Henry Clinton (General, 1730)

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Sir Henry Clinton

Sir Henry Clinton KB ( April 16, 1730 - December 23, 1795 in Cornwall , England ) was a British general during the American Revolutionary War .

Life

General Sir Henry Clinton KB Commander in Chief of the British Forces in America. Published between 1775 and 1780.

Clinton was the second child and only surviving son of Admiral George Clinton from his marriage to Harriet Carter, daughter of General Thomas Carter. His father was a son of Francis Clinton , 6th Earl of Lincoln . He grew up in the colony of Newfoundland and then in New York City , where his father was both royal governor. When he was old enough, he served as captain of the New York militia for a while . In 1751 Clinton went to England and acquired an officer post as captain of the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards . In May 1758 he became a captain in the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards and in the same year switched to the 1st Regiment of Foot Guards as a Lieutenant-Colonel . From 1760 to 1762 he distinguished himself as adjutant to Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Braunschweig in the Seven Years' War , including in August 1762 in the battles near Grüningen and Johannesberg , and was promoted to Colonel .

After the end of the war, after a period of inactivity in 1766, he was given the post of Colonel of the 12th Regiment of Foot . On May 25, 1772 he was promoted to major-general . Thanks to the influence of his cousin Henry Cavendish , 2nd Duke of Newcastle , he held a seat in the British House of Commons from 1772 to 1784 ; first as MP for Boroughbridge in Yorkshire and from 1774 for Newark-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire .

In February 1767 he married Harriet Carter in London , who died in 1772 and whose death he long mourned. After recovering from his wife's death, Clinton sailed for America in 1775 with Major-General William Howe and Brigadier-General John Burgoyne . He was field commander in the Battle of Bunker Hill and served on General Howe's campaigns to capture New York, including the Battle of Long Island . For his services in battle, he was promoted to Lieutenant-General on March 26, 1776 with effect only for America . On April 11, 1777, King George III beat him . to the Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath . On September 6, 1777, he was promoted to regular lieutenant-general in the British Army . After the French had allied themselves with the Americans, the British King gave Clinton a secret order to defend the north and hold Newport , if necessary, giving up Philadelphia and New York City . After the Saratoga campaign , Clinton replaced Howe in May 1778 as Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in America and took command in Philadelphia. He moved the high command from Philadelphia to New York, concentrated the British troops there and pursued a strategy of raid expeditions instead of regular campaigns. Clinton had orders to send an expedition to Georgia and ship 5,000 men to the West Indies for the attack on St. Lucia . Initially, however, he had a difficult retreat through New Jersey after an unsuccessful attempt to capture Lafayette at Barren Hill, Pennsylvania , to survive. Clinton could not fulfill both royal orders: to withdraw with his troops to the sea and to ship these 5,000 men to the West Indies. On June 28, 1778, he had to face George Washington's army; As if by a miracle, he and his troops escaped largely unmolested. In January 1779 he was also Colonel-in-Chief of the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) In April 1779 he resigned his post as Colonel of the 12th Regiment of Foot and became Colonel of the 7th Regiment of Dragoons . In 1779 he invaded South Carolina and won an important victory the following year with Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot by taking Charleston . All along, however, he had obedience problems with his direct subordinate Charles, Lord Cornwallis .

After the Battle of Yorktown and the surrender of Cornwallis in 1781, Clinton was replaced as Commander in Chief by Guy Carleton on February 23, 1782 and returned to England. He was blamed for the loss of the colonies. Historians since then, however, have transferred most of the shame to General Lord Cornwallis. Clinton published his Narrative of the Campaign of 1781 in North America in 1783 with the intention of restoring his reputation. In 1790 he was re-elected as MP for Launceston , Cornwall , and in 1793 was promoted to general. On July 19, 1794 he was appointed governor of Gibraltar , for which he gave up his parliamentary mandate in January 1795, but died that same year before he could take up this office.

progeny

With his wife, Harriet Carter, he had two daughters and two sons who continued the military family tradition:

  • Harriet Clinton ⚭ 1799 Major-General Harry Chester;
  • Augusta Clinton (1768-1849) ⚭ 1788 Henry Dawkins, MP;
  • General Sir William Henry Clinton (1769–1846) ⚭ 1797 Hon. Louisa Dorothea Holroyd, daughter of John Baker-Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield ;
  • Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton , GCB (1771–1829), ⚭ 1799 Lady Susan Charteris.

The direct descendants of Clinton were the actresses Angela Baddeley (1904–1976) and Hermione Baddeley (1906–1986), both of whom were actually called “Clinton-Baddeley”.

Literature and web links

Commons : Sir Henry Clinton  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ODNB
  2. ↑ London Gazette . No. 9794, HMSO, London, May 23, 1758, p. 1 ( PDF , English).
  3. ↑ London Gazette . No. 11251, HMSO, London, May 23, 1772, p. 2 ( PDF , English).
  4. ↑ London Gazette . No. 11506, HMSO, London, November 1, 1774, p. 1 ( PDF , English).
  5. ↑ London Gazette . No. 11651, HMSO, London, March 23, 1776, p. 2 ( PDF , English).
  6. ↑ London Gazette . No. 11760, HMSO, London, April 8, 1777, p. 1 ( PDF , English).
  7. ↑ London Gazette . No. 11802, HMSO, London, September 2, 1777, p. 2 ( PDF , English).
  8. ↑ London Gazette . No. 11944, HMSO, London, January 12, 1779, p. 2 ( PDF , English).
  9. ↑ London Gazette . No. 11972, HMSO, London, April 20, 1779, p. 2 ( PDF , English).
  10. ↑ London Gazette . No. 12272, HMSO, London, February 19, 1782, p. 1 ( PDF , English).
  11. ↑ London Gazette . No. 13218, HMSO, London, July 13, 1790, p. 441 ( PDF , English).
  12. ↑ London Gazette . No. 13582, HMSO, London, October 15, 1793, p. 913 ( PDF , English).
  13. ↑ London Gazette . No. 13686, HMSO, London, July 19, 1794, p. 749 ( PDF , English).
  14. ↑ London Gazette . No. 13741, HMSO, London, January 13, 1795, p. 43 ( PDF , English).
personal data
SURNAME Clinton, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British general during the American Revolutionary War
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1730
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1795
Place of death Cornwall , England