THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1775 1783
THE BATTLE OF YORKTOWN
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Question
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Cornwallis also pursued a political career in Parliament. Amazingly, given his later military role in America, he opposed various legislative plans designed to bring Britain’s American colonies under greater imperial control. As an apparent friend of the colonists, of which there were few in the House of Lords, Cornwallis winked at American resistance. But then resistance had turned to open rebellion and warfare in the wake of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. At that point he did not hesitate to accept a general’s commission from King George III. He sailed for America, arriving in early 1776.
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Many British generals suffered from a lack of aggressiveness on the battlefield. They considered the colonists to be fainthearted nobodies who would wither and run when they had to face masses of British arms. Cornwallis was no fawning admirer of the Americans, but he would not allow his condescension to hold him back from acting decisively in his attempts to suppress the rebellion. He displayed an almost reckless form of pugnacity.
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Stated differently, Cornwallis was not timid about going after rebellious colonists. He showed this aggressiveness in various actions directed against Washington’s Continental forces in 1776 and 1777. A year later, he returned to England to care for his dying wife. When she passed away in 1779, Cornwallis sailed back to America to press on with efforts to put an end to the American rebellion.
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Even before Cornwallis returned to England, British strategy aimed at winning the war had shifted dramatically. Up until 1778, much of the effort had focused on knocking out Washington’s army as well as re-conquering New England, the initial seat of the rebellion. Washington’s troops had taken a series of poundings but continued to survive in the middle states. Major combat in upstate New York, however, resulted in a critical patriot triumph at Saratoga, about 30 miles north of Albany along the Hudson River. A British army of near 5, 000 troops had fought two pitched battles under the command of “Gentleman” Johnny Burgoyne. General Burgoyne proved to be overconfident, slow-moving and indecisive. On October 17, 1777, the British force surrendered to the Americans.
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Detailed explanation-1: -Best known for his surrender at the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, which effectively ended hostilities and led to peace negotiations between Great Britain and the United States, Lord Cornwallis’s postwar career demonstrated the resilience and power of the British Empire.
Detailed explanation-2: -Amid rising tensions between Britain and its North American colonies, Cornwallis voted against the Stamp Act and other British policies that antagonized the colonists. Despite this, he volunteered to command British troops once the Revolutionary War began in April 1775.
Detailed explanation-3: -Ironically, Cornwallis accepted the surrender and hostages from the rebellious Indian Sultan. Returning to England, he was honored with the position of Master General of Ordinance and in 1798 took the post of Lord Lieutenant and Commander in Chief of Ireland.
Detailed explanation-4: -The Battle of Yorktown proved to be the decisive engagement of the American Revolution. The British surrender forecast the end of British rule in the colonies and the birth of a new nation-the United States of America.