Who won, Washington or Cornwallis?
Washington won. With decisive French help, he trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown and forced his surrender on 19 October 1781, the victory that effectively won American independence. Cornwallis was arguably the sharper battlefield tactician, winning at Camden and Guilford Court House, but Washington kept the Revolution alive for years and delivered the decisive blow.
One led a ragged rebellion and held it together for years; the other was one of Britain's ablest field commanders. George Washington and Charles Cornwallis fought on opposite sides of the American Revolution, and their war ended at Yorktown, where Cornwallis surrendered. Here they are, side by side.
Head to head
| George Washington | Charles Cornwallis | |
|---|---|---|
| Lived | 1732 to 17991 | 1738 to 18052 |
| Role | Commander in chief of the Continental Army | British general in the American war |
| Met at | Yorktown, 1781 | Yorktown, 1781 |
| Strength | Perseverance and holding the army together | Aggressive campaigning in the field |
| Battle record | Lost New York, but won Trenton, Princeton and the war | Won Camden and Guilford, but trapped at Yorktown3 |
| The end | First president of the United States | Surrendered at Yorktown, later served in India and Ireland |
| Lasting legacy | Founding father and victor of the Revolution | The general who lost America |
Washington: the general who won independence
George Washington was not the most brilliant tactician of his age, and he lost battles, and with them New York City in 1776. His genius lay in endurance: he kept a fragile Continental Army in the field through defeat, winter and near collapse, struck back at Trenton and Princeton, and, with decisive French help, trapped Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781 to win the war.4
Cornwallis: the able general trapped at Yorktown
Charles Cornwallis was among the more aggressive and capable British commanders of the war. He beat the Americans heavily at Camden in 1780 and fought a costly victory at Guilford Court House in 1781. But his campaign in the south drew him to the Virginia coast, where Washington's combined American and French army, backed by the French fleet, besieged him at Yorktown and forced his surrender on 19 October 1781.5
Did Washington and Cornwallis meet before Yorktown?
Yes, several times. Between 1776 and 1778 they faced each other in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with Cornwallis usually leading the British advance under Howe or Clinton. Cornwallis was on the winning side in three of those clashes, at Long Island, Fort Lee and Brandywine, but Washington twice slipped out of his grip when the war could have ended.6
The first round came at Long Island on 27 August 1776. Cornwallis marched with the British column that slipped through the barely defended Jamaica Pass and took the Americans from behind, and near the Old Stone House his troops threw back the repeated charges of some 400 Maryland soldiers under Lord Stirling.7
The second round came in November 1776. After the fall of Fort Washington, Cornwallis landed 5,000 troops at the foot of the New Jersey Palisades on the rainy evening of 19 November and found Fort Lee abandoned, with most of its stores still inside. The Continental Army then marched ahead of him across New Jersey and over the Delaware into Pennsylvania. The Trust's own battle page and the National Park Service date the crossing to 20 November, so the date varies by a day between accounts.8
The third round nearly ended the war. On 2 January 1777, a week after Washington's surprise at Trenton, Cornwallis drove the Americans back behind Assunpink Creek and attacked the bridge at least three times, without success. Confident that he would finish the "Old Fox" the next day, he waited for morning. That night Washington stole a march on him and fell on the British at Princeton on 3 January. Those ten days are told in the Ten Crucial Days.9
At Brandywine on 11 September 1777 Cornwallis had his revenge. While Knyphausen made noise and smoke at Chadds Ford, Cornwallis and Howe marched north around the American right and fell on it from an unexpected direction. Washington's line collapsed and the British went on to occupy Philadelphia, although the bulk of his army survived. Their last meeting before Yorktown, at Monmouth on 28 June 1778, was a draw: Cornwallis commanded the British rear and attacked Nathanael Greene's division, which threw him back, and the British slipped away in the night.10 › Battle of Bound Brook, 1777
Side by side: the record
Their careers ran side by side for six years of the same war. These are the main battles each fought, with the result for his side.
