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General O'Hara surrenders the sword of Lieutenant-General Cornwallis to Count de Rochambeau and General Washington. Anonymous engraving (ca. 1783) General Charles O'Hara (1740 – 25 February 1802) was a British Army officer who served in the Seven Years' War , the American War of Independence , and the French Revolutionary War and later served ...
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, KG, PC (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805) was a British Army officer, Whig politician and colonial administrator. In the United States and the United Kingdom, he is best known as one of the leading British general officers in the American War of Independence .
Cornwallis, claiming illness, did not attend the ceremony, sending his deputy General O'Hara to deliver his sword. O'Hara at first sought to deliver it to a French officer, but he was finally directed to one of Washington's officers, Benjamin Lincoln , the defeated commander at Charleston. [ 132 ]
O'Hara first attempted to surrender to Rochambeau, who shook his head and pointed to Washington. O'Hara then offered his sword to Washington, who also refused and motioned to Major General Benjamin Lincoln, his second-in-command. The surrender finally took place when Lincoln accepted the sword of Cornwallis' deputy. [71] [72] [73]
Cornwallis's force was also constantly suffering food shortages, and the earl ensured that officers and soldiers shared equally in the suffering. [90] Cornwallis was unable to intercept the arriving reinforcements, and learned that Greene had taken up a position at Guilford Courthouse on March 14, apparently ready to do battle. [91]
Lincoln played a major role in the siege of Yorktown and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis on October 19, 1781. Cornwallis plead illness, and so did not attend the surrender ceremony, choosing instead to send his second-in-command, the Irish General Charles O'Hara. General Washington refused to accept Cornwallis' sword from O'Hara, directing O ...
The surprising victory of the American Patriot militia over the Loyalists came after a string of Patriot defeats at the hands of Lord Cornwallis, and greatly raised the Patriots' morale. With Ferguson dead and his Loyalist militia destroyed, Cornwallis transferred his army into North Carolina and eventually Virginia.
At the conclusion of the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781, General George Washington conferred on Richard Butler the honor of receiving Cornwallis' sword of surrender, an honor which Richard gave to his second in command, Ebenezer Denny. At the last moment, Baron von Steuben demanded that he receive the sword. This almost precipitated a duel ...