Washington and Cornwallis

by Benton Rain Patterson

"Charles Cornwallis (1738-1805), the second earl of Cornwallis, was a peer of the realm, a friend of King George III, and a major general in the king's army. He felt so outraged by the insurrection of the American colonists that he volunteered to go to America to defeat the rebellion and restore the king's rule. King George promptly accepted his offer and sent him to America with Cornwallis's old regiment, the 33rd Foot." "George Washington (1732-1789) was a Virginia planter and a colonel in the Virginia militia. He was so moved by the outrages of the British government against the American colonies that, attending the Continental Congress in his militia uniform, he left his fellow patriots know he stood ready to serve in an army that would make war to establish his country's independence. The Congress appointed him commander in chief of America's armies." "Thus Washington and Cornwallis, from two different worlds and for opposing reasons, came to the battlefields of the Revolutionary