Charles, Earl Cornwallis, Lieutenant Général des Armées et Forces de sa Majesté Britannique dans l'Amérique (Charles, Earl Cornwallis, Lieutenant General of the Armies and Forces of his British Majesty in America)
Not on view
Cornwallis is shown here at half-length in military dress. The oval frame is decorated above with ribbons around a laurel wreath with palms and laurels below. Emblems in the border include a Cap of Liberty, a shield, cannon and battle flag. Cornwallis was a leading British general in the American Revolutionary War who, in October 1781 surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia a combined Franco-American force, bringing hostilities to an end. This print was conceived before that decisive event and belongs to a series, published in Paris, portraying American and British military and naval figures active in the Revolutionary War.
British leaders, besides General Cornwallis, include Sir Henry Clinton, Admiral George Rodney and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rogers (an American-born leader of Native forces who fought for the British).
American leaders include General Horatio Gates, John Hancock (president of the Continental Congress), Admiral Esek Hopkins, General Charles Lee, General Israel Putnam, General Joseph Reed, General John Sullivan, and General George Washington.