant and commander in chief of Ireland.
As the commander in chief of Ireland, Cornwallis defeated the Irish rebels during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and their French supporters.
After the rebellion was suppressed, Cornwallis order the execution by hanging of most of its leaders.
Cornwallis was one of the key figures behind the Act of Union of 1800, which officially bound Ireland into the United Kingdom.
Cornwallis died from a fever in India on October 5, 1805 at the age of sixty-six. He was interred in a tomb overlooking the Ganges River.


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