| Washington | Cornwallis | |
|---|---|---|
| 1776 | Loses New York; at Trenton on 26 December inflicts some 905 casualties on a Hessian force of about 1,50011 | Fights at Long Island in August, takes Fort Lee in November and follows the Americans across New Jersey12 |
| 1777 | Escapes at the Assunpink and wins at Princeton on 3 January; beaten at Brandywine and Germantown13 | Repulsed at the Assunpink bridge on 2 January; leads the flank march that wins Brandywine14 |
| 1778 | Monmouth, 28 June: inconclusive15 | Monmouth: commands the British rear, thrown back by Greene16 |
| 1780 | Keeps the main army in the north | Crushes Horatio Gates at Camden on 16 August17 |
| 1781 | Besieges Yorktown with Rochambeau from 28 September; Cornwallis surrenders on 19 October18 | Sees his light troops devastated at Cowpens in January, suffers heavy losses at Guilford Court House, surrenders at Yorktown19 |
How each handled his worst crisis
Washington's came in late 1776. The loss of Forts Washington and Lee, on top of New York City, marked what the American Battlefield Trust calls a new low point in the war, and the army survived only by keeping ahead of Cornwallis across New Jersey. His answer was to attack. On 26 December he struck the Hessian post at Trenton, and a week later he outmarched Cornwallis himself. The Trust's judgment on that ten-day campaign is that it changed the course of the war and proved his amateur army could defeat the British.20
Cornwallis's came in 1781, and it came slowly. After Cowpens and the heavy losses at Guilford Court House he withdrew toward the coast to rest and refit, then decided to carry the war north into Virginia. At Yorktown he waited with an army of about 9,000 for the Royal Navy. On 5 September the French fleet beat the British at the Battle of the Capes, and help never came. His sortie on the night of 15 to 16 October failed, and on 17 October a drummer beat for a parley. Two days later he did not lead his men out. His deputy, Brigadier General Charles O'Hara, asked first for Rochambeau, was referred to Washington, and was passed on to Benjamin Lincoln, who accepted the sword as Washington's second in command. Lincoln had himself been forced to accept harsh terms at Charleston in May 1780, and Washington refused the British the honors of war because the Americans had been denied them there.21
Defeat did not end Cornwallis. He was exchanged for Henry Laurens, a former President of the Continental Congress, and as Governor General of India he signed the Treaty of Seringapatam in March 1792, which ended the Third Anglo-Mysore War and stripped Tipu Sultan's Mysore of about half its territory. In 1798 he went to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant and commander in chief, and on 8 September that year a French landing force of about 1,100 men under General Humbert surrendered to his army at Ballinamuck. Both men recovered from their worst hour. Only one had a new nation to show for it.22
Who was the better general, Washington or Cornwallis?
Washington, because generalship is judged by what it wins, and he won the war Cornwallis lost. Cornwallis was the sharper battlefield tactician, victorious at Fort Lee, Brandywine, Camden and Guilford Court House. But Washington kept his army alive through every defeat, escaped Cornwallis at the Assunpink and finished him at Yorktown.
Measured another way, the case for Cornwallis is real. He fought with an army that could not easily be replaced, far from home, and when he lost it the war went with it. When news of the surrender reached London on 25 November 1781, the Prime Minister, Lord North, cried out "O God! it is all over!" and, as Nathaniel Wraxall recorded the scene, repeated the words many times. Washington could lose New York, Brandywine and Germantown and still keep the Revolution alive, which was exactly the skill this war rewarded. He also had help Cornwallis never got: the French army and fleet, and in the South Nathanael Greene, whose campaign from Cowpens onward wore Cornwallis down before Yorktown.23
The verdict
Cornwallis was arguably the sharper battlefield tactician, and he won engagements that Washington never could have. But Washington won the thing that mattered: he kept the Revolution alive for years and delivered the final, decisive blow at Yorktown, with his French allies, that secured a nation. Cornwallis won battles; Washington won America, and then became its first president.
Compare more in Napoleon vs Wellington, or meet the field in the greatest American commanders.
About this comparison
Each commander above has a full biography on this site, with its own sources. Judgments of who was "greater" are ours and openly a matter of debate; the facts and dates follow established histories. See our editorial policy.
