Battle of Princeton

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Cornwallis, on the other hand, was somehow able to steer clear of most of the criticism. His next action would occur in April of that year, when he defeated Brig. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln’s men in a small skirmish at Bound Brook that he and his supporters blew out of proportion in their reports. Cornwallis would later distinguish himself at Brandywine and march into Philadelphia alongside Howe. After returning from a trip to England to bury his wife, Cornwallis assisted General Clinton in securing the surrender of Charleston in 1780, handing the Americans their worst defeat of the war. He was then entrusted with the entire southern command. In a letter to Lord Germain, dated January 8, 1777, Cornwallis had dismissed Washington’s Princeton gambit as a desperate effort and assured him that if Washington were to attempt another campaign, ‘the march alone [would] destroy his army.’ His perspective seems to have changed, however, after surrendering his army to Washington at Yorktown on October 19, 1781. At that time, Cornwallis reminded Washington of the nine-days’ wonder that had pulled the Continental Army from the brink of extinction at the start of 1777, and declared that ‘When the illustrious part that your Excellency had borne in this long and arduous contest becomes a matter of history, fame will gather your brightest laurels rather from the banks of the Delaware than from those of the Chesapeake.’

This article was written by Ross Rosenfeld and originally published in the January/February 2005 issue of Military History magazine. For more great articles be sure to subscribe to Military History magazine today!

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Tags: 17th - 18th Century, American Revolutionary War, Historical Conflicts

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