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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 .
In August 1785 Cornwallis attended manoeuvres in Prussia along with the Duke of York where they encountered Frederick the Great and Cornwallis's Virginia opponent, the marquis de Lafayette. [135] In 1786 he was appointed to be Commander-in-Chief of British India and Governor of the Presidency of Fort William , also known as the Bengal Presidency .
Cornwallis' movements in Virginia were shadowed by a Continental Army force led by Marquis de Lafayette. The French and American armies united north of New York City during the summer of 1781. When word of de Grasse's decision arrived, both armies began moving south toward Virginia , engaging in tactics of deception to lead the British to ...
Lord Germain was dismissed in early 1782, and the North administration fell shortly afterward. [154] Peace negotiations followed, and the war was formally ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. [150] General Cornwallis, despite being the commander who surrendered, was not blamed for the defeat.
Against the wishes of Clinton, Cornwallis resolved to invade Virginia in the hopes that cutting the supply lines to the Carolinas would make American resistance there impossible. [ 43 ] [ 44 ] This theory was supported by Lord George Germain in a series of letters that left Clinton out of the decision-making process for the Southern Army ...
These French warships were decisive at the Battle of Yorktown along the coast of Virginia by preventing Lord Cornwallis's British troops from receiving supplies, reinforcements, or evacuation via the James River and Hampton Roads. [12] Robert Morris, the Minister of Finance, persuaded Congress to charter the Bank of North America on December 31 ...
This Cornwallis chose to do at Yorktown, where he was compelled to surrender after a brief siege in October 1781. [25] Portrait of Lord Cornwallis by Thomas Gainsborough, 1783. Lafayette, in his dispatches and reports throughout the later stages of the Virginia campaign, painted Cornwallis's movements to Williamsburg and Portsmouth as a retreat.
The battle was strategically decisive, [1] in that it prevented the Royal Navy from reinforcing or evacuating the besieged forces of Lieutenant General Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia. The French were able to achieve control of the sea lanes against the British and provided the Franco-American army with siege artillery and French ...