Cornwallis, Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquis 1738-1805
English soldier

Born in London, he served as aide-de-camp to the Marquis of Granby during part of the Seven Years War. In the American Revolution (1775-83), although he opposed the taxation of the American colonists, he accepted a command in the war, and with an inferior force defeated Horatio Gates at Camden, South Carolina, in 1780 and more than held his own at Guildford (1781). Later that year he was besieged at Yorktown, Virginia, and forced to surrender - a disaster that proved the ruin of the British cause in America. From 1786 to 1793 he was Governor-General of India and Commander-in-Chief, defeating Tippoo Sult�n. As Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1798-1801) while Viscount Castlereagh was secretary, he crushed the 1798 rebellion. As plenipotentiary to France he negotiated the Peace of Amiens in 1802. He was reappointed Governor-General of India in 1804.

Bibliography: Frank and Mary Wickwire, Cornwallis: The American Adventure (2 vols, 1970)