Charles Cornwallis

Charles Cornwallis (1738–1805) was a British army officer and colonial administrator. He commanded British forces in the American Revolutionary War and served as governor-general of India.

Siege of Yorktown: The 1781 siege in Virginia that ended with the surrender of Cornwallis’s British army to American and French forces. Cornwallis’s surrender there became the decisive military defeat of his American command.
Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War: The phase of the American Revolutionary War fought chiefly in Georgia and the Carolinas from 1778 to 1781. Cornwallis’s strategy shifted the British effort south after campaigns in the northern colonies.
George Washington: The commander of the Continental Army and first president of the United States. Washington’s army and its French allies forced Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown.
American Revolutionary War: The 1775–1783 conflict in which Great Britain’s thirteen North American colonies won independence. Cornwallis’s defeat at Yorktown helped determine the war’s outcome.
Battle of Camden: A 1780 British victory over American forces in South Carolina during the American Revolutionary War. Cornwallis led the British army in this victory during the southern campaign.
British Army in the American Revolutionary War: The land forces Britain deployed to suppress the rebellion and defend its colonies during the American Revolutionary War. Cornwallis’s commands depended on this army’s troops, logistics, and imperial strategy.
Nathanael Greene: An American general who commanded Continental forces in the southern theater of the Revolutionary War. Greene’s strategy exhausted Cornwallis’s forces even when British troops won individual battles.
United States Declaration of Independence: The 1776 document announcing that the thirteen American colonies were independent states. Cornwallis fought to defeat the independence movement the declaration had proclaimed.
Battle of Guilford Court House: A 1781 battle in North Carolina where British forces under Cornwallis defeated Nathanael Greene’s army at heavy cost. The costly victory weakened Cornwallis’s army before its move into Virginia.
Governor-General of India: The chief executive office overseeing British administration in India under the East India Company and, later, the Crown. Cornwallis held this office and used its authority to direct war and reform administration.

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