During the postwar years, Cornwallis remained active in military matters. He became colonel of the
33rd Regiment of Foot in 1766. On 29 September 1775 he was promoted to major general. With the outbreak of the war in North America, Cornwallis put his previous misgivings aside and sought active service; proposing an expedition to the southern colonies.
Early campaigns Promoted to lieutenant general in North America, he began his service in 1776 under General Sir
Henry Clinton with the failed
siege of Charleston. He and Clinton then sailed for New York City, where they participated in General
William Howe's
campaign for New York City. Cornwallis was often given a leading role during this campaign; his division was in the lead at the
Battle of Long Island, and he chased the retreating
George Washington across
New Jersey after the city fell. Howe recognised the successful close of the campaign "much to the honor of his lordship and the officers and soldiers under his command." General Howe granted Cornwallis leave in December 1776; however, it was cancelled after Washington launched his
surprise attack on Trenton on 26 December. Howe ordered Cornwallis to return to New Jersey to deal with Washington. Cornwallis prepared his troops to continue the assault on Washington's position the next day, but critically failed to send out adequate patrols to monitor the Americans. During the night, Washington's forces slipped around Cornwallis's and attacked the British outpost at
Princeton. Washington's success was aided by a deception: he had men maintain blazing campfires and keep up sounds of camp activity during his movement. Cornwallis spent the winter in New York and New Jersey, where the forces under his command were engaged in
ongoing skirmishes with the Americans. Cornwallis continued to serve under Howe on his
campaign for control of the rebel capital,
Philadelphia. Cornwallis was again often in an advance role, leading the flanking manoeuvre at the
Battle of Brandywine, and playing key roles at
Germantown and
Fort Mercer. With the army in winter quarters in Philadelphia, Cornwallis finally returned home for leave. Upon his return in 1778, Howe had been replaced by Clinton as commander in chief, and Cornwallis was now second in command. The entry of
France into the war prompted the British leaders to redeploy their armed forces for a more global war, and Philadelphia was abandoned. Cornwallis commanded the rearguard during the overland withdrawal to New York City and played an important role in the
Battle of Monmouth on 28 June 1778. After a surprise attack on the British rearguard, Cornwallis launched a counter-attack which checked the enemy advance. Even though Clinton praised Cornwallis for his performance at Monmouth, he eventually came to blame him for failing to win the day. In November 1778 Cornwallis once more returned to England to be with his ailing wife Jemima, who died in February 1779.
Southern theatre Cornwallis returned to America in July 1779, where he was to play a central role as the lead commander of the British "Southern strategy" (which was to invade the south on the assumption that a significantly more Loyalist population would rise up and assist in putting the rebellion down). At the end of 1779, Henry Clinton and Cornwallis transported a large force south and initiated the
second siege of Charleston during the spring of 1780, which resulted in the surrender of the Continental forces under
Benjamin Lincoln. After the siege of Charleston and the destruction of
Abraham Buford's Virginia regiments at
Waxhaw, Clinton returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis in command in the south. The relationship between Clinton and Cornwallis had noticeably soured during the Charleston campaign, and they were barely on speaking terms when Clinton left. by
John Smart, The task Clinton left Cornwallis with was to, first and foremost, preserve the gains made by taking Charleston, and only then engage in offensive moves. Clinton's orders gave Cornwallis wide latitude in how to achieve the goal of pacifying both South and North Carolina, after which Clinton expected Cornwallis to move into
Virginia. Clinton wrote, "I should wish you to assist in operations which will certainly be carried on in the Chesapeake as soon as we are relieve from our apprehension of a superior fleet and the season will admit ..." Clinton provided Cornwallis with a relatively modest force of British, German, and provincial (Loyalist) regiments—about 3,000 men—with which to accomplish all of this. The forces he was given to accomplish this were limited by the necessity of keeping a large British force in New York under Clinton to shadow Washington. Cornwallis was expected to recruit more Loyalists, who were believed to be more numerous in the southern colonies. In order to help provide fresh food and forage for his troops, Cornwallis established two commissioners. The first was responsible for administering goods confiscated from Patriots (he avoided confiscating supplies from Loyalists since he depended on them for manpower and intelligence), and the second for administering land that was confiscated. A chronic shortage of hard currency (another supply only infrequently delivered to Charleston) made it difficult to purchase supplies from any source, either Patriot or Loyalist. In August 1780 Cornwallis's forces met a larger but relatively untried army under the command of
Horatio Gates at the
