Charles Cornwallis, 1st Earl Cornwallis

“ Another hour of day-light would in all probability have prevented a single man of the Americans escaping.
Earl Cornwallis was so well pleased with his little army, that in his despatches he mentioned, that he could not sufficiently commend the spirit and good behaviour of the officers and soldiers. [Pg 340] On the 25th of July the little corps marched for Portsmouth, and arrived at York Town and Gloucester on the 9th of August, when orders were issued to fortify both places as well as practicable. ”

“ CORNWALLIS, Sir CHARLES (d. 1629) , courtier and diplomatist, second son of Sir Thomas Cornwallis [q. v.] , controller of Queen Mary's household, who had been imprisoned by Elizabeth in 1570, was probably born at his father's house of Brome Hall, Suffolk. Nothing is known of him till 11 July 1603, when he was knighted. Early in 1605 he was sent as resident ambassador to Spain. ”

“ But in 1805 the troubles in India seemed to call for his skilful management, and he was again sent out as governor-general, but lived only a few months after his arrival. Among English public men there have been none more high-minded, disinterested, faithful, and pure, than Lord Cornwallis. ”

“ Young Cornwallis was a person of great distinction; at two he had become an individual with one paramount object in life—not to be treated longer as a baby. It is difficult at two years of age to overawe one's superiors. ”

“ The privy council placed Cornwallis under arrest in June 1614, and he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for a year. Cornwallis, who was at one time living at Beeston, Suffolk, retired late in life to Harborne, Staffordshire, where he died on 21 Dec. 1629. He was buried in London at St. Giles's-in-the-Fields.
Cornwallis married thrice: (1) Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Farnham of Fincham, Norfolk; (2) Anne or Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Barrow, widow of Ralph Skelton (d. 30 March 1617) ”

“ On leaving Cambridge, where he apparently took no degree, Cornwallis obtained a commission in the guards, and some years later succeeded his brother Frederick in the command of the independent company in Jersey. In 1709 the system of parliamentary lotteries was introduced, and Cornwallis is credited with having been the original projector. ”

“ The marquis, who had steadily pursued the earl from Richmond, but always avoiding a general engagement, now resolved to fall upon his rear, when the main body should have passed over to Jamestown Island. Cornwallis suspected this design, and prepared for the emergency. He encamped the greater portion of his army on the main land, as compactly as possible, and sheltered from view by a dense pine forest. He also cast up a fortification on the right bank of Powhatan Creek, by the Williamsburg road, the remains of which, I have just mentioned, are still very prominent. ”

“ On his return from France, Cornwallis retired to Culford, where he lived a peaceful life for three years until a demand was suddenly made upon him to go to India again as governor-general and commander-in-chief, he felt that it was a desperate thing for a man of sixty-six to undertake such a task, but his sense of duty forbade him to refuse, and he left England in March 1805. ”

“ Having thus practically ascertained, at an enormous cost of blood and treasure, that the best-tempered and bravest general cannot command with success a British army in the field, if he happens, as was the case with the Duke of York, to be a weak man of high social position, destitute of military talent and habits of business, and much addicted to pleasure, an examination of Lord Cornwallis’s correspondence during the next few years will show how it fared with the British army when it was directed by such an officer at home. ”

“ It disclaims all idea of hostility; and a friendly correspondence had passed between them since; so that this storm is blown over, at least for the present; and in the meanwhile we are acquiring more strength every day. It is impossible to speak in terms of sufficient admiration of Lord Cornwallis's conduct. ”

“ The action affords a remarkable proof of the moral superiority which the victory of the 1st of June, and the known efficiency of the crews, had given to the British navy. The reputation of Cornwallis was immensely raised, and the praise given him was no doubt the greater because he was personally very popular with officers and men. ”

“ CHESNEY, CHARLES CORNWALLIS (1826–1876) , brevet-colonel royal engineers, was a nephew of General Francis Rawdon Chesney [q. v] , in whose house he was born, and to whom he owed his first advance in life. He was the son of another Charles Cornwallis Chesney, who had been a captain in the East India Company's Bengal artillery until ill-health obliged him to return to England, where he died in 1830. The younger Charles Cornwallis was born near Kilkeel, in county Down, on 29 Sept. ”

“ A violent and precipitate removal just now would, I think, totally unhinge the Government, and it would, above all, throw the whole absolutists at the feet of [Pg 430] those who perhaps (I think, certainly) need not have been made enemies, but who being such, must be guarded against as such. Lord Cornwallis never did like the situation; he accepted it unwillingly, and, to do him justice, I believe solely from a sense of public duty. ”

“ Verses in Sylvester's ‘Lacrymæ Lacrymarum’ on the death of the Prince of Wales, and lines on the monument of Lucy, lady Latimer, in Hackney Church; this lady was the wife of Sir William Cornwallis (died 1611) , uncle of the essayist, who is therefore generally described as the younger. In the 1632 edition of the ‘Essays,’ published after the author's death, there is a print of two men sitting and writing, supposed to represent Sir Charles and Sir William Cornwallis, his son. ”

“ In this interval, Cornwallis arrived with the troops under his command, thus adding to the strength of the enemy, and greatly increasing their confidence and courage.
Indeed, Cornwallis was not slow in deciding to hazard an engagement, although he knew that the contest would still be unequal. Gates had superior numbers. But a retreat would be to abandon all that he had gained in South Carolina and Georgia; and in effect would be the ruin of the royal cause. ”

“ The slaughter that accompanied his route, through every stage of its progress, is an unpleasant tale. There appeared few interludes of humane and generous deportment toward the miserable, from the borders of South Carolina, until Lord Cornwallis reached the important stand in Virginia, which finished his career of military fame and success, and again humbled the proud glory of the British arms, beneath the standard of the Americans. ”

“ Had Cornwallis so declared he would doubtless have had a chance to die without any objection on the part of the patriots on whose friends and relatives he had inflicted devilish cruelties. Cornwallis was obliged to choose between perishing with all his army, or accepting the terms which his conquerors saw fit to grant. Apart from the formal articles of surrender he obtained the informal consent of the allies that certain Tories most obnoxious to their countrymen should be permitted to depart to New York in the vessel which carried dispatches from the British commander to Sir Henry Clinton. ”

“ Sir Henry Clinton had just sent General Phillips down to Virginia, with a force which, if combined with that of Cornwallis, would amount to more than 5,000 men; and with this army it might prove possible to strike a heavy blow in Virginia, and afterward invade the Carolinas from the north. Influenced by such considerations, Cornwallis started from Wilmington on the 25th of April, and arrived on the 20th of May at Petersburg, in Virginia, where he effected a junction with the forces of Arnold and Phillips. This important movement was made by Cornwallis on his own responsibility. ”

“ He afterward was governor-general of India, where, by his victories over Tippoo Sahib, he probably saved India to the English. Made lord-lieutenant of Ireland, he put down the rebellion of 1798, and gained the good-will of the Irish. The ability of Cornwallis in India and in Ireland shows that his failure in America was largely due to the poor generalship of his superior officers, Howe and Clinton. ”

“ Clinton was sorry he was there, expressed his regret that Cornwallis did not favor his plan for marching on Philadelphia, gave him carte blanche for Baltimore or Delaware,—but, instead of reinforcing him, asked for two thousand men, if he could spare them. The letter is, on the whole, a manly letter, from a superior to an inferior, who had social rank higher than himself, and more of the confidence of their Government. It gives Cornwallis great latitude; but it does not "abandon New York and bring our whole force into Virginia," which was Cornwallis's pet plan. ”

“ Cornub. dict. feod. Mortan. (Carew, p. 126, Lord Dunstanville’s edition,) which Edward Earl of Cornwall must be Edward de Caernarvon, afterwards King of England, the 2d of that name, for there was no other Edward Earl of Cornwall. 303 Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of this Sir John Fitz William (for he was a knight) brought the manor, &c. into the family of Mohun in which it continued till the reign of James the 1st, when Sir Reginald Mohun, to raise fortunes for his children by his third wife, sold this manor to Samuel Pendarves of Roscrow, esq. in whose posterity it yet remaineth, Mrs. ”

“ He would cross the York River in flatboats, land at Gloucester, and march up the country through Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York. Any one who knew the actual state of that region understood that Cornwallis's plan was crazy; but it is to be judged as the last gallantry of a brave man. During the night he put forth on his flatboats, which were driven out of their course and much dispersed by untoward winds. They had to return to Yorktown by morning, and at ten o'clock Cornwallis ordered that a parley should be beaten. ”

“ Now, my dear brother, as to the question of sending the Bucks back, I really scarce know what to do about it. I have no communications (for none of us have any) which can enable one to form the least guess of Lord Cornwallis's intentions, much less any previous knowledge of his measures. Nothing could be more unexpected to me than to hear that he had ordered back any part of the Militia force, which can alone enable him to accomplish his object, or to protect Ireland during the winter. If any part is to go back, it certainly seems reasonable that those who went first should be first relieved ”

“ There was mounting in hot haste in New York, and couriers and orders streamed over the frozen roads, and Lord Cornwallis himself galloped at full speed for Princeton. The calculations of a certain number of his majesty's faithful troops were to be rudely disturbed, and the comfortable quarters in which they had ensconced themselves were to be vacated forthwith. Concentration, aggregation, synthesis, were the words; and this time the reassembled army was not to disintegrate into winter quarters until this pestilent Mr. ”

“ Cornwallis looked with such contempt upon the weak and scattered forces of Washington, and was so certain of an easy victory beyond the Delaware, where, rumor informed him, the people were almost unanimous in favor of the king, that he did not regard great vigilance as necessary. He had returned to head-quarters at New York; and so confident were the British generals that the contest would be ended by taking possession of Philadelphia, that Cornwallis had prepared to sail for England on leave of absence. ”

“ Intelligence of the approach of the American army, and of the defection of the country between Pedee and the Black River, had been communicated to Lord Cornwallis, and had induced him to hasten in person to Camden, which place he reached the day Gates arrived at Clermont.
The British army did not much exceed two thousand men, of whom about nineteen hundred were regulars; but, as the whole country was rising, Lord Cornwallis apprehended that every day would strengthen his enemy, and therefore determined to attack him in his camp ”

“ I see in their full force all the difficulties that might arise in the contingency of Lord Cornwallis's death. But I trust that danger is as remote as the death of any man can reasonably be said to be. There would be much inconvenience in its being suspected or known that he had a provisional successor named and resident on the spot, because Irish speculation would extend the contingency thus provided for, from the case of his death to that of his resignation. ”

“ He proved himself a man of great vigour and tenacity, and though invariably beaten when opposed to any large body of English troops, he contrived to recover so quickly, that the barren name of victory was usually all that was left to the English. The campaign opened by the defeat of Colonel Tarleton, who had rashly attacked the Americans under Morgan at Cow-pens; nor could Cornwallis succeed in getting between the victorious general and Greene's army; their united forces were compelled however to fall back before Cornwallis' advance till they had evacuated the whole of North Carolina. ”

“ This independence lost him his seat at the board of trade, but his influence remained so great, that he was one of the ten chief persons in Ireland to whom Cornwall is broached the first idea of a legislative union with England in 1798. Cornwallis, in his despatch of 27 Nov. 1798, writes that he had consulted seven leading peers, the attorney- and solicitor-general, and Conolly on the subject, and says that 'Mr. Conolly had always been a decided friend to an union, and was ready to give it his best assistance' (Cornwallis Correspondence ii. 450) . ”