General Cornwallis

Lord Charles Conwallis was a military officer born in London, December 31, 1738. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and entered the army as captain when twenty years of age.

In the House of Lords he opposed the measures that caused the war with the Americans, but he accepted the commission of major-general and the command of an expedition against the Carolinas under Sir Peter Parker in 1776. He commanded the reserves of the British in the battle on Long Island in August, but he was beaten by George Washington at Princeton.

It was with Howe on the Brandywine and in the capture of Philadelphia that he returned to England, but soon came back. He was at the capture of Charleston in May, 1780. He also commanded the British troops in the Carolinas that year. He later defeated Gates near Camden in August and fought Greene at Guilford Courthouse early in 1781. He invaded Virginia, and finally took post at and fortified Yorktown, on the York River, and there surrendered his army to the American and French forces in October, 1781.

He was appointed governor-general and commander-in-chief in India in 1786, and was victorious in war there in 1791-92, compelling Tippoo Sahib to cede, as the price of peace, half his dominions to the British crown. He returned to England in 1793, he was created a marquis, and appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1798. He negotiated the treaty of Amiens in 1802, and received the appointment of governor-general of India in 1805. He died at Ghazipur, India, October 5, 1805.