Battle of Camden, where they inflicted heavy casualties and routed part of the force. This served to keep South Carolina clear of Continental forces, and was a blow to rebel morale. The victory added to his reputation, although the rout of the American rebels had as much to do with the failings of Gates (whose rapid departure from the battlefield was widely noted) as it did the skill of Cornwallis. In London, Cornwallis was perceived as a hero, and was viewed by many there as the right man to lead the British forces to victory over the rebels. As the opposition seemed to melt away, Cornwallis optimistically began to advance north into North Carolina while militia activity continued to harass the troops he left in South Carolina. Attempts by Cornwallis to rally Loyalist support were dealt significant blows when a large gathering of them was
defeated at Kings Mountain, only a day's march from Cornwallis and his army, and another large detachment of his army was
decisively defeated at Cowpens. He then clashed with the rebuilt Continental army under General
Nathanael Greene at
Guilford Court House in North Carolina, winning a Pyrrhic victory with a bayonet charge against a numerically superior enemy. In the battle he controversially ordered
grape shot to be fired into a mass of combat that resulted in friendly casualties but helped to break the American line. Cornwallis then moved his forces to
Wilmington on the coast to resupply. Cornwallis himself had generally been successful in his battles, but the constant marching and the losses incurred had shrunk and tired out his army. Greene, whose army was still intact after the loss at Guilford Courthouse, shadowed Cornwallis toward Wilmington, but then crossed into South Carolina, where over the course of several months American forces regained control over most of the state. Cornwallis received dispatches in Wilmington informing him that another
British army under Generals
William Phillips and
Benedict Arnold had been sent to
Virginia. Believing that North Carolina could not be subdued unless its supply lines from Virginia were cut, he decided to join forces with Phillips.
Virginia campaign Upon his arrival in Virginia Cornwallis took command of Phillips' army. Phillips, a personal friend of Cornwallis, died one week before Cornwallis reached his position at
Petersburg. He then sought to fulfil orders Clinton had given to Phillips, and raided the Virginia countryside, destroying American military and economic targets. '' by
John Trumbull In March 1781, in response to the threat posed by Arnold and Phillips, General Washington dispatched the
Marquis de Lafayette to defend Virginia. The young Frenchman had 3,200 men at his command, but British troops under Cornwallis's command totalled 7,200. Lafayette skirmished with Cornwallis, avoiding a decisive battle while gathering reinforcements. It was during this period that Cornwallis and Clinton exchanged a series of letters in which Clinton issued a number of confusing, contradictory, and not entirely forceful orders. Cornwallis eventually received firm orders from Clinton to choose a position on the
Virginia Peninsula—referred to in contemporary letters as the "Williamsburg Neck"—and construct a fortified naval post to shelter
ships of the line. In complying with this order, Cornwallis put himself in a position to become trapped in the area of
Yorktown. With the arrival of the French fleet under the
Comte de Grasse and General Washington's combined French-American army, Cornwallis found himself cut off. After the
Royal Navy fleet under Admiral
Thomas Graves was defeated by the French at the
Battle of the Chesapeake, and the French
siege train arrived from
Newport, Rhode Island, his position became untenable. (
D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts) He surrendered after about
three weeks' siege to General Washington and the French commander, the
Comte de Rochambeau, on 19 October 1781. Cornwallis, apparently not wanting to face Washington, claimed to be ill on the day of the surrender, and sent Brigadier General
Charles O'Hara in his place to surrender his sword formally. Washington had his second-in-command, Major General
Benjamin Lincoln, accept Cornwallis's sword.
Return to Britain Cornwallis returned to Europe with
Benedict Arnold, and they were cheered when they landed in Britain on 21 January 1782. His surrender did not mark the end of the war, though it ended major fighting in the American theatre. Because he was released on parole, Cornwallis refused to serve again until the war came to an end in 1783. An attempt failed to exchange him for
Henry Laurens, an American diplomat who was released from the
Tower of London in anticipation that Cornwallis would be freed from his parole. His tactics in America, especially during the southern campaign, were a frequent subject of criticism by his political enemies in London, principally General Clinton, who tried to blame him for the failures of the southern campaign. This led to an exchange of pamphlets between the two men in which Cornwallis had much the better of the argument. Cornwallis also retained the confidence of
George III and the
Shelburne ministry, but he was placed in a financially precarious state by his inability to be on active duty. In August 1785 he was sent to
Prussia as an ambassador to the court of
Frederick the Great to sound out a possible alliance. He attended manoeuvres along with the
Duke of York where they encountered his old opponent Lafayette. In October 1785 Cornwallis wrote dismissively of Prussian military manoeuvres while in Hanover, writing that: ''Their manoeuvres were such as the worst General in England would be hooted at for practising; two lines coming up within six yards of one another, and firing in one another's faces till they had no ammunition left: nothing could be more ridiculous.'' ==Governor-General of Fort William==