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The man who would one day be accused of "losing America" was born on New Year's Eve, 1738, the eldest of a titled and highly respectable family. The Cornwallis tribe had established itself in Suffolk, which occupies the easternmost knob of the British Isles. Though not fabulously wealthy, they had the kind of connections, through blood and marriage, that meant everything in British society. Young Charles's grandfather was awarded a baronetcy for faithful service to King Charles II; his father, also named Charles, was the first Earl Cornwallis; his uncle served as Archbishop of Canterbury; his mother was a daughter of Lord Townshend and a niece of Robert Walpole, one of England's great Prime Ministers. None of this means much to us today, of course, but the young Cornwallis was born with his world at his feet. His formal education took place at Eton academy, which marked him for life -- not least by the blow from a hockey stick that pitched his left eye at a permanent tilt.
Eton was a rough place in those days; underclassmen were routinely beat up by seniors and the law of the jungle ruled. Nevertheless, Cornwallis retained fond memories of his school years all his life and credited Eton with shaping much of his character. Since he was tall and physically strong, we can presume he learned to look after himself. Most young men in his privileged position went on to Oxford, thence to a life of leisure and general uselessness. But Cornwallis possessed a strong sense of duty from an early age, which probably figured in his choosing the military as a career. After purchasing an ensign's commission in 1756, he took another unusual step and studied for the job.
Since England had no military academies at the time, he attended Turin, a highly respected school in northern Italy. Only a few months after his enrollment, however, the Seven Years' War broke out in Europe and it was time to close the books and take to the field. This particular conflict had begun in the distant wilderness of western Pennsylvania, where French soldiers had set up a fort in defiance of English orders. A young provincial officer named George Washington had been sent to discourage them; his failure to do so ignited the French and Indian War, which spread to disputed territory in Canada and India and eventually involved much of Europe. The ins and outs of the Seven Years' War need not concern us; it's sufficient to understand that Britain came out on top and the young Cornwallis distinguished himself first as a staff officer and then as a Lieutenant Colonel of the 12 th Foot, gallantly leading his troops into combat. In 1762 his father died and passed the entire estate on to his oldest son, now the second Earl of Cornwallis.
Duty demanded that young Charles return home, set the estate in order and take his father's seat in the House of Lords. While going about all this necessary business, he also found the time to fall deeply in love. The lady of his choice, the daughter of an army Colonel, could bring neither title nor fortune to the marriage, but Cornwallis had enough for both of them. He loved Jemima Jones, and that was that. After their marriage in 1768 the couple retired to Brome Hall, the ancestral estate in Suffolk, to enjoy the countryside and start a family of their own. But complete isolation was not possible for a man in Cornwallis's position, and he was continually shuttling back and forth to London for Parliamentary sessions and audiences with the King.
George III developed a fondness for the Earl; they were similar in character and temperament even though their views regarding American policy were opposed. Cornwallis consistently voted against harsh measures toward the colonies, such as the Stamp Act, even when only a handful of his peers joined him. When the shooting started at Lexington, however, there was no question of where he stood; in 1776, he accepted a General's commission and volunteered for service in America. His first duty was not a good omen: he participated in the first British attempt to capture Charleston, an operation that was botched from the beginning and ended a miserable failure.
But the outlook brightened for His Majesty's troops when they sailed to New York and took part in the extensive operations there under the command of Sir William Howe. At the Battle of Long Island, General Cornwallis helped outflank the Americans and force them from New York. A few months later he was outfoxed by Washington, who slipped away after Cornwallis thought he was successfully trapped on the Delaware. Washington then circled around and pounced upon the British rear guard at Princeton. But the Earl retrieved his reputation at the battles of Brandywine in the fall of 1777, and Monmouth in the summer of 1778. Monmouth brought the war to an effective end in the northern colonies, and Cornwallis had proved himself to be an energetic and fearless field commander, with a reputation quick movement very unusual for a British general.
No one, least of all Cornwallis, knew what he could do with complete control of an operation. The indications are that he was eager to try. A number of changes in 1778 led to his opportunity. First Sir William Howe resigned his position as Commander-in-Chief; he had never liked the American War and he believed the King was not supporting him. Sir George Clinton was named to take Howe's place. (Cornwallis had served under Clinton at Charleston and in New York and the two men got along well, a happy situation which was soon to change. ) Cornwallis returned to England on leave, only to find his wife Jemima gravely ill. This distracted him from military affairs for several weeks, but when she died early in 1779 he found that life held little else for him.
Across the sea His Majesty's forces were fighting to retain an empire. "I love that army, " he wrote his brother, "and flatter myself that I am not quite indifferent to them. " Back to America he went, determined to lose himself in the war. Such dedication might have proved fortunate for Britain, except that relations between Cornwallis and Clinton rapidly deteriorated. General Clinton was the better strategist of the two, but he was almost pathologically suspicious of anyone who approached him in rank. Cornwallis was the better field commander, but he had often felt caged and hemmed in by his superior.
What might have been a good team was thus hamstrung from the beginning, with disastrous results for His Majesty's cause. A huge expeditionary force sailed from New York harbor in December 1779, with Clinton at its head and Cornwallis as second-in-command. Their goal was Charleston, again; only this time, after a nightmare voyage and a three-month siege, they succeeded in taking the city. The fall of Charleston in May of 1780 was a great blow to the Americans -- their greatest loss of the entire war in terms of men, equipment, horses, and ammunition. General Clinton returned to New York in June leaving his subordinate in control of the entire southern operation, with the charge of holding Charleston and doing whatever else might be necessary to subdue the south.
It was the opportunity Cornwallis had been waiting for. Neither Cornwallis nor Clinton believed that the southern colonies would put up any serious resistance to British regulars; the job would be a mopping-up operation. Cornwallis moved quickly to set up outposts in Georgetown, Camden, and Ninety-six, forming a rough arch through South Carolina. He determined to march from Charleston in the fall, invade and subdue North Carolina, and eventually meet Clinton's forces in Virginia where they would finish Washington's Continental army, conclude the war and sail home as heroes. When South Carolinians began coming forward in droves to take the loyalty oath and be restored to British rule, the impending southern campaign began to look like a picnic. But no one in the British high command, from the King on down, understood the temper of the south.
There, more than anywhere else in the colonies, the Revolution took on the character of a civil war. Not only was the number of loyalists greater in the south, but southern loyalists were more inclined to defend their cause with guns and knives. The fall of Charleston had ignited both revolutionary and loyalist fervor, even though the patriots seemed subdued for the present. American resistance seemed to have only one focus early that summer -- a band of volunteers serving under Thomas Sumter, whom they elected as their General. Cornwallis did not take such partisan bands seriously at first, but he was rather alarmed to hear that two regiments of the Continental army were on their way south to form the core of new "Southern Department. " As summer progressed, this army had swollen to over 3000 regulars and volunteers. In August Cornwallis marched north to meet them.
On the night of August 16, the two armies literally blundered into each other on the road just north of Camden. Once their respective commanders realized what had happened, they pulled back about six hundred yards and waited until dawn. The resulting Battle of Camden was another disaster for the Americans; though outnumbered, Cornwallis commanded his disciplined troops far more capably than his opponent, General Horatio Gates. Once again an American army was rendered useless: captured, wounded, killed or simply scattered through the Carolina...